Interview: Em Hoggett, Showtime!
Ahead of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024, we’re chatting with a range of creatives who will be heading to the city over August to find out more about their shows. Today we’re chatting with Em Hoggett about Showtime!
Can you tell us a bit about you and your career so far?
I began as a classical pianist at the age of 3 and performed throughout my childhood in this artform. One of my favourite experiences was performing with Lang Lang at The Royal Festival Hall when I was 13. I started acting, singing and songwriting around this time and became passionate about all of it! I graduated the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York as an actor, but for the past number of years, I've led a successful music career (mostly in Los Angeles) as 'EM The Master'. My shows are known to be pretty outrageous; they are extremely audience involved, theatrical, and with nothing held back. I feel fortunate to have been able to perform my original music so consistently for so long, all while swinging on bars, jumping on tables and crawling across the floor of an audience. I performed as EM The Master multiple nights weekly for years and have released a number of singles, albums and music videos. My most recent work has been produced by GRAMMY-winner Adrian Young (No Doubt) - in which he also features on drums - & Todd Forman. My debut EP, What I Want To Say To You, explored my experience of rape and was dedicated to sexaul assault survivors. After this I was fortunate to be featured in Lady Gaga's NYT Bestselling Book "Channel Kindness". Since then my music has spanned many genres including rock, jazz, funk/fusion, but is often described by others as theatrical rock... (though that isn't quite what I'll be bringing to Fringe). But across all genres, I'm a poet & writer, and one of my biggest joys is writing the wittiest lyrics I can dream up.
I have written and directed a number of my own music videos in recent years, and was nominated at Cannes Remember The Future Festival and LA Independent Women Film Awards for Best Music Video and Best Music Video Director for my song “Questions.” In 2023 I was selected to take part in a film initiative at the Academy Award Museum LA, where I made a short film which SHOWTIME! is based on. It's been a joy to expand my writing beyond songwriting in the past years and I have a number of film scripts I'm working on. At the core, I'm an entertainer; I love nothing more than giving every ounce of energy I have to a (sometimes shocked) crowd!
I truly love all of my artforms and it has been difficult for me to focus on one lane in my career fully. That is why I am so excited for SHOWTIME! which has enabled me to combine all of my passions - songwriting, performance, acting, music, directing - into one. My work is grounded in a mission of brutal honesty, abolishing shame and embracing humanity. I hope my raw storytelling method might inspire others to speak their truths unabashedly.
What is your show about?
SHOWTIME! is a one-woman-musical, at its core about workaholism, the search for self-love and a journey back to art. It is a confrontation to our capitalist society and a love-letter to the artist, exploring our wild minds and imaginations. Told by Amelia, and her alter-ego, The Master, it is a fearless and outrageous true life story, spanning from childhood demons to the 65-year-old-boyfriend who revamped Amelia's sex life! SHOWTIME! holds nothing back as it portrays the life of a particular young female artist, and her struggle with her two drastically opposing sides of self. It comments on the (sometimes hilarious) struggles of being a woman in the entertainment industry and what can happen when the abuse within our industry becomes internalised.
"If Tim Burton met Stephen Sondheim in the Kit Kat Club… and they were a woman… This twisted one-woman musical is an electric exploration of the life of the artist. As Amelia's prime source of inspiration, her charismatic alter-ego, The Master, gradually becomes her sadistic captor, we travel through the depths of workaholism and the lengths one will go in pursuit of "the dream". A frantic Dad, dodgy agent, oh… and that 65-year-old boyfriend, all come to life through The Master's larger-than-life 'Show Dahling!', while Amelia believes one thing is more important than entertaining an audience: the truth."
Laugh-out-loud funny and audience involved, you will be shocked and later devastated, as the truths and memories behind Amelia's struggles are revealed. SHOWTIME! deals with sexual assault, addiction and the way our parents shape us… for better or worse. A dark farce, featuring hilarious songs & bawdy dances.
What was the inspiration for SHOWTIME! and what’s the development process been to get to this stage?
SHOWTIME! is based on my life, which has included a number of unbelievable but hysterical tales. For a long time I have been documenting my experiences through song and writing, and I had always wanted to write a musical. As well as telling my story, SHOWTIME! is an exploration of two sides of self, and asks us "what happens when the wild, imaginative part of you, the part that gives you your art, takes the reins too much?" My struggles with trauma, sexual assault and addiction, and ultimately a collapse in 2023 at the peak of workaholism inspired me to journey back through my life and my experiences, and figure out what got me to that burning point. In 2023, after performing weekly for a number of years, I was hit with a sudden vocal injury, followed by general illness; all a part of a trauma-related burnout. I needed to understand the dictator who lived in mind, and how it could be possible that the thing I love so much was killing me - and thus I began (or continued) writing.
It's interesting because I listen to songs I recorded 10 years ago and I am improvising about these two sides of self that I have struggled with. So this concept has definitely been ruminating in my mind for a long time. I started writing a film script in early 2023, and then went on to shoot a proof of concept later in the year. I then decided I wanted this to be a stage musical. I'd been writing an ensemble musical version last year, but knew the finances would be a huge feat, so I thought - "well...I'll just play all the characters myself!" - and so I am! I do hope the show will continue to grow into various other forms.
I was going back and forth with my great friend, Sarah Huckin on film scripts and the stage show script. Once I decided it would take the form of a one-woman-musical, specifically for Edinburgh, I had all sorts of ideas that I wanted to include. She & I met and I had post-it notes up everywhere, with the characters, the songs, and Fringe-esque skills I wanted to include... everything from "I want to include the splits!" to "We have to involve the audience" to "OMG!! I remember that song, 'Dating A Senior Citizen', I wrote 6 years ago... that's the perfect way to talk about my last relationship!"
In January, I brought the fantastic Kris Engelstad on board as choreographer and we worked together to transform the songs into full out pieces, driving the story on through movement and dance. Anessa Marie then joined the project (she is currently on Broadway with Cabaret) as orchestrator/arranger. This was a real pinch-me moment, as the current London production of Cabaret was a large inspiration for me with SHOWTIME! so having my orchestrator be on stage with Cabaret every night in the Broadway transfer is just amazing.
I am proud to be working with a fully female team and to be championing these incredible women in their respected artforms. I am very grateful for their creativity.
What made you want to take SHOWTIME! to the Fringe?
It has been a lifelong dream of mine to perform at Edinburgh Fringe. I have been an audience member for years and it is one of, if not my favourite, place on Earth. To be surrounded daily by art, artists, wildness and freedom is a gift unlike any other, and the fact that the entire city transforms into the festival is truly unlike anywhere else.
I knew that Fringe would be the perfect outlet for me to make this show however outrageous and wild I wanted... which is sort of my staple as a performer. Those post-it notes had everything I wanted to include in the show, from 'audience interaction' to 'backbend!' to 'trumpet'. Fringe is such a unique opportunity in that you can truly get away with anything, and as a very in-your-face performer, this is a dream scenario for me. I believe Fringe audiences will be the perfect crowd for the premiere of this show, and will appreciate its humour and audacity, as well as its raw and poignant underlying truth.
Apart from seeing SHOWTIME!, what’s your top tip for anybody heading for Edinburgh this summer?
See as much as you can! Chat to trailblazing artists! HAVE FUN!
Why should people book SHOWTIME!?
You will not see something more fearless. If you want to see a female mash-up of Tim Burton & Stephen Sondheim, come to this show. If you like to visit magical worlds, escape reality, and want to say a big 'fuck you!' to the day-to-day grind, all while hearing about how one young woman dated a Grandpa, survived abuse and almost killed herself through the magic of her mind - come on out! Disclaimer: might get wet. Just kidding. Kind of...
When and where can people see SHOWTIME!?
7.45pm, July 31st - Aug 25th (not 12th) at C Venues, C Aurora (Studio).
