Headline-grabbing comedian who gatecrashed royal party opens own show

(26 Sep 2003) STORYLINE: 25 mins approx 1. SOT Ed Botlam, venue director for Smirnoff 'Underbelly' on how they're being put more on the map and being the fresh face of the Edinburgh Festival; the appeal of the venue - alternative, eclectic range of venue; on their top acts this year - theatre and music; on magician Keith Fields; what performers do at the Festival; on having comedy terrorist Aaron Barschak at their venue and his being a live wire; future plans for the venue - year-rounder space. 2. VS venue, set up shot of interview 3. Sit down i/v with comedian Aaron Barschak, talks about: on being at Edinburgh Festival - rollercoaster, hijacking comedy and fame; his crashing Prince William's birthday party at Windsor; putting anarchy back into the comedy scene; having bad shows; the state of comedy - ego; his being hijacked; the state of entertainment and television - nothing entertaining on; canned laughter; Prince William's reaction to his visual gag; doing a traditional show at Edinburgh - making fun of terrorism; comedy based on the absurd; finding it difficult to perform with a notoriety; was a struggling actor before he was a struggling comedian; on the definition of art; on what his show's about - terrorism, instant celebrity, royalty, etc. Soundbites include: "I think it's great, I don't regret it at all, you know and it was, the most fun bit doing the Windsor Castle thing, but it's given me a lot live up to." "And so long as the audience has a laugh which when I started doing it, it's a very visual gag - the head of al-Qaeda in a pink dress - no matter what people say it has cracked people up, it's one of those things that you can stand there for ten seconds and not say a word." "But I'm my harshest critic ok, well actually no I found out there are a few more but you know they laughed, they found it funny (Q.Reporter - "Could Prince William take a joke?" ) Yeah. No he was just cracking up from the moment he saw me walk in. As I say it's a visual gag for someone who hasn't seen it. Now the whole world has seen it it's probably lost." "I don't claim to be comic genius, I don't claim to be the comic messiah or the comic Judas, but the whole point of punk rock was, 'this is crap and I can do it', you know." 4. CUs festival newspaper front cover showing Aaron Barschak being hijacked. USED FOR STORIES # : 383090 TAPE FORMAT: Beta SP PAL Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...