Edinburgh Fringe Q&A: Creepy Boys

Tell us about your show and what audiences can expect?

The Creepy Boys are throwing their 13th birthday. You’re invited! It’s gonna have everything: Games. Gifts. Possibly Satan. Probably cake. Tonight we’re staying up past our bedtime to bring you sexy dances, party games and re-enactments of our birth, all while interrogating the trappings of millennial nostalgia.

It’s like Oh Hello meets those twins from The Shining meets My Super Sweet Sixteen.

And you are our birthday party guests! And you’ll be treated exactly as such. With all the deference and direct eye contact you’d expect from attending a 13-year-olds b-day blast. And, if you’re good, we may just sacrifice you to Satan. 

Can you talk about some of the creative team involved?

The show is co-created and performed by us, Sam Kruger and S.E. Grummett (or Grumms) – real-life lovers turned identical twins. Grumms is a transgender artist and puppeteer from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (the flat part of Canada). Sam is a Gaulier-grad and theatre artist originally from Minnesota (the part of Canada that’s in the US). The show is directed by Deanna Fleysher, of award-winning interactive comedy show, Butt Kapinski.

Where do you draw inspiration from for your work, both in terms of creation and performance?

GRUMMS: I’ve always been drawn to really strange comedy. And I think there’s something really Canadian about it. I watched a lot of Kids in the Hall and SCTV growing up. There’s this great tradition of really weird and kinda dorky Canadian comedy. I’m also really drawn to using comedy to disrupt and criticise those in power – laughter is always the best Trojan horse.

SAM: I’m a graduate of Philippe Gaulier, so of course, that place and its emphasis on play and clown are big influences. But also, the Swiss director Christoph Marthar, Complicite, and Theatre du Soleil. But also The Simpsons, David Byrne’s dancing in Stop Making Sense, the compilation CD set Ultra-Lounge.

Looking at this production, how would you say it links to previous work personally and thematically?

Creepy Boys, like many duo shows, is a blending of both our backgrounds and work. A lot of our past (solo) creations have explored isolation, a longing for connection and transformation. Also it’s queer af.

Creepy Boys is our reaction to getting older and turning 30 in the pandemic. As we continued to work on the show, we felt very aware of how our bodies and minds changed since the end of the pandemic. What do we do with this feeling of lost time? In a world drenched in reboots, remakes, and IP Cinematic Universes, what does it mean to grow up?  

What do you find special about this work and why do you think there’s still an appetite for it?

GRUMMS: There are so few opportunities out there for trans folks like me to be on-stage. So I started to make my own stuff for me to perform. Self-creation for me has always been a way out.

SAM: I think there’s always an appetite for work that is oozing with the aesthetics of the performer. Where you can see each of the brushstrokes that went into making it. That indie DIY shit is what makes the Edinburgh Fringe so special. 

Why is this an important story to tell?

SAM: In 2023, I think it is legitimately very hard to feel a sense that you are a part of a community and connected to something beyond yourself. Despite magic-internet-rectangles that connect us constantly to what everyone wants others to think about them. I think nostalgia is in part a way to deal with those feelings. Feeling like life has moved too fast, and changing faster than you can keep up with. That you’ve lost time, that you were happier before everything went wrong. We indulge in nostalgia all the time, but I do also feel very uneasy about it all. Is this the best way to deal with those feelings? Creepy Boys is us trying to explore that. 

GRUMMS: And the Fringe is full of shows that are a nostalgia trip. And while that’s not always a bad thing in a world that’s ever frightening and uncertain, how do we tell new stories?   

What would you like audiences to take away from seeing you at the Fringe?

SAM: Laughter! Joy! Maybe a weird feeling in their stomach, one they have to talk to a friend about. A friend who asks them questions about what it all meant, and this General Audience Member answers their friend the best they can, but maybe needs more time to think. And maybe, the next time this General Audience Member sees a photo for Shrek meets Chuck-E-Cheese on Ice The Remake The Musical (18+ Edition) and thinks, “maybe not this time”

GRUMMS: I want them to be grossed out, confused and maybe a little turned on.  

Do you tend to take inspiration from events happening in the world around you in terms of your work? Do you think artists have a responsibility to respond to what's happening?

SAM: Everything is political. So it is always on our mind. All art is inevitably a part of its time and place, and so, as artists, we have a responsibility to make an active choice in how we engage with the effects of our art works. I think there is space for performance as escapism. Something to remind us that lightness and laughter can be healing. But, it also does not mean we can be ignorant about how our performances, representations, and  spaces intersect with the wider world. Speaking for myself, I wish to make a theatre, a performance, a comedy that engages with the contemporary moment.

How do you feel about the current arts landscape in your country and your part in it? Does it excite you and inspire you to keep pushing the boat out?

GRUMMS: As a Canadian/American duo, we see these anti-drag bills being passed in North America, and the continued rise of trans hate speech around the world. And as queer and trans performers who put on silly Little Richard mustaches, our show is illegal in some states. It’s a very scary time to be trans, but all we can hope to do is: show up, get on stage and tell queer stories. Creepy Boys is my way of letting out that shitty 13-year old boy that I never got to be.

Why are arts festivals such as the Fringe so important for international exchange?

SAM: Fringe, both in Edinburgh and around the world have long provided artists like ourselves the rare opportunity to write, design, direct, and perform your own work. Providing creative control and a platform to create alternative and unconventional art. I will also say that if you look back over the course of the last 15/20 years you can see this getting undermined and made increasingly difficult. Housing prices, ticket prices, and an ever-saturated market continues to push Fringe to be the playground of the wealthy or those lucky few that can secure funding to justify a month's expenses.

GRUMMS: But we need it. We need a place where emerging artists can explore and experiment and where marginalised folks can have a platform to do their work. We need those stories right now. It’s the only way through the dark times.

What can the wider arts community do to get more people involved in their specific disciplines?

GRUMMS: I’m really interested in protest and guerilla forms of theatre – going out into the streets or a park and putting on a play for your community. We need to stop hiding behind big buildings and prestige and bring theatre to people who need it. I think that’s really the key – building community. It’s really the thing that keeps me going – knowing some queerdo-weirdos might be in the audience, who could really use a laugh right now. 

Have you got your eye on any other shows that are part of the programme?

GRUMMS: Sprint to get tickets to see Anna Piper Scott (Such an Inspiration – House of Oz) before she’s selling out and too famous. She’s the hottest new comic out of Australia and is about to blow up.

SAM: We also love everything by Mochinosha Puppet Company out of Japan. Their show Shadow Kingdom is such an incredible and wonderful shadow puppet show – like a live Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli) movie right before your eyes.

GRUMMS: Also very excited to see everything by GenderMess Productions – strange, wonderful and weird queer performance art.

What’s next for you and how are you feeling about the future in general?

We’ve been on the road for a year-straight now. I think we’re both very much looking forward to some time off and hunkering down, building community and maybe fostering some dogs. For our art, we both love the idea of building projects that don’t have to load in and out of a theatre in 15 mins. Luckily this next year looks like we’ll make steps in that direction.

How can Edinburgh audiences keep up with you beyond the festival?

You can follow us at @scantilygladsk or @thecreepyboys on the socials. Or sign up to our mailing list at scantilygladtheatre.com. Or call us on the oujia board.

Anything else?

We <3 you Fest Mag! Can’t wait to twist our ankles on some cobblestones in Edinburgh this summer.