“Our House Was Robbed Four Times – Then My Boyfriend Tried to Strangle Me (In His Sleep)” – Comedian Eli Matthewson talks about the basis of his new EdFringe show

In Night Terror, award-winning New Zealand comic Eli Matthewson turns the most stressful year of his life into an hour of tightly wound, laugh-out-loud stand-up. Drawing from a series of increasingly surreal break-ins, an anxious obsession with home security, and one unforgettable night when his boyfriend mistook him for an intruder mid-dream, Matthewson finds humour in the places you'd least expect it. Blending vulnerability with wit, Night Terror explores what happens when domestic bliss curdles into suburban dread and why sometimes, all you can do is laugh.

Night Terror dives into anxiety, intimacy and a kind of suburban dread. What drew you to those themes?

I spend so much time feeling anxious and afraid I may as well do something with it! I was pretty amazed at how quickly what I thought was the ultimate life goal achieved - moving in with my boyfriend and owning a house for the first time - quickly became a constant stress as we were robbed again and again. As soon as I started telling people about the Night Terror that my boyfriend had, which the show is named after, it became pretty clear that this wild story could provide enough material to make a show about. 

Sleepwalking, break-ins, paranoia - it’s comedy rooted in fear. How do you balance vulnerability with humour?

Quite often our funniest yarns, the stories we tell people whenever we want to get them cracking up, were things that were not funny at the time. I spent years being in the closet, terrified people might figure out I was gay while I did Shakespeare, musical theatre and hung out with a group of friends that were only girls. Now all those stories of my unhinged, closeted self have become fertile ground for comedy. I feel like this process was the same. I was so freaked out about people robbing our house that I didn’t initially see the funny side in watching live as a loopy woman stole our pink flamingo garden ornaments and nothing else. So much of what we are afraid of becomes hilarious once you can look back on it with a bit of perspective. I think our most vulnerable moments become our most entertaining stories. 

You’ve written for TV, performed across festivals - what’s the unique appeal of the solo Fringe show for you?

Stand-up has always been my biggest love and, while doing a festival like this certainly doesn’t have the financial security of a telly writing job, there is nothing more fulfilling for me than doing a comedy festival. I love how the show builds over the month, and I love being amongst all the other performers. I love getting up at 2pm, eating a wrap from the same place I have eaten at every day, getting my short-black and whiskey combo and then getting to do my show to a new audience. There’s nothing better.

Has the process of writing and performing Night Terror changed the way you think about domestic life or identity?

It was amazing how as soon as my boyfriend and I tried to set up our little life of domestic bliss together we were robbed a bunch of times and plunged into constant anxiety. At the end of it all though, my takeaway was that the stuff we own isn’t really the important part of our relationship - it’s each other. Maybe that is cheesy. I guess that’s why now we are abandoning most of our stuff and making the move to live in London with a couple of suitcases between us.

What does it mean to make a comedy show out of your most anxious year?

It’s nice to take a bit of ownership over something that wasn’t very fun at the time, and turn it into a show that feels fun and light. It’s always a challenge to take the harder parts of life and get the comedy out of them, but the reward, to me, is always worth the process. At the very least I hope it can make the audience feel better that they didn’t have to go through it themselves.

What do you hope audiences take away from the show?

I guess the message is about caring less about material goods, but mainly I want the audience to leave happy and having laughed a lot. Maybe with a crush on me. Hopefully with a nice photo of me they put on Instagram.

Eli Matthewson’s Night Terror will be at the Edinburgh Fringe each night at 8.50pm in Underbelly George Square.

For tickets and more information, visit: https://underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/event/eli-matthewson-night-terror