Scottee is coming to Perth to present his acclaimed show ‘The Worst of Scottee’ at Connections Nightclub.
The hit of the Edinburgh Fringe is based around a very intriguing concept.
Scottee hired a psychotherapist and a filmmaker to investigate his past.
They tracked down all the people he’d done wrong, his ex flames, people who just didn’t like him anymore and victims of some of his elaborate tales.
From these interviews the revered performance artist created his show.
As he packed his bags and got ready to head to the airport for the epic flight from London to Perth, Scottee chatted to Graeme Watson.
Scottee acknowledges that his show has had a stack of positive reviews, many critics have praised the show for it’s raw honesty and have described it as a brave theatrical venture.
Scottee shares that he finds the label ‘brave’ confusing.
“The weird thing that people say about the show is that it’s brave, but if we live in a culture where telling the truth is brave, then I think we’re completely fucked.
“I’m just telling the truth. I’m just telling people what happened and trying to give over those stories in a non biased manner.” Scottee said. “People say it’s brave because we’re used to a culture of burying our heads in the sand or running away from our past.
“We live in selfie, anti-ageing culture, so it can seem bizarre to show myself warts and all. The show not just about me, it’s about all of us, we all do these things, it’s just some of my stories a a little more dramatic.”
Scottee said the show goes to some much darker places than he originally anticipated.
“It did take me to a slightly darker place, once you start telling the truth it’s difficult to come back. You start revealing things and realise that things have shaped you in a certain way.”
For the people who were interviewed about Scottee’s past the artist said they had responded to the show in a variety of ways.
“Some of them have seen it, there have been mixed responses. The overarching response is that it’s true to what happened. I haven’t manufactured anything for art’s sake.
“Some people have been upset. I’ve chosen this as a career and decided to put stories from my life on this platform to be seen and critiqued. Other people haven’t chosen that life so it’s a strange process for them. So we protect people, we don’t use names sometimes or we bleep things out.” Scottee explained.
“There was one girl who came to the show who was quite affected by a story I tell about my girlfriend when I was fourteen. I told everyone that she’s committed suicide when she hadn’t. I feel that’s a funny thing to talk about now because I understand where that came from but it was still very much alive in her life, the cause and effect that it had on her life was far more than just the lie I made up.”
Scottee shares that a big part of the show is confronting the consequences of the things we did in our youth.
“That’s what I wanted to get to with this show, we never see the consequence to our lives. In this show I get to see what happens when my lies are played out and how they affect other people.”
Scottee first got into performing after he was expelled from school at just 14 years of age.
“I come from a really stereotypical middle class English family. My Mum worked for the local council and my Dad was a construction worker.
“When you’re expelled from school at that age and your parents can’t afford to pay for your education or send you somewhere, you just kind of get lost in your own imagination. I spent a lot of time watching day time TV and eating frozen food.
Joining a local theatre group, got Scottee out of his rut.
“My Mum realised that I was probably quite depressed and she started sending to me theatre groups, anything that was free and she could get me in to. Anything that would pass the time. Anything that would help me deal with who I was becoming.”
Scottee said finding his place in the arts was his saving grace.
As he gets ready to head off to the airport for the massive flight to Perth Scottee shares his excitement about his upcoming visit.
“The great thing about such a long flight is everyone is so happy when you arrive, they’re just grateful that you’ve made the journey.” laughs Scottee. “I like being on the plane, I like the excitement, especially when you’re going to somewhere like Australia!”.
‘The Worst of Scottee is at Connections Nightclub from February 4th – 7th and Scottee will also be appearing at Horse Meat Disco and other events while he’s in town!
Head to www.fringeworld.com.au for tickets
Graeme Watson
