Viz man says - I'd Like To Teach The World To Swear
In his all new Fringe show, Geordie stand-up Simon Donald is teaching people the one thing in life he has excelled in - swearing.
For twenty-four years Donald was behind adult comic Viz.
The million selling cult magazine that mixed Beano style cartoon characters with street language, recognised by many as having reinvented the Great British sense of humour.
It was Donald's fascination with profanity that lead to him become a founding editor of the best-selling reference volume of English swearwords Roger's Profanisaurus, a spin-off of Viz.
That love of unspeakable words has in turn lead to his new venture Simon Donald's School of Swearing, a one-man show making it's debut at this year's Edinburgh Fringe.
Simon is quick to point out that there's more to the production than vulgarity,
Although the show is set up as a lesson in how to swear properly, and is obviously a piece of comedy, there is some real research behind it. For those who don't care for all the industrial language, there are some fascinating historical facts, although why anyone offended by swearing would buy a ticket is another matter.
Officially it's a one-man show, but nine top celebrities appear in the show too. The performance has a section in which I engage with celebrity culture to try and keep my class's attention. Together with the audience we play a game called Celebrity Swears in which the class pick a celebrity from the TV screen and then that celebrity will tell everybody what their favourite swearword is, I then give a lesson about that word.
I can't believe the people who agreed to do it, Sarah Millican was the first to agree, she's such a sport, we had such a laugh filming it. I got Terry Jones from Monty Python too, one of my boyhood heroes, it's insane that these people want to work with me. I've got some other huge names from comedy, television, film and drug trafficking too. Barry Cryer is a comedy God.
School of Swearing will be Simon's third solo show for the Edinburgh Fringe, and his fifth appearance at the world famous arts festival.
Not one for Gran or the children, but if you have any dockers or troopers in your family, you know where to take them this summer.
Simon Donald's School of Swearing
The Stand Comedy Club II
3rd - 26th August, (not 13th)