Arts

Interview: David Salter – Taking the Edinburgh Festival Fringe by storm

Adelaide’s own David Salter is performing at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe

David Salter is no stranger to the Adelaide theatre and the cabaret stage. At this year’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Salter’s brilliant new cabaret show, An Evening With Dame Granny Smith saw him win the prestigious Frank Ford Award.

In a recent chat with Glam Adelaide, Salter shared with us his surprise to receive this incredible award.

“It was a massive surprise and a huge honour. Frank Ford was an incredible influence on and champion of theatre in Adelaide, especially fringe theatre and cabaret. I recently found out that he taught my uncle at drama school and has had a hand in the lives of so many artists I respect. For the show, it means touring opportunities and recognition I never thought possible. I mean seriously, I’m interviewing an apple in the show!”

Salter has long had a love for puppetry and ventriloquism.

“I used to watch Shari Lewis on TV when I was a kid. Do you know Shari Lewis? Lamb Chop? She had a show in the 90s but she’d been doing it since the 50s. I was so obsessed. She was so funny, and would do little skits with her sock puppets and teach the audience skills like origami and crafting, and making little puppets from stuff you could find at home. 

“I was amazed when Dad told me, ‘You know it’s her doing the voices right?’ I couldn’t believe it because she was so good. The illusion was so strong. It was like she had this otherworldly magic ability. I thought maybe you had to be born with it? I mean we all loved sesame street, but I just remember admiring her skill. She was on screen, her puppets were alive, and she was doing it without you even questioning it.”

Ventriloquism is not an easy skill to master. We were curious to hear what Salter’s process was to learn this impressive skill.

“I didn’t realise you could learn it. I just thought it was some freaky gift you were born with. Honestly, technique wise, it’s not as hard as you think. It’s just holding your mouth still and learning different ways of making sounds. But it’s convincing someone else that a puppet is alive that’s the trick. It’s like being a magician. Or an actor. You have to make the audience believe in a character. Investing in that character. That’s where it works. You can hold your mouth as still as you like but unless the audience believes in the character, you’re just a person standing there not moving their mouth.”

Salter’s character, Dame Granny Smith, is the legend of stage and screen. We asked Salter how the creation of Dame Granny Smith came about.

“I worked at a nursing home when I was first out of school. So many characters and little turns of phrase from there inspired her. She’s also based on classic British actors like Dame Judi and Dame Maggie, plus a bit of my own grandmother in there. But it all comes back to Shari Lewis. I have this book she published called Making Easy Puppets. On her show, she always taught you how to make something out of nothing. She could show you how to origami a bit of paper into almost anything. If your parents were still asleep and you had a toilet roll, you could make a puppet. A paper bag? A puppet. One day she showed how to make an apple into a puppet by biting it in a clever way. I think she credited her father with coming up with it after dinner one day? Anyway, I was always given an apple in my lunch box, so I’d just play with it at lunchtime when I was a kid. I thought it was brilliant. I’d just flap its mouth around before eating it. One day, I had to come up with ten minutes of stand up and I thought, ‘Okay, I used to play with this apple… what could it be?’ And then just wrote as many apple puns as I could. And she just came from the puns.”

Salter and Dame Granny Smith are about to premiere their show, An Evening with Dame Granny Smith at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Salter shed some insight to what audiences will experience with his show.

“It’s completely stupid. The conceit is that I’m interviewing one of Australia’s most well respected actors, who also happens to be an apple. It’s daft, but it’s also a chance for the audience to sit down with someone who has a lot to say about life as an older person, and maybe encourage them to connect with their own fabulous older loved ones in their life.”

An Evening With Dame Granny Smith runs at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from August 2 – 17. Hopefully Adelaide audiences will another chance to see Salter and Dame Granny Smith soon.

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