The Buzz Intro Interview | Kit Fay - Atlanta Fringe Festival

Name of Respondent: Kit Fay
Name of Show: Dead Friend Jokes

“I have seen so much loss in my immediate community and creating places for everyone to process and find happiness and try out things they want to try has become so important to me in my artistic practice.”

1. Why should people see your show?
It’s gonna be fun, there’s a lot of different pieces, I hope it will expand your perspectives and maybe help you to allow yourself to pursue joy even in dark times.

2. What about festivals intrigues you? And why the Atlanta Fringe?
I love the atmosphere when you bring a bunch of artists together and I love getting to support other shows while putting on my own. I am from Atlanta and this Fringe is my favorite, the community is amazing and I am always blown away by the talent and variety we have on display.

3. What inspired you to create this?
I lost my best friend in the very last hours of 2020, after also losing my health and my career, and also meeting the love of my life and embracing my passions and finally moving into a stable home and making some amazing friends and getting to spend time with some old ones and it was amazing to me how the best and worst days of my life could happen back to back, how I could carry so much grief and so much joy at once. And I wanted to memorialize my friend and other friends and loved ones I have lost while also demonstrating the lightness we have to make space for if we want to have a reason to keep getting through.

4. Life has been weird the last few years, to say the least. How has the “real world” affected the art you’re creating?
In 2020, my whole industry shut down and my body fell apart and things got extremely dark for me. And it forced me to reckon with a lot of things I hadn’t wanted to look at before, to understand and process and integrate a lot. And then to intentionally create a life I enjoyed waking up to, which involved curating and tending to positive relationships and pursuing my passions unapologetically. I have seen so much loss in my immediate community and creating places for everyone to process and find happiness and try out things they want to try has become so important to me in my artistic practice.

5. What have you learned from working on your show so far?
I’ve definitely been connecting a lot of dots on previously isolated events.

6. A mysterious stranger asks to meet you and your cast and crew after loving your show. In your WILDEST DREAMS, who is it? (Bonus points if your mysterious stranger is an Atlanta celeb.)
Hannah Gadsby always!

7. Fringes are the place to really push the boundaries so we gotta ask: are you inviting your family to this show are “Hey, maybe sit this one out you guys…”
Sit this out for sure!

8. Will your show change the world?
I hope it at least helps some folks process some things and find some light in the darkness.

9. AI: the death of our art form or just a new tool to create?
A tool that in its current form is environmentally destructive and also capitalism encourages the worst possible uses of it at the expense of human workers. Also a tool that could be incredibly cool in a system where it’s not exploited to undercut us and where we don’t all have to find ways to sell our labor to survive.

10. We’re making an excellent Fringey Feelings playlist. Describe your show in two or three songs we can add to keep the jams flowing.
Loch Lomond – Emily’s Army