‘Anarchist cook’ George Egg makes meals in hotel rooms, sheds, and now on the move

Self-confessed foodie and accomplished cook George Egg has been a comic since his late teens.

For the first couple of decades he was doing a finely honed prop-based routine and making a living, but as he reflects, “I wasn’t being creative really. Not on stage anyway”.

Meanwhile, Egg’s home life was characterised by lots of building and cooking and creativity. But it wasn’t until 2015 that the idea to combine his twin passions and take a new direction as a performer started to take shape.

“I’d been mucking about in hotel rooms for a few years,” recalls Egg, “seeing what I could cook on the hotel room equipment. Just for fun. I’m not really sure why.

“I wrote my first comedy and cooking show, Anarchist Cook, in which I cooked a three course meal on hotel appliances on a stage set that was made to look like a hotel room. I took it to Edinburgh in 2015 and sold out the whole run.”

The success of Anarchist Cook not only allowed Egg to tour for two years off the back of it, but also to carve out a very unique niche within comedy. His follow-up show DIY Chef followed a narrative about being banished to the shed, where he set about cooking with power tools; again, it was met with a rapturous reception from critics and audiences alike.

Perhaps one of the surprises is that the meal Egg whips up in front of your eyes, with the most unlikely of equipment, is gourmet food – which he shares amongst everyone at the end, before tidying everything up and heading back on the road.

Prepping cabbages in a mixer – photo: courtesy of George Egg

His aim is to “experiment, enthral and interest” his audience, as well as the obvious requirement to be funny in front of them.

The nature of the performance is replete with potential challenges that Egg averts by “practice, practice, practice”, and always having some spare ingredients in reserve, as well as what he calls a “technical first aid kit – with things like glue gun, fuses, tools etc”.

In 2019, Egg wrote and premiered his third show Movable Feast, which he was touring extensively when the pandemic hit, and picked up again in 2021.

Before focusing on a ‘best of’ for the Edinburgh Fringe 2022 – featuring new material and one recipe from each of the three preceding shows, he will be performing Movable Feast for the final time on February 15 at The Wardrobe Theatre.

“What a place to be doing the last show,” he smiles. “I really love the Wardrobe. It’s such a cool venue and run by such nice people. And the audiences in Bristol are the best.”

https://youtu.be/YlPeNXJ1FtI

For Egg, coming back to a show he made so long before has thrown up its personal challenges: “When I wrote it, I put in a big bit about my growing up and cooking together with my dad,” he recalls.

“There’s a routine that ends with a punchline implying that his death could have been caused by the practical joke from childhood. When I wrote that, he was alive and well and during lockdown he very sadly died. So when I got back on stage it hadn’t really dawned on me until I got to that bit and, well, that was a weird show for me.”

As to the content of Movable Feast – what can people expect? From hotel irons and power tools, this time Egg turns his attention to cooking with engines, car batteries and even air-conditioning.

He also shares hard-won tips on turning roadworks into a picnic and circumventing lofty airport restaurant prices with a bit of common – and creative – sense.

Cooking with a car battery – photo: courtesy of George Egg

Looking ahead, Egg has lots of (hotel) irons in the fire – including a new regular co-hosting slot on BBC Radio 4’s cultural magazine show, Loose Ends. But he is sticking with further adventures in food and comedy.

His Snack Hacker videos on Instagram – where he adapts, enhances, recreates or invents a snack – began as a lockdown project and have since become hugely successful, with over 4 million views across social media.

“It might be as simple as shoving pickled jalapeños in a Greggs Cheese and Onion bake, or creating a passable ramen bowl using super noodles, instant miso soup and KFC wings,” he explains.

“So I’m thinking that the next show might be a live version of Snack Hacker, but how that’ll manifest itself, we will have to see.”

George Egg – Movable Feast (age recommendation 14+) is at The Wardrobe Theatre, The Old Market Assembly, 25 West St, Old Market, Bristol, BS2 0DF on February 15 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available from www.thewardrobetheatre.com.

Main photo: courtesy of George Egg

Read more: The beautiful silence before the laughter

Listen to the latest episode of the Bristol 24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast: