Interview: Hunter Lang, ‘MAN UP: A Show For Women’

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 Hunter Lang about their piece, MAN UP: A Show For Women.

Can you tell us a bit about you and your career so far.

Maggie and Hunter are both performers and writers who met taking improv classes in 2018 at the People’s Improv Theater in New York City. They are members of Skip Intro, one of New York’s longest-running independent improv teams that recreates audience member’s favorite TV shows. They co-created Man Up: A Show for Women in 2019.

What is your show about?

Man Up: A Show for Women is a women-created political satire transcending the boundaries of comedy, drag, and social commentary. Chip Johnson (Maggie Metnick) is a blustering conservative pundit on a mission to mansplain the news to women. This summer, Chip is covering current events like global elections, access to healthcare, and more. But Chip’s tough guy facade slowly begins to crack, revealing an insecure and lonely man. 

What was the inspiration for Man Up: A Show for Women and what’s the development process been to get to this stage?

Hunter’s frustrations around the media’s coverage of the Me Too movement inspired Chip Johnson and Man Up. Together, Hunter and Maggie developed Chip’s character and the show. Man Up: A Show For Women premiered in February 2020 at the People’s Improv Theater. 

Through the Covid pandemic, Maggie and Hunter continued writing shorts for Man Up. In March of 2022, Man Up returned to the New York stage at Caveat.

Shortly after, Maggie and Hunter brought on four new writers: Nora Schmitt, Nell Kessler, Mackenzie Menter, and Emma Campbell. This team has produced new Man Up shows at Caveat regularly since then, covering topics ranging from the overturning of Roe v Wade to climate change. 

Most recently, Man Up broke from its regular format with “Christmas at All Costs,” a Christmas variety special hosted by Chip Johnson, complete with original songs and “celebrity” guests.

What made you want to take Man Up: A Show for Women to the Fringe?

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has been a dream for the whole Man Up team for years. Hunter and Maggie are excited by the challenge of writing and performing such a current show for an international audience. 2024 seems like the perfect year as well, as the global elections and summer Olympics give Chip Johnson plenty of fodder. 

Apart from seeing Man Up: A Show for Women, what’s your top tip for anybody heading for Edinburgh this summer?

See as much as you can and drink lots of pint with new friends!

Why should people book Man Up: A Show for Women?

While Man Up: A Show for Women speaks truth to power and comments on real and serious issues, it’s also a fun and goofy show. Hunter and Maggie have found Man Up a very cathartic show to make, and hope it’s just as cathartic to watch. 

When and where can people see Man Up: A Show for Women?

Man Up: A Show for Women is playing at C Venues, Aquila Studio, at 8:15PM from July 31st through August 18th.