Kwame Asante: Teenage Heartblob is on at the Pleasance Courtyard - The Cellar, during August.

  • What is your Fringe show about?

My show talks about my experiences of being overweight and obese, during my late childhood and early teenage years. There’s a particular focus on the challenges of the first generation British African experience, and how my weight issues added another layer of complexity to it all.

I also talk about my experiences working as a doctor in the NHS, and how sharing in other people’s stories of weight issues have influenced my perceptions as well. I maintain my storytelling style of stand-up comedy which last year’s fringe-goers will be accustomed, and bring in a collection of photos and items from my youth to help illustrate certain points.

The show aims to be a unique and engaging journey, with plenty of laughs along the way, and audiences have been really enjoying it so far! I’m really looking forward to sharing it with the Edinburgh Festival this year.

  • How many times/many years have you appeared at the Fringe?

This will be my third appearance at the fringe. In 2014 I did a two week run of a 40-minute work-in-progress entitled ‘Basket Case’ with Laughing Horse at the Counting House, and last year I made my full debut with ‘Open Arms’ at the Pleasance.

  • What’s your most memorable moment from the Fringe?

Being nominated for best newcomer at the 2017 Edinburgh Comedy Awards! It was real honour to join the long list of comedy greats recognised by the awards committee, and I’m hugely grateful for the big team effort it to make the show everything it was. Going into the festival, I never imagined my show would make such an impact; it was an absolute dream come true!

  • What’s the worst thing about the Fringe?

Discovering exactly how little self-control you have. To have that many friends, shows, late bars and fast food options all in one place, tap water and an early night, I never had a sporting chance!

  • If you were not a performer what would you be doing?

Back in a West Midlands hospital, struggling to pick out the medical concerns from thick Brummie accents...

  • How do you prepare for a performance?

I listen back to an audio recording of my show the night before, and tweak bits that didn’t go down the way I’d hope, as well as singling out bits that went down better than anticipated, and trying to reinforce them! I also find the parts I got particularly tongue tied and practice them over and over again, until I can deliver the line more smoothly, although I don’t think my flatmate appreciate this ritual as much.

  • Favourite thing about being in Edinburgh?

Being able to watch a whole year’s worth of comedy in three weeks! I’ve always been a huge comedy fan. Watching stand-up comedy is what got me into stand-up comedy, and live comedy really doesn’t get any better than the Edinburgh Fringe. The culmination of an artist’s year of hard work, with a seasoned comedy-savvy audience can make for some truly memorable nights of entertainment.

  • What’s the most Scottish thing you’ve ever done?

Eating a bag of chicken pakoras on a council estate in Glasgow! Fortunately, this was as part of the ‘Scotland in a Day’ Channel 4 mockumentary for the Scottish Independence Referendum (and not a bogus Trip Advisor recommendation gone horribly wrong!)

  • Favourite Scottish food/drink?

A full Scottish breakfast, complete with Lorne sausage, chased down some hours later with an ice-cold pint of Innis and Gunn lager.

  • Sum up your show in three words

Distinctive, memorable, heartwarming.

Kwame Asante: Teenage Heartblob is on at the Pleasance Courtyard - The Cellar, during August. For tickets, please visit www.edfringe.com