"This is the best I have ever seen you.” High praise indeed. But even more special when it comes from your children.
And yes, perhaps they are biased as I still pay for their taxi journeys, mobile phone bills and streaming services, but they are also my greatest critics. So I’ll take this.
After a five-year break, I have returned to the Edinburgh Festival with my show Loser. It’s my seventh time performing at the Fringe and my fifth ever solo show.
The first time I went to the festival was as a finalist in the BBC’s New Comedy Awards where I was the joint runner-up with Peter Kay.
I was very proud of this, until a few months ago when I discovered that, although Peter is mentioned on the BBC website, my name is missing. It was the catalyst for my writing this new show — someone who has come close but who ultimately loses out.
It is the most personal, cathartic and, say those who have seen it, funniest show I have ever done. The main premise of it is that I look back over my life and decide whether or not I really am a loser.
Bennett Arron's show (Photo: Getty)
From birth (my mother wanted a girl) to losing the chance of having my own sitcom on TV because of an “amorous”producer (long story, it’s in the show).
Many people who perform at the festival are hoping to be discovered as “the new young thing”. Well, not only has that ship sailed for me, but I was always in the lifeboat behind the ship, trying to catch up. But the festival has been good to me over the years. My first ever show led to my directing and presenting a Channel 4 documentary about identity theft, which got me on the Bafta shortlist (I didn’t win, obviously).
My next show led to two radio series, both of which were finalists in the Celtic Media Awards (nope, didn’t win) and it also resulted in the BBC documentary The Kosher Comedian in which I traced my family’s roots from Lithuania to South Wales and found out a reason for the decline of Jews in Wales.
I wanted to call that programme “Jew Do You Think You Are?” but they wouldn’t let me.
It’s unlikely that this show will win any awards, but I’m proud of it and I love performing it. So at least I’m a happy loser.
‘Bennett Arron: Loser’ is at the Liquid Rooms Annexe at 4:15pm from August 5 – August 27. (But you’ll probably forget…)
