US comedian Viv Ford brings her debut stand up hour ‘New Kids On The Blockchain’ to the Edinburgh Fringe. You're invited to the Crypto Castle! Don't worry, zero crypto knowledge is needed…
Viv will tell her true story of accidentally moving into this castle in San Francisco in 2015. It's actually not a castle, it's a light blue townhouse that has 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 14 male roommates who are all deeply invested in cryptocurrencies. Viv is completely unfamiliar with Bitcoin, even though it is valued at $250 per coin (to put things into perspective, today, Bitcoin is worth around $70,000 per coin).
Her parents are professors in the humanities which meant that she had a strict technology rule growing up, so had very little exposure to it. She was allowed 30 minutes of computer time per week and one movie on Sundays. From a young age, Viv was obsessed with all the technology that she wasn't allowed to have: GameBoys, Playstations, computers, palm pilots. She made it her goal to get to the centre of technology after college...
Join Viv on a thought-provoking journey as she navigates the highs and lows of the crypto craze, teaches the audience about crypto, and questions her beliefs about what truly matters in a world ruled by blockchain.
Ford has been performing improvisational comedy since 2013 and has completed courses at Finest City Improv in San Diego as well as Endgames in San Francisco. She is also an active member of the Armory House Team and is currently on a team that performs The Apocalypse Form.
Viv Ford’s ‘New Kids On The Blockchain’ is at the Just The Tonic Just The Attic at The Mash House @ 8.00pm for tickets go to www.edfringe.com
What is the last thing you do before you go onstage (apart from check your flies and/or check your knickers aren't sticking out of your skirt and check for spinach between your teeth):
I used to do three pushups which was a lingering superstition from my running days. I had one of my best races after I spontaneously did three pushups on the starting line and that started the three-push-ups-for-good-luck mindset. Turns out it’s not the best pre show ritual though because you do three pushups, jump up to run onstage, and immediately start seeing stars and feeling lightheaded. So I switched to giving myself a high-five in the mirror as if I were a grandpa high-fiving his grandson for winning a football match. It's lonely in the dressing room right before going onstage! You have to pump yourself up somehow.
What irritates you?
The fact that so many things present the same but mean completely different things. Like, under-watering or over-watering your plants. I can’t tell you the number of times one of my plants was looking a little sad and had a few yellow leaves so I Googled what might be wrong with it only to find out that it was either over or under watered but it was hard to tell because the symptoms were the exact same. This isn’t just a plant thing by the way! Humans are susceptible to it too! Next time you’re hungry, you may just be thirsty. Why why why after tens of thousands of years of evolution did those two signals stay the same?!
What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?
I went in a self-driving car race car. Let me back up...I used to work for a self-driving car company in San Francisco and we decided to participate in a self-driving race car challenge. The race track looked like a figure eight with some tight turns and long straights. Our self driving car was a Prius with a phone that was mounted to the dashboard and connected to the advanced cruise control system of the car. Don't worry, it worked well. We just needed to make sure it was the fastest autonomous car around the track. We did a few test runs manually driving the car so we could figure out ideal speeds for turns without the car flipping. And then we basically coded the track for the car to follow as fast as it possibly could. We wore racing helmets, filled the Prius with racing fuel even though Prius' should never be filled with racing fuel. Ever. We buckled up. And we hit go.
The scariest thing about being in a self-driving car is the idea that if the car does something incorrect or unsafe, you can't override it. You always want to be able to take control of either the steering wheel or the gas/brake peddles and have the car react instantly to you taking it over and stop whatever it was doing in the moment. This was simply not the case on the race track. We were going as fast as the little Prius could around the race track which meant that for each turn, the car was putting an enormous amount of torque (power) on the steering wheel to turn it. So if we needed to override it, we would have had to use all our force to reverse it and even then, it might not have been enough. All this to say, we made sure that the windows were rolled all the way down in case we flipped and people needed to get us out of the Prius. Good news though…we won!
What is the most stupid thing you have ever done?
THE most stupid?! Hard to pick from the endless list. Here goes…I was at my ex's passover dinner and everyone had to read a passage out loud. My passage had the word “unleavened bread” and I said unLEAVEned bread. I looked up at his cousins when I said it because I immediately knew I had messed up. Indeed, they were biting their lips and nudging each other, trying not to burst out laughing. His mother was at the other end of the table and we made very brief eye contact before my whole face turned bright red. By the way, I was 26 years old! Much too old to say unLEAVEned. And when we broke up a few months later (not because of that, I promise), part of me was really relieved that I could leave that humiliating experience behind.
What has surprised you the most during your career in comedy?
It's always a surprise what jokes audiences will laugh at in different cities. There is a cultural language that people all sync into when they live in the same city and though it may not be very noticeable in day-to-day interactions, it's always shocking when performing. I think I was even more surprised because I assume that most people who come to my shows find themselves on the internet quite a bit so even if they live in New York City, the same joke that lands in San Francisco will land there because of internet culture. Boy oh boy not at all the case! I tried a joke about Soylent (this drinkable meal) at a show in New York and it bombed. People were confused about what Soylent was. So I had to explain the joke which, as every comedian knows, is a sure-fire sign that the joke is HILARIOUS (I kid). But in San Francisco, all it took was me saying Soylent and the joke worked. I've also tweaked quite a few jokes for a more international audience to make sure everyone has a laugh.
Interview continues here
