Can you ever be as cool as your older brother? Not when he has a purple sparkly wheelchair and everyone’s attention. Set during the early 2000s in the crunchy-granola-meets-redneck-woods of western Massachusetts, Maggie Crane’s darkly funny show is an autobiographical account of growing up amidst disability, death, and Dunkin Donuts.
Maggie also talks pop punk and her lifelong obsession with the worst band of all time, Panic at the Disco, especially lead singer Brendon Urie...
Maggie’s brother Aiden, who was two years older than her, was her best friend and biggest rival. Aiden was blind, in a wheelchair and developmentally disabled, but this never stopped the wild jealousy and unique bond between them.
Crane feels this story is an important one to be told because as a culture we just don't talk about disability. Instead we have built a world that actively denies disabled people. For families like Maggie’s every day is coloured by disability - the insane experiences, the rare perspective, the banal highs of everyday life, the devastating lows of living in a society that does not value your disabled loved one and the moments where all you can do is laugh.
Maggie says “I want to tell this story, so families like mine can see their experience reflected and so others can stop and think about everyday ableism. Often stories about disability are extremely precious or blatant one-note tragedies. I want to break out of this unfortunate pattern and paint my brother's life as what it really was- a full one.”
Maggie Crane is a Brooklyn based comedian, writer and actress. She hosts Soup of the Day, a stand-up show at Brooklyn Comedy Collective. Her solo show Side by Side debuted in 2022 and is currently in TV development with King Bee Productions (Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola's production company) and EOne. She can be seen on Game Theory with Bomani Jones (HBO) and the Daily Show (Comedy Central).
Maggie Crane’s ‘Side By Side’ is at the Underbelly - Dexter – Bristo Square at 5.45pm from 3rd- 28th August (not 14th). For tickets go to www.edfringe.com
Read more Edinburgh interviews here.
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 blast some shitty early 2000s pop punk, I pee because I’m paranoid about having to pee on stage. Fully convinced I’ll piss myself. Never ever been close to but terrified nonetheless! I say some sort of butchered hail mary in my head (all the help you can get right!) and then I get out there!
What irritates you?
In no particular order? Coffee with milk in it, any bureaucracy, answering emails, when I mess up the makeup on one of my eyes and not the other, waiting in lines, train delays, people who get mad at other people for playing music really loud in the Subway. Like why do you care its music? It’s nice??
What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?
The most dangerous thing I can admit to is the time I almost got brought into a cult! I was having this crazy conversation with this woman at a film festival when I was 19 and she kept telling me to come join her group of “likeminded women in upstate New York” (???) and I gave her my info and she texted me a bit but I was unresponsive because I am a trashbag who has like 300 unread texts but then a few years later I saw her face all over the news because she was one of the main traffickers in a cult.
What is the most stupid thing you have ever done?
It’s really hard to pin down the MOST stupid thing I’ve done. But probably the time I was trying to look VERY COOL in front of a boy and ate an entire mushroom brownie meant for 4 people because I thought it was just a weed brownie and then I proceeded to have to sit in the bathtub for 11 hours because I was tripping so hard.
What has surprised you the most during your career in comedy?
One time I was on a show and they said someone was gonna hop on right before me and it was…Jerry Seinfeld…Absolutely shocking. And then I had to FOLLOW him. Nightmare. Lucky people were all so stoked on just seeing Sienfield so I got to ride that wave.
Interview continues here.
