Daily Info sat down with the comedian Kate-Lois Elliott to chat about their latest show and what audiences can expect when they see it.
What's How to Belong Without Joining a Cult all about?
Kate-Lois Elliott: It’s about cults and how they’re everywhere. Not just the extreme cults you hear about in podcasts or on Netflix, but the day-to-day cults all around us - the WhatsApp Chat you just can’t quit, or Puregym - because human beings love groups, and cults are groups that go bad!
DI: What can audiences expect from this show?
KLE: My mum’s family spent a few generations living in a secretive and pretty dangerous Christian cult. I talk about this in the show because finding this out later in life was the catalyst for my cult obsession. I thought, ‘If it happened to them, it could happen to me’. The show itself is about more than that, though. Expect a rundown of the cults you could have already been in, the ones I’ve been in, and we’re also going to create our own super cult, of course.
DI: This is your debut hour. How does it feel to tour it, having gone down a storm at the Edinburgh Fringe?
KLE: Edinburgh was amazing but so intense! I’m grateful that I got to do it, but it all went by in such a blur! I’m really enjoying having a bit of a slower pace this time around. My favourite thing is when an audience member catches you after the show to tell you their own experiences of cults or cult-like things. I’m collecting stories at this point…
DI: When does a clique become a cult?
KLE: When you find yourself worrying about simply challenging the group in any small way or even a particular person, like you instinctively feel you’d somehow be in trouble if you did… I think that’s the most obvious sign that things have gotten a bit culty!
Also, when someone sends out a list of 'rules' for the WhatsApp Group, if that happens, get out while you still can...
DI: Which comedian do you most admire?
KLE: When I was growing up, there weren’t that many female comedians to look up to. I loved Victoria Wood and Jennifer Saunders, and I watched Eddie Izzard’s shows on VHS on repeat. These days, I'm a fan of people like Katherine Ryan, Sara Pascoe and Iliza Shlesinger.
DI: Can you sum the show up in three words?
KLE: It’s been described as ‘thought-provoking, witty and unique.’
My mum, who features a lot in the show, described it as ‘Fine’
Kate-Lois Elliott's How to Belong Without Joining a Cult comes to the Old Fire Station on Friday 16th May and tickets can be found on here.