Lies. Deception. Untruth.

One of the questions most frequently asked by journalists at the Edinburgh Festival is ‘why do a show about X’? My show is called Danielle Ward Lies. The problem is, as a performer you have to choose your title and write a 40 word blurb all the way back in March.

So I thought ‘if I call it lies, and then it ends up just being about something else, I’ll look dead clever as I can claim that the only lie in the show was the title’.

Hey, it was either that or a pun.

However once I’d set a theme I realised that lying is a great subject for a stand up show. Because a stand-up constantly lies to their audience.

More from the Edinburgh Fringe 2009

And it’s not about what they tell, but the we tell ‘em.

The relationship we have with our audience is like no other form of entertainment. No stand-up is 100 per cent truthful with what they say, in fact some comics sets are nothing but fiction, but we have to act like everything we’re telling you is gospel.

And even if most of the story is true (the devil is in the detail), we still have to act like this is the first time we’ve ever told anyone this little secret.

This may seem obvious but there are still a number of people out there who think a stand-up makes it up on the spot and would never dream of saying the same thing twice. Though these people clearly don’t own any Peter Kay DVDs.

The lack of a fourth wall means stand-up is a ‘conversation’. And no one has the same conversation twice do they? Stand-up audiences want lies presented as truth.

They want to believe what you are saying is all true and just for them, but they want it done professionally and with lots of jokes and a performance that gives everything.

If I’ve had a terrible day and simply do not feel like playing the clown for 20 minutes, do I tell my audience this and then mope around for the rest of the night? No. I pretend that everything is fine and these stories I am telling are the most important thing in my life. But I am lying.

Performance is lying.

I was asked a question recently about whether or not I worry about an audience’s perception of me, given the autobiographical nature of my material. The answer is no.

Because while I am happy to exploit stories from my past for the purposes of entertainment, the person on stage telling these things remains at enough distance from myself for it to never be an issue.

My stand-up persona is not a character. And I’d say 95 per cent of what I say on stage is the God’s honest truth (with the occasional punchline) but by performing material, as opposed to simply telling a stranger at a dinner party, there’s always enough of a lie to keep me sane.

And that is the truth.

Dani Ward

Danielle Ward's Lies is at the Pleasance Courtyard from August 9th - 30th at 9:45pm

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