Last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Show nominee Elf Lyons returns to the Fringe with her new show ChiffChaff directed by Aitor Basauri from Spymonkey.
Who best to take on the economy than the daughter of an economist? Elf will be pulling apart our fiscal situation while singing about Japan, tap-dancing about South Korea and clowning around about Brexit. All in the style of the diva in the red sparkly dress, Liza Minnelli.
Over the past few years Elf Lyons has proven herself to be one of the fastest rising stars of comedy. From being a finalist in the Funny Women competition in 2013, she has since established herself on the London and UK comedy circuit, as well as having performed at leading arts festivals all around the world. International performances have included Luxembourg’s Humour de la Paix Festival, Adelaide Fringe, Berlin Fringe, as well as selling out two performances of Pelican at Paris’s Central Théâtre du Gymnase. Arts festival performances include Latitude, VAULT Festival, Hay Festival and Mach fest. Elf’s fourth solo show, Swan, gained her an Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination for Best Show, a nomination for a Malcolm Hardee Award, a Perth FRINGE WORLD nomination for Best Comedy Show and won her a Pick of the Fringe award at the Adelaide Fringe.
As well as studying at the prestigious L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier, Elf was part of the Duckie Homosexualist Summer School 2016 at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern and has been accepted on the Cabaret & Drag Lab course at the Soho Theatre this summer. She launched the LGBT comedy night The Matron Presents and is currently on the LGBT+ Committee of Equity. At the end of 2016, Elf started developing several new projects and launched her theatre company RARARATheatre. Elf also has extensive directing experience having directed for companies such as OddFlock, opera company Little Room Productions and OffCut Festival alongside mentoring and directing performers this year’s Edinburgh Festivals.
Elf is currently working with the Nuffield Southampton Theatres Laboratory Associates on a new studio show in their early career Artist Development Programme.
In 2017, Elf was commissioned to write and star in a video for BBC Comedy as part of their “Top 10” series (produced by Rumpus Media) and in 2018, Elf was commissioned to write and star in a short for the BBC 3 Quickies series. She was announced as a part of the BBC New Talent Hot List 2017 as a performer and is currently developing a number of projects for television.
Elf is also writing a book on economics with her dad.
