Interview: Caroline Barton, ‘Pineapple Princess’
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 Caroline Barton about her piece Pineapple Princess.
Can you tell us a bit about you and your career so far..
Hello! I am Caroline Barton - a comedian, actor and professional tarot
reader. After being constantly cast as traumatised as an actor, I wanted to pursue something a little more uplifting for me as a performer so in 2022 I started doing stand up comedy. After falling in love with comedy I then went on to do several clown courses and have been on the comedy scene ever since. I now run my own alternative monthly comedy night called ‘The Normal Formal’ and am currently working on my first solo clown show for the upcoming fringe.
What is your show about?
Pineapple Princess is a love story about a woman who falls in love with a pineapple. Expect love, lust and *spoiler alert* betrayal.
What was the inspiration for Pineapple Princess and what’s the development process been to get to this stage?
The inspiration was actually at Viggo Venn’s clowning workshop back in February 2023 when I was given the task of coming up with a number related to pineapples. I came up with an entire love story and have been developing it ever since. The main developing was turning a 10 minute set into an hour so that has taken a large chunk of my time and luckily we’ve finally got there. I have been rehearsing weekly with a director to get another eye on it and pretty much throwing my everything into it around rehearsals.
What made you want to take Pineapple Princess to the Fringe?
I got through to the semi finals of ‘Sketch Off’ and throughout the rounds of that people were telling me how much they loved my pineapple bit and how they would watch an hour of it. The combination of that and my pure joy performing this piece made me want to take it to the Fringe. For my own development as well as a performer I thought what better way to learn than throw yourself in front of a different audience every night!
Apart from seeing Pineapple Princess, what’s your top tip for anybody heading for Edinburgh this summer?
Book the bigger comedians in advance as they will sell out, prepare for ALL weather and if you want to escape the chaos go check out the Tibetan Cafe on Clerk Street!
Why should people book Pineapple Princess?
People should book Pineapple Princess if they like absurd comedy, clowning and of course pineapples! It’s a BYOB show and I will be reading people’s tarot so if that doesn’t convince people I don’t know what will.
When and where can people see Pineapple Princess?
At the Wee Yurt at Potterrow at 00:15am 3- 19th August
