Stop Trying to be Fantastic

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Blue by Joni Mitchell… or the Blue Album by Weezer? Can I have both because they both have blue in the title? (yes you can) If anyone’s seen me do a gig, I do talk quite a lot between songs. I tell stories and I try and make the introductions funny. Over the years that’s just extended until somebody said to me, “you know you’re a real folk singer when the introductions get longer than the songs!” So I thought, I need to put my money where my mouth is. I wanted to see what happens if there’s no safety net of a guitar. It’s just me with nothing to hide behind. It’s been an amazing experience learning that I can do that. I’m full of admiration for comedians who do it all the time, but I’m really proud of myself for taking the leap. How did you find striking the balance between funny and serious, when talking about such an identity-centric topic? The story starts with a metaphorical magpie which flies into Naylor’s childhood house. Magpies are considered to be a symbol of intelligence and wit and also, more menacingly, deceit, and the embodiment of dread. Molly tells us, often humorously, of her attempts to drive the bird away and totally engages her audience who want to know more of her adventurous journey. She takes us through familiar nostalgic territory and awakens in us memories of our own struggles. Her strategies included: getting drunk, throwing herself totally into work, and doing amazing acts of kindness. She desires approval, (don’t we all?), but striving to reach that, we often sacrifice relationships on the way. Of course, it’s a metaphor. A symbol of a trauma not discussed; silenced and suppressed. Stop Trying To Be Fantastic turns the elephant in the room to the magpie in the room. And, if you’ve ever witnessed a bird when it accidentally finds itself trapped you know exactly how it panics, thrashing about leaving havoc in its wake. Stop Trying To Be Fantastic is that which gets left behind once the incident has passed. The initial mess might be cleaned up, yet an echo remains. It is clear to see why Stop Trying to be Fantastic had such a great run at Edinburgh Fringe. A performance that lends itself to smaller performance spaces and possibly would feel even better in a makeshift performance space like those at the Fringe. The simple but strong integrated lighting and sound design round the production of well.

One day, a magpie comes into a little girl’s house by mistake. It decides it likes her. She spends the next twenty-five years trying to get away from it. Molly’s strategies for coping with her meandering life, constantly trying to please people, to be liked, to get on, are all made with the intention of running to escape the magpie, to be free of him. It becomes her own personal quest for freedom and, ultimately, happiness.Award-winning writer/performer Molly Naylor presents this funny, frank, lyrical storytelling show that explores what we owe to each other versus what we owe to ourselves. It’s an anti self-help show... that might actually help. Bringing art to unexpected places and helping everyone find their creative spark. Welcome to Cygnet’s Dream Festival. One day, a magpie comes into a little girl’s house by mistake. It decides it likes her. She spends the next twenty-five years trying to get away from it. Stop Trying to be Fantastic is a story about suffering, saviour-complex, self-acceptance, and a magpie who refuses to quit. It then becomes slightly meta as we realise she’s writing the magpie story as a screenplay, pitching it to young men called Josh, and feeling mortified in the process as they struggle with the concept of someone living in ‘not London’. She’s in Norwich, which they think is in Scotland. The magpie, it turns out, is a metaphor for trauma, and trauma is hot right now.

Most of these strategies are destructive, although the first one, storytelling, gave her a successful career path. The second one, boozing, was not so fortunate. It led to unwise relationships, shame, humiliation and general problems with her health. But anything that makes the magpie go away, gets noted, and replicated. It may or may not include some stuff that could be generously described as comedy. It may or may not have some songs. She doesn’t really know but at this point she’s just happy to be out of the house.

Molly Naylor is a scriptwriter, poet, performer and graphic novelist. Her stories and plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and she has performed at festivals and events all over the world. She has featured on several renowned radio shows and podcasts including A Good Read and The Guilty Feminist. Her third poetry collection is published by Bad Betty Press. She is the co-creator and writer of Sky One comedy After Hours. She wrote and performed the acclaimed solo spoken-word shows Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You and My Robot Heart. Her first graphic novel Lights, Planets, People! was published by Avery Hill in September 2021 and won the Broken Frontier award for best graphic novel. Her new live show Stop Trying to be Fantastic is currently touring the UK. Stop Trying to be Fantastic has only a couple of stops left on its tour (NORWICH THEATRE (STAGE 2) – 19 May & LONDON 2NORTHDOWN – 22 May). It is a show that will offer a charming theatre outing while making you think about “ what we owe to each other and what we owe to ourselves”. It will certainly make you laugh, while making you think about the metaphor that you are trying to escape. Stop Trying To Be Fantastic is about the strategies we use to avoid pain and suffering, and the impact these strategies have on us. It’s based on a period in my life and tells a mostly-true story about a strange series of events and what I learned from experiencing them. It’s about saviour-complex, the things that haunt us and what we can do about them. It’s a sort of anti self-help show, that I’m hoping might actually help. Those pesky little magpies: astute, sneaky, determined. Their presence can be felt even when they’re not visible to other people. It’s highly likely that, at some point, you’ll encounter one. Or maybe more than one. You might not realise its significance at first. Yet from year to year, situation to situation, despite your best efforts to ignore it, there’s an incessant, attention-seeking tap-tap-tap.