Andrew J Lederer

Bridge-Burner

What is your show all about?

Bridge-Burner is about our propensity for taking perfectly good situations and destroying them, thereby making our lives more miserable than even the cruelest of fates had intended.
Of course, I say "our" to imply that this tendency is somehow basic to the human condition. But in truth, the show is about MY propensity for self-defeating behavior; a characteristic that may be more damningly unique (at least the virulent strain which afflicts me) than I would like to believe.
Fortunately for the audience, in addition to the more typical humilations suffered at my own hand, I have spent my adolescence and young adulthood souring relations with the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey and various talent executives at Comedy Central. So, if the comic universality of my insights is not enough, I can drop some names with the best of them. (And in the spirit of the piece, perhaps I'll drop them on my own toes.)

Where and when can we see it?

C Venues at Adam House on Chambers St. 4 Aug - 30 Aug. 6:15 PM.

Do you love Edinburgh or is it a chore?

Depending on one's perspective and one's orientation, Edinburgh at festival time is either an opportunity to revel in a beautiful city, surrounded by every conceivable manifestaition of the arts, or a chance to drink and carouse in the company of emotionally grimy comics for some 30 days (which, not coincidentally, is often the length of a prison sentence). I can go either way.

What will you be doing with the other 23 hrs of the day?

Sleeping, drinking, whoring, networking, flyering, seeing other shows and being jealous of whoever's doing better than me.

What's the best thing you've ever seen on the fringe?

Margaret Cho and some manager-guy doing the dance of maybe at a late night after-party.

What's the worst thing you've seen?

A sobbing local girl begging me to pretend I was interested in her in order to get back at a drunken boyfriend who was lumbering menacingly toward us as I cravenly bid chivalry a fond adieu and shot off into the dawn.

What's the most curious thing that's happened to you in Edinburgh?

I was befriended one day by an ungainly teenager on a city bus. He looked like a mentally challenged hooligan, but just wanted to talk (and talk and talk). Another day, I was walking through a quiet neighborhood and there he was, standing with his friends and shouting warmly to me, his old comrade. I belonged.

If you could persuade one VIP to come to your show who would it be? Why?

Jennifer Saunders. I think she's hot.

If the Edinburgh fairy could grant your wish, what would your wish for?

Should I be honest here? I'd really like to make a splash at the festival. I'd like to be appreciated and acknowledged. I'd like to make a difference; to cause a stir. Have I, with my earnestness, proven beyond all doubt that Americans are irony-deficient? Well, irony be damned, sometimes it's okay to want things and be honest about it. As the saying goes, "else, what's a heaven for?"

What advice do you have for first time Edinburgh punters?

The first thing yoou should do, before anything else, is see Andrew J. Lederer in "Bridge-Burner" at C Venues on Chambers St. 6:15 PM.