Ariel Hebditch: Skeleton Out of the Closet, Museum of Comedy
For Camden Fringe 2025 we are attempting to reach 100 interviews to highlight as many of the shows performing as we possibly can. Every day we will publish new interviews, so do keep coming back to see how close to our target we can get. You can find all our Camden Fringe interviews here.
After a disappointing job interview with the Grim Reaper, Ariel Hebditch must take to the stage to pursue her second, far more stable career path of stand-up comedian. In this ‘wildly original and creative’ show your resident asexual goth takes you on a whistle-stop tour through her own personal haunted house. Werewolves, vampires and the devil herself promise to bring you a night of queer joy.
Ariel happily gave us some time to give us a flavour of what to expect in the award-winning Skeleton Out of the Closet ahead of playing at Museum of Comedy on Saturday 2 August.
What can audiences expect from the show?
Ariel Hebditch: Skeleton Out of the Closet is my debut spooky stand-up comedy hour. It’s full of silly, camp storytelling, combining tales about my absolutely wild parents (who are unfortunately much cooler than me) with characters like Countess Clytemnestra, the asexual vampire. Expect queer joy and the decidedly-more-hard-to-come-by gothic joy. Expect a mohawk sharper than my scythe blade. Expect the time of your death.
Is Camden Fringe going to be the show’s first time on stage, or have you already performed elsewhere?
Although it’s my debut show, I have performed it already at the Brighton Fringe, in York, in Cambridge, and at the Women in Comedy Festival in Manchester where it won the first annual Jason Manford award for Best Newcomer. I’ve had so much fun taking the show on this mini-tour across 2025, and I couldn’t leave out the coolest part of London! It’s where us punks thrive and I can only hope the people of Camden take a humble northerner under the Fringe mascot’s pigeon wing.
What was your inspiration behind the show?
The show begins with me talking about my disastrous job interview with the Grim Reaper, which is definitely not inspired by real events of graduating uni and being thrown into the deep end of the real world and getting a million and one rejection emails and having to face a fate worse than death: LinkedIn. In all seriousness, I wrote this show because I wanted to carve out my own space in the industry. It was really important to me to create comedy that was for me and people like me. So far, I’ve had such incredible support from the asexual community. It’s truly warming my cold, dead heart.
Are there any plans for what comes next after the show has finished its run – for you or the show?
Yes, I’ll be rounding off my 2025 tour back up north at the Women in Comedy Festival in Manchester on 12 October, as returning Best Newcomer champion! I’ve also got dates in Nottingham and Leicester in the works, so keep those eyeballs peeled.
If your show had a soundtrack what songs would definitely be on it?
I have a whole bit about wishing I could walk down the aisle to AC/DC’s Back in Black, so that would have to be on there. Don’t Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult is very on-brand too, as is Motorhead’s Ace of Spades, of course!
What is the weirdest or most unconventional prop used in your show?
Definitely the 5 foot scythe. I knew I wanted her, nay, I needed her, from the get-go. Ever since I was a little girl, it’s been a dream of mine to walk onto stage in a red spotlight surrounded by dry ice while O Fortuna plays in the background, in huge platform shoes, a black robe and carrying a sick-ass weapon. I do feel like I’m slaying (pun very much intended) whenever I’m carrying it, but it has gotten me some funny looks on the bus.
If budget or reality was not an issue, what’s the one piece of scenery/set you’d love to have in your show?
I’m just thinking of more ways to make my entrance even more dramatic now. Maybe a steampunk-style metal slab that gets lowered from the ceiling so I can be electrified to life, or a river of lava on which I can punt myself across on a narrowboat of human skulls – ooh, or maybe a portal to Hell? Let’s go with a portal to Hell. Preferably one that I can control with a little remote in my pocket so I can open it up and hear a little burst of tortured souls at random points during the show. I feel like it would complement my punchlines, like canned laughter on a sitcom.
Thanks for bringing your show to life for us Ariel, and good luck at Camden Fringe.
If you’d also like to know your time of death then you can catch Ariel at the Museum of Comedy on Saturday 2 August.
