Five minutes with... comedian and actress Rachel Jackson
We caught up with Scottish comedian and actress, Rachel Jackson, ahead of her run at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe to find out more about what she’s up to, and what she loves about festival season in the capital.
What is your Fringe show all about this year, and where can we catch it?
My show, ‘Slutty Little Goldfish’, is on at Sneaky Pete’s between the 18th and 24th of August at 7.30pm. It’s all about the Time’s Up and Me Too movements and all the creeps in Hollywood who have been caught. I also, oddly enough, manage to relate it to goldfish. It’s silly despite its serious subject matter because at the end of the day it’s a stand up comedy show, not a TED Talk!
Who are you looking forward to seeing at the Fringe this month?
Susan Riddell is fantastic, so I’m really looking forward to her show. I’m also excited to see Joanne McNally, Abbie Murphy, Jojo Sutherland, Megan Shandley, Ashley Storrie etc etc. I just want to see a bunch of funny women!
What’s your favourite thing about Edinburgh during festival season?
I have a love/hate relationship with the Fringe. I’m from Edinburgh so I love to see my city celebrated but it’s also totally abused. I saw a petition the other day about how Fringe performers are so raging about how expensive rent is during August, and they want it changed. It shows how entitled and ignorant they are to the fact it’s a year-round problem for people who live in Edinburgh. It’s pretty gross.
Sorry I just remembered you wanted my favourite thing hahahaha… I love how crazy the Fringe is. Millions of things to pick to see!
When did you first become interested in comedy and acting?
I was a tiny little thing and I turned around to my family and told them I was going to be an actress. My Gran said: “That’s lovely darling but what are you really going to do?” I was like, didn’t you hear me the first time Gran?
In terms of comedy, I think I was training to become a stand up without even realising it. Always trying to make people laugh to ease any sort of situation. I didn’t think I’d ever have a career in it though, it’s pretty mental!
What other projects are you working on at the moment?
I’ve just finished filming a new comedy series for BBC Scotland called The State Of It, which is a mixture of sketches and studio stuff and that will launch on the new channel later in the year.
I was in a film earlier in the year called Beats about the illegal rave scene in Scotland in the 90’s, which will hopefully be on a streaming service soon. Rave to the grave!