Aaron Bartlett and I caught up during the Edinburgh Fringe this year where The Bad Taste Show was performing for the final week of the Fringe. The team will be performing at the Lambeth Fringe in October.
Name of show and Venue details.
“A Bad Taste Show” – Showing at The Bread & Roses Theatre in Lambeth London on Saturday the 11th of October.
What was the inspiration behind your show?
The inspiration for this show came from my love for sketch shows and acting. Being an actor and a film company director for ‘Wildtex Network’, I spent my early years making home movies and doing theatre. During the Covid Pandemic in 2020, I pulled together a group of friends to start writing a sketch show. After the lockdown, we filmed and released an online pilot episode of “The Bad Taste Show” which picked up some good local attention. Our team then expanded with professional talent and we made a second episode. During the process, the ambitions for the future of this show grew bigger and bigger and we really wanted to look at getting the show commissioned to a network for a full-length series. As a result of several conversations and recommendations, we were advised to create a stage version and take the show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. After we booked a week at Edinburgh, opportunities arose to perform at two other Fringe Festivals: Portsmouth and Lambeth. We previewed the show as a work in progress at our local theatre, the Chesil Theatre in Winchester, to a warm reception and some extremely valuable feedback. This led to an expansion of our writing team, including Colin Lee, who worked professionally in radio in Australia, and Carol Younghusband, who wrote for Channel 4’s “Smack The Pony”. We also brought on a director, Terry Lohr, to help us develop the show into what it is today.
How long has your production been in progress?
The stage version of the show has been in production since early 2024. The original filmed version dates back as early as 2020.
Where are you planning on taking the play next?
Our next plans after the Festival Fringes are to focus on the filmed version of the show. We have nearly finished writing a full 8-episode series to release online, which will be used to gain online traction and assist us in pitching the show to networks in late 2026.
What would you like audiences to take away from your show?
We would love for the audience to go away with a belly full of laughs and possibility some new outlooks on life and comedy.
What are you looking forward to most about performing your show?
Just being on stage and doing what we love: performing, having fun and making people laugh. Laughing is the best medicine.
Why did you choose your particular Fringe venue?
We chose all of our Fringe venues through personal recommendations from friends, cast and crew. With such well-established and credited venues it was a no brainer to us when making the decision.
Which shows at the Fringe are you planning on watching?
We’re always interested in seeing fresh approaches to comedy.
Have you had any major hurdles to overcome to get this production on the stage?
Finance was a big one for us, so we started a crowdfunding campaign to help with the funding.
What other productions have you previously been involved with?
Corinne has previously performed at the Bread & Roses Theatre in Lambeth in “Blueberries for the Rainbow”, “Attagirl” and “Punks, Pedants and Philistines”, to name but a few. Poppy has performed with the theatre company ‘Theatre For Life’ in the production “Bringing The Outside In” at the MAST Theatre in Southampton and toured with the ‘People and Stories’ production “Summons In The Night”. Jim edited and directed filmed segments of two multimedia productions by ‘The Cheriton Players’: “Diamonds Are For Trevor” and “Never Say Trevor Again” and directed a stage production of “The Haunting of Hill House”. Corinne, Jim and Skip have all performed in productions at the Chesil Theatre in Winchester. Skip has primarily concentrated on film work, mainly short films, including some created with Jim.
A Bad Taste Show (@abadtasteshow) • Instagram photos and videos
Theatre, Art and Film Reviews 
Leave a comment