If you were ever searching for the niche intersection between comedy, self-help, neuroscience and musical genres ranging from grime to opera, look no further than Carys Eleri – and her latest show Tonguing, playing around Wales from March to May. She let Amy Ford in on its whole deal.
Tonguing is a comedy science music extravaganza. It’s about the neuroscience of connection and communication in a post-pandemic polarized world. It’s a followup to my last show, Lovecraft (Not The Sex Shop In Cardiff), and it explores how the pandemic changed the landscape in which we communicated forever; ‘tonguing’ is a tongue-in-cheek term for talking. We’ve lost the ability to talk, because of the isolation and the rewiring of our brains, and I delve into all of that. This is all worked through with lots of mad songs, lots of scientific content, lots of crazy songs and lots of stories about my mother and me taking lots of magic mushrooms.
The whole thing is to get people talking again. Striking up conversations. We have become dumbed down a bit, and lost a bit of confidence in chiming in, talking to people we don’t know. So it’s encouraging people to talk, and encouraging people to come together – to use their voice.
It’s all about tonguing, and it’s all about this act of talking, protest, using your voice. You know, we can sit at home – we’ve been given surveys, we could sign this petition, blah blah blah. But we need to show up, and we need to protect each other and talk to each other. And if there are communities that are suffering everywhere, just showing up and showing that you’re there is gonna make them feel better, right? So that’s the message of it.
The whole show goes through my story of the pandemic. I’m there isolating with my mother, and it’s all well and good, except, we’ve got nothing to really talk about after a while because she’s a 70-year-old woman who plays Welsh hymns on an electric piano with an organ effect on full blast. And I’m there with a hot tub and magic mushrooms. We’re very different people. So there’s this thing: a person I love dearly, and I started not communicating with her anymore because she’s not my person. We had to go through that, and it became tense and horrible. We didn’t like each other. And then we found ways through, making common ground happen.
I happened to be on magic mushrooms one night, and my mum calls me up to play a game of Welsh Scrabble. Which is really difficult at the best of times. But, you know, we managed to find little ways to find synchrony. Brainwaves emit from us, and when we’re locked in a conversation, they become synchronized. You’re actually on a wavelength with somebody and then you pulse together. So, essentially, it’s all about exploring that, and getting people to realise you need to do more of these efforts, because synchrony is so important. Not just our brains, our entire bodies, and for society.
I think the big message of the show is to accept everyone the way they are. I deal with… I hate calling it trans issues or trans debate but, you know, I do nod to that in a seriously joyful way. Touching on a quite a tough subject for some people. The music producer who works with me on everything I do is a trans woman and it’s just crazy that anyone would think these people would be a threat.
The mushroom world has 23,000 genders. Which I find hilarious. We’re squabbling over two. And they’ve been around for 1.6 billion years. Sort yourselves out!
Laughter is the medicine, right? That’s the joy of comedy – it can look at tough stuff, and present it in ways that is thought-provoking, sparks conversation and discussion, and just makes you laugh. When something’s sad or particularly emotional, whether it’s laugh-out-loud or sad – you remember it. I think comedy’s very, very, very important.
What people always say to me [about the show] is, “I feel really seen.” Nobody talks about the pandemic anymore; nobody talks about the fact that that time fucked people up.
I’m like the astronaut of my own voice. I’ve really gone for it this time, with the range of genres and vocals. It’s been so much fun for me as an artist. We’ve all got such range. Everyone has! Whether you bother to explore it or not is another thing.
Carys Eleri, The Laugharne Weekend, Sun 22 Mar; Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Fri 10 + Sat 11 Apr; Pontardawe Arts Centre, Sat 25 Apr; Machynlleth Comedy Fest, Sat 2 May.
Tickets: prices vary. Info: Linktree
words AMY FORD
