EDFRINGE 2025: C ARTS
Andrew McCammon & Erin Island
married WITHOUT children
C ARTS
C venues | C aquila
MARRIED WITHOUT CHILDREN
Written, Created, Performed and Produced by Andrew McCammon & Erin Island
Musical Accompaniment by Jules Dekker
11 -24 Aug 2025 - 20:20 (0hr45)
July, 23, 2025
Leave the kids at home (if you bothered to have them) for this interactive improv, sketch and naughty game show. This production features a real-life married comedy couple who explore relationship dynamics, emotions and sexual positions. Audience members can even compete to win a titillating title! You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. And you’ll invest in birth control.
Hi Erin & Andrew thank you for being part of our interview series for Edfringe 2025. How does feel to be bringing Married Without Children to C Arts this summer?
Hi, thanks for including us in your interview series! We are so excited to share our new show with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe! It feels AMAZING to be a part of the fest! We have always wanted to perform at EdFringe ever since we first heard about it a number of years ago. The chance to share our work with an international audience and meet and collaborate with other artists is a dream come true. We visited Edinburgh last summer for short holiday and absolutely fell in love with the city. Not to mention, it will be nice to escape the oppressive Chicago heat (even if it does mean we might not see the sun for a few weeks).
With this being your premiere at the fringe are there any nerves ahead of your run or are you just eager to go?
We’d say what we are currently experiencing are “good nerves.” We’ve always said that nerves are important because that means that we are excited and taking our performance seriously. The unknown nature of improv is what makes the art form so fun for us! We love not knowing what exactly will happen and that has not changed since we began our improv journeys almost 15 years ago!
What makes bringing a show to Edinburgh Fringe so important?
Being a part of such a storied festival is a very special thing. The opportunity to meet artists and audiences from all over the world and share what we love to do is so appetising to us and we are chomping at the bit to show the world our style of bizarre humour and see as many other shows as possible.
Can you tell me a little bit about Married Without Children, what was the inspiration behind your show?
Married Without Children is an improv, sketch and naughty game show that we have been cultivating for a few years. We had the idea when we were working on a cruise ship as host and announcer for The Price Is Right LIVE. There was a lot of improv and crowd work involved in that show and we wanted to take our favourite parts of hosting and mix it with the vast improv and sketch experience we have acquired over the years. The show is also a little autobiographical. We are indeed married and we are without children. This is a show for singles and couples alike to leave the kids at home and enjoy some rowdy adult fun!
Being a married couple an working in comedy did you have any apprehensions about bringing a show across the pond to sunny Edinburgh? It will rain, a lot, you should be prepared.
The main apprehensions we had were primarily the monetary concerns. As all participating artists know, its not cheap to produce a show at Edinburgh Fringe (especially when you have to fly across an ocean to do it). However, we have been so lucky and worked so hard to travel the world and perform, and that is all we want to do in life. Thankfully with our lack of children, we’re able to do fun things like this rather than go into debt paying for college for a kid who would have probably been a liberal arts major like ourselves.
What have been some of the challenges you’ve faced bringing Married Without Children to the fringe?
Logistics. We are only a two person cast, so that means that all the work has to get done by us alone. We’ve tried to carve out three hours a day to check things off the list. We’ve done all the graphic design, marketing, travel arrangements and production duties between the two of us, so we’ve been working VERY hard. During this process we’ve also moved back to
Chicago from Amsterdam so we’ve had to deal with enough bureaucratic tasks and paperwork that makes a Kafka novel look like a walk in the park.
What have been some of the best ways you avoid getting on each others nerves when travelling and performing (and living) together?
Oh man, we get this question all the time. The honest answer, we don’t. Usually if one of us is stressed or irritable, the other person is most likely bouncing off the walls and constantly trying to annoy the other one in a playful way. It keeps us from being too serious and reminds us to have fun. Its hard to stay stressed when your partner is doing something stupid like improvising a song about your butt when you’re having a tough moment.
Oprah moment, do you think there is societal pressure for married couples to have kids and how have you both been able to traverse these pressures or demands?
Most definitely. Especially while working on a cruise ship, we found that most people’s first question is, “so how many kids do you have?” And they’d often follow that up with, “have kids sooner rather than later.” After hearing this a thousand times, we got real sick of feeling like we had to explain our decision to people we don’t even know. Frankly, its none of their business and an assumption like that might be very hard for someone who wants kids but isn’t able to have them to feel forced to answer. We are extremely lucky to live that aunt and uncle life. Its very satisfying to pump our niece and nephew full of sugar and them hand them back over to their parents like a shaken up bag of bees.
If you could describe Married Without Children in five words what would they be?
Funny, energetic, polished, real-life mayhem.
Where did you passion for comedy come from?
Growing up in the 90’s, sketch comedy was everywhere. SNL, Kids in the Hall, In Living Colour, All That, MadTV, Upright Citizens Brigade, Mr. Show and so many more. It was so inspiring to come up watching such amazing comedians perform so many different characters and sketches. Also, making someone laugh out loud is one of the best feelings in the universe. Once you get a taste, you become a laugh-hungry vampire whose lifeblood is lolz from strangers.
What was the experience at Boom Chicago like and how did this aid your improv?
Our takeaway from Boom was the community. The students, bar staff, and cast were truly second to none. The community there felt very similar to the indie improv community in Chicago in the early 2010’s. There was an air of excitement and enthusiasm. People are there to learn and perform because its makes them happy and they legitimately love the art form. The reps were also so helpful. We have done so much improv with our own respective troupes and shows, but being able to improvise together on a nightly basis really helped us become better when performing together.
How much has your comedy/style changed since you started out?
Over the years we both have become so much more well rounded performers. Starting out, Andrew was literally called “neck vain” because he yelled so much and was so intense in every scene. And Erin was known for her amazingly accurate interpretation of a “drunk suburban mom.” We both still have those tools in our tool belt, but with a lot of nuance.
After performing so many different types of shows for so many years, we’ve taken those skills and strung them together like a rubber band ball that could pop at any moment and go in any direction. Improvisers are the best bullshitters in the world (besides politicians) and we are both absolutely full of it.
"Married Without Children encompasses all of those skillsets and the best part is, we get to do it together. The show really reflects the joy we find in that."
If you could share the stage with fellow improv artists who would they be?
Probably the improvisers we watched coming up through Second City. People like John Hartman, Katie Rich, Tawny Newsome, Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson. Its awesome to see all of their well deserved success and to play with them would make our 26 year old selves heads explode.
What does Married Without Children says about you and the type of comedy you want to create?
As sketch and improv artists, we are essentially variety performers. We like to do a lot of different things like writing, improvising, singing, hosting and even dancing (poorly). Married Without Children encompasses all of those skillsets and the best part is, we get to do it together. The show really reflects the joy we find in that.
Do you have a favourite comedy quote?
We know this is ironic coming from a character that is such a wanker, but in the British Office, David Brent says he’d like to be remembered, “Simply as, the man who put a smile on the face of all who he met.” That sounds pretty good to us (minus the “man” bit for Erin).
What has been the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Enjoy the ride. Its very easy to get so focused on what’s next and how to get to the next step in your career. Don’t forget to digest the good moments. Someone once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Can’t remember who said that, maybe Jesus.
And finally, what message would you like your audiences to take with them from Married Without Children?
We just want everyone to have a ball and walk out of that theatre with a smile on their face. And to remind people that they don’t have to live a certain way just because that’s what is expected of them. Do what you love with the people you love.