Sophie Sucks Face is a one woman musical-comedy written, directed and performed by Sophie Zucker. At her grandfather’s shiva, Sophie meets and is unexpectedly attracted to her hot Israeli cousin. When her grandmother dies a couple weeks later, Sophie has another encounter with said hot Israeli cousin and is forced to reflect on her feelings for him and the other relationships in her life. After selling out multiple shows across New York City, Sophie will be bringing her heartfelt and wickedly hilarious show to the Fringe for almost all of August.
Victoria Tappenden: Firstly, congratulations on the success of Sophie Sucks Face! Did you expect the show to be so popular?
Sophie Zucker: Thank you!!! And honestly, no!!! I wrote and directed the entire show by myself, so all I knew going into performances was that I was proud of the product. I didn’t even have a director to be like, “this is good, keep going!” But being proud of a product and being sure people will see it are two very different things. There’s a lot of good art that no one pays attention to, and also, I’m not the kind of viral comedian who can just post a show and have it sell out in seconds. So I really didn’t expect the show to sell out everywhere it did, simply because of word of mouth. It feels very cool that everyone’s been telling each other, “oh, you have to see this weird one-woman musical about incest.” Also, I’ve been so touched by my broke-ass friends who’ve come to see it multiple times. Thank you for spending your money on me! This is why we need a guaranteed minimum income, so people can afford to see me sing songs about giving my cousin a blowjob!
VT: You’ve had so much success recently, for instance writing and acting in Apple TV’s Dickinson and writing for The Daily Show. Why is the Fringe where you wanted to take your career next?
SZ: I love working in TV – it’s the greatest job in the world. You get to be creative all day and you get free lunch. But being a good TV writer/actor is all about learning how to balance your voice and comedic styling within the greater tone of the show. And sometimes, I just wanna do something for myself, you know? Sophie Sucks Face is entirely me on the page. I mean, the whole first song has lyrics that are like “It’s about me! The show’s all about me! It’s not about my dead grandfather – RIP Poppie – it’s about me!” And the Fringe felt like a great place to perform it, because it’s where so many incredible one-person shows have started – Phoebe Waller Bridge’s and Hannah Gadsby’s and Micaela Coel’s. So maybe, in answer to your question, it’s because I’m a narcissist (undiagnosed). What brought me to the Fringe is my personality disorder.
VT: Hooking up with your second cousin at your grandfathers shiva is a pretty crazy premise! How did the idea come about?
SZ: Listen – we all have a hot cousin. I know this because after I do the show, the amount of people that come up to me and are like “oh my god, I slow-danced with my second cousin at my sweet 16 and I could feel his erection through his pants!” is more than you’d expect. So how crazy is the premise really, when we’re all just sitting here, getting horny for our blood relatives? I know you’ve been there, Victoria.
No, but the idea actually came about because I had two grandparents die very quickly after one another, and on a micro-level, what that looked like for my family was we organized the same exact shiva for the same exact relatives with the same exact rabbi 7 weeks apart. And the redundancy of it was so amusing to me, I thought about what could happen at the first shiva where you’d have to deal with the consequences at the second? And because I do have a hot Israeli second cousin, the solution popped into my head very quickly. When inspiration strikes, it strikes!
VT: Incest isn’t the only taboo subject in Sophie Sucks Face – the character also talks about the death of her grandfather in a comedic, or what some may consider an inappropriate, way. Are taboos a natural topic of interest in your writing?
SZ: Yes. Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m actually writing jokes, or if I’m just writing things that no one likes to say out loud. Maybe it’s hack, but I like to be provocative because it means you’ll get a reaction no matter what, and I would not be a comedian if I wasn’t living for that instantaneous feedback. I prefer an audible cringe or a gasp to silence. When I’m not doing my musical, my comedy is often about abortion, sucking the President’s dick, or getting conjunctivitis from eating ass. Which no one talks about (taboo), but it is a real potential side effect.
Initially, I didn’t really want to make this show about death because I felt I had nothing interesting to say about it. I tried to write a version where instead of two funerals, it was two weddings that took place. But ultimately, the theme of dying proved to be very helpful to the emotional arc of my character. So, insensitive jokes about my grandparents’ death stayed in.
VT: Because Sophie Sucks Face discusses some taboo subjects were there any parts of the script that you were apprehensive to include? Especially since you share the same name and profession as your protagonist.
SZ: I wasn’t embarrassed about any of the sexual content, but I’ll tell you the one thing I was a little nervous about was portraying my character as less successful than I am. I didn’t want people to get confused about my accomplishments. For example, in the show, my protagonist has only been in one movie. But I’ve been in TWO!!!!!
VT: Did you always see Sophie Sucks Face being a one woman show?
SZ: Yes. I’ve written musicals before for a cast of dozens, and while I love writing for my friends and performing with them, scheduling rehearsals is impossible. And I like to compensate people for their time, and I could not afford to do that last year. So I knew my next musical was going to be for a cast of one who could be exploited for her labor. And I knew that girl was me.
VT: The show balances dry wit and black humour with genuine and heart warming moments so perfectly. Is it hard to strike a balance in your writing? If so, are the first drafts more so on the humorous side or the thoughtful side?
SZ: My favorite artists are the ones who balance laugh-out-loud jokes with a lot of heart, like Bo Burnham or Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence, so I think the balance comes naturally to me because I’m lucky enough to have witnessed great examples of it. I find dramatic writing to be easier than comedy, so my first drafts are typically more thoughtful and earnest, and then I go through and punch it up. If you believed in astrology, you’d say it’s because I’m a Pisces and my natural state is very emotional. But I don’t believe in that stuff so IDK.
VT: Which of the songs do you enjoy performing more – the more comedic songs or the more melodramatic ones?
SZ: When I have energy – the comedic ones. When I’m tired, just give me a ballad on the piano so I can sit for once.
VT: What do you hope audiences get from the show, if anything?
SZ: Mostly I hope they are disturbed and delighted and they think about me making out with my cousin for a very long time. But if you’re looking for a real answer, I’ve had some audience members come up to me and say my show articulated a lot of fears about commitment and long-term love that they share. And that’s been really nice. Someone told me she felt very “seen” by my character and her reluctance to commit, but her saying that actually made me feel incredibly “seen.” So I hope whatever the audience gets out of my show, I get it too! I deserve that!
VT: After your Fringe run, what’s next for you? Will you be writing any more musical comedies?
SZ: Well, writers’ strike pending, I hope I’ll be back at The Daily Show in the fall, trying to make jokes while democracy as we know it crumbles around us. But other than that, I have big dreams for Sophie Sucks Face! I want to keep performing it! I want to make it a movie musical! I will most certainly be writing musical comedies forever, if not just to put my 15 years of classical piano training to good use. Those lessons were expensive.
See Sophie Sucks Face at Underbelly, Bristo Square through August 2-13 and August 15-28.
Image via Sophie Zucker