Unfortunately true. Uncomfortably Relatable: Why I'm Back at the Fringe
I didn’t set out to write an award-winning show. I didn’t even set out to write a good one. I was just tired.
For much of my life, it felt like I was getting constant confirmation from the universe that I was unlovable. I could be the funny fat friend, but never the main character. The quirky side-kick, but never the crush.
I was at my lowest, emotionally wrecked, and creatively unsure. Something had to give. I needed catharsis. So I stayed up for 24 hours and wrote my story. But when the show premiered at the Fringe in 2024, something strange happened: my catharsis became our catharsis.
Is This Normal? is a narrative storytelling show that’s not a curated highlight reel. It’s what happens when you start to question the lies you’ve been told about what you deserve.
After spending my twenties married, I found myself almost 30, divorced, and with no dating experience outside of my ex-husband. So when I downloaded the apps, of course I said yes to everyone and everything. Isn’t that normal?
Apparently not. Apparently, I was being wild and reckless—while also having fun, making memories, and breaking my own heart more than once.
When I started telling people what I was going through, I wasn’t bragging. I was genuinely asking: Is this normal? They’d say no. But surely it had to be—because I was living it.
In Is This Normal?, I tell the stories I once swore I’d take to the grave. But once I was brave enough to say them out loud, something started happening. Audience members began coming up to me after the show with their own take-it-to-the-grave stories. They didn’t want to feel ashamed anymore. They wanted to laugh at their wild lives too. They wanted to be seen not as people who made mistakes, but as people who took risks.
And finally—after 22 performances in a row—I felt seen. More than seen. I felt like I was part of something bigger than myself.
Over the next year, I workshopped the show in New York City, where it won Best Storytelling at the NYC Fringe and left a trail of giggly, shocked audience members in its wake—people who walked out feeling more seen, more heard, and more brave than when they came in.
It’s not that audiences have lived the exact same stories I have—unless you’ve also been hypnotized against your will in the woods by your ex-fiancé’s aunt (in that case, we have more in common that I thought). It’s that they recognize the feeling underneath—trying so hard to be enough, or to not be too much. They know what it’s like to edit themselves, to keep things quiet, to pretend they’re fine, to be happy with crumbs.
What audiences connect with isn’t just the stories—it’s watching someone stop performing contentment in real time. Despite not being the biggest or flashiest show at the Fringe, the people who need to see it—the ones who need to feel seen and heard—continue to be drawn to it. And together, for 50 minutes, we laugh, cry, and cringe at ourselves, knowing we're better for having gone through what we’ve been through.
And, to me, that means something. Because even though I’m one of the few Black women headlining a solo show this year, and even though it’s hard to get eyes on work like mine, it’s clearly resonating. Turns out being real is more important than being perfect. Who knew?
Is This Normal? is a woman standing in front of strangers, saying things she thought she’d carry alone forever. And somehow, every night, people sit down thinking they’re coming to see my story—and leave realizing they’ve just seen themselves on stage.
That’s why this show matters. And that’s why I’m back for round two.
Catch Is This Normal? at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from August 11–23 at 19:05 at theSpaceUK at Surgeons' Hall (Venue 53).