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Fringe Spotlight: Looking Fab at Fifty

Will Owen shares his insights (he's only 26).

Gaydar

10 Jul 2025 — 7 min read

Will Owen is returning to the Edinburgh Fringe with his solo show, Looking Fab at Fifty.

In the show, Will is exploring connection, commitment issues, and why Bake Off is easier to love than people.

Dates: 30 July - 24 August
Venue: Assembly Roxy
Tickets: AssemblyFestival.com

For our podcast, How To Date Men, we caught up with Will for a behind-the-scenes look at the show.

In the conversation we talk Loose Women, navigating heteronormativity, and the allure of Love Island.

Listen to the episode.

Let's start with the name of the show. You've called it Looking Fab at 50, but you are clearly a fair way off that milestone. How does the title connect to what you're exploring in the show?

It's a reference to kind of magazine-y headlines, you know, I feel like it would be a certain Loose Woman - someone like, Davina looking fab at 50, that kind of thing. And that was just funny to me and I thought that'd be a funny thing to call the show when I'm clearly not a 50-year-old.

One of the things that you're tackling in the show is a sense that you found it difficult to connect with people. Was that something that you learned about yourself over time or was there some kind of intervention or was it a sort of hard truth that came out of a breakup? Like, "it's not me, it's you"?

It was kind of maybe a mixture of all of those things. I definitely have come to learn about myself, I suppose. But I think it's come from people being like, hey, like that's not normal. I think honestly, like more than from people I've been dating, I feel like my friends, when I tell them how I felt about something or how I responded to something or whatever, they'll be like, no - you press the eject button way too quickly.

I find it really hard in, dare I say, the modern world because it's like everything's so kind of transactional. And I think you find it hard to like know when to invest because also that, you know, that you have these connections that feel really exciting initially and then they kind of burn out. And there's other times where it's like, I don't know if this is really anything. And then if you stick with it, something grows. But I think because we've got so much coming at us from all directions it's hard to know when to stick with something or not.

I think that's totally right. The meeting people, not difficult. The connecting with people in any kind of authentic way, almost impossible.

Yeah, exactly. Especially because like I sometimes have like an electric conversation with someone online and I think, my god, we're soulmates. But it's like we're both kind of doing a persona with each other. And it's like we're sparking off each other, but I don't think this would actually kind of see through. And I think also because you can do that, because you can, like, you know, I've had these really fun interactions with people like on my phone in my room. It's like, well, I'm not necessarily going to put on a shirt and go and meet them in a bar, am I?

Are you saying you're you're better virtually than you are in person?

No! I'm not letting that go out on record. I can be great in both worlds!

This is your second time performing at Edinburgh Fringe. Does that make it easier? Were there mistakes from the first time around that you've sworn that you're not going to make again? Are you going into it full of confidence?

I'm not necessarily going into it full of confidence. I'm going into it full of optimism. There's a lot you can control but I also think that then once you've got it to a place where you're happy with it, then it kind of just goes as far as it goes and you can't really control that. You've got to throw your hat in the ring, but you can make it a really nice hat.

So I think it's not necessarily that I learnt from mistakes per se. I think it's just that I have learnt to trust the process more this time around while also working really hard. I think it's like the classic mix.

In your show last year - which was "Like, nobody's watching" - you talked about your passion for television and pop culture. What are you watching at the moment? Who's getting your attention?

I am fully back in with Love Island. It had its peak in 2017-2019 then it had a lot of tragedy linked to it and I think people also just got bored of it. This series is absolutely incredible TV - they've cast some of the most crazy people and they're allowing them to be crazy.

Culturally, I think we've swung back to being interested in the kind of trashy, messy stuff again. We're in absurd times and everything's feeling kind of meaningless at the moment because, you know, it's kind of hopeless. And so what else would we do culturally but kind of like, I guess, go rabid and turn against each other.

What's really funny is watching Love Island pre and post therapy. When I was watching it in 2017 I was 16 years old so I obviously had I hadn't had therapy at that point and I kind of thought what they were saying was really reasonable. Now, it feels more objective because obviously all of this is completely unreasonable because it's constructed reality show and they've known these people for 10 days. It's fun to watch it with that kind of knowingness, being like, this is all ridiculous. And I'm like investing in that.

I think it's kind of got to the point now where it feels like they're aware that they're making television and I like that side of it.

Speaking of reality TV icons, you said in an interview that Gemma Collins was one of your major creative influences. In this current show that you're taking to Edinburgh, you're toying with the concept of embracing the calm predictability of a quiet, comfortable life. Is that something that Gemma Collins would endorse?

Yeah, she would endorse that because the famous quote of hers, I'm just being me in the corner. She's being calm. She also says it's going to be a long old slog for me this life. She says that. Kind of also like apropos of nothing, she's saying stuff like that, which is what I love the most about her. Like nothing's happened to her and she's going, it's going to be a long slog for me this life.

I think first of all, I want to just be clear, I think stand-up comedy is incredible and I have so many stand-up comedians that I look up to and it always felt really sacrilegious to list Gemma Collins as my major influence. But I think we will look back on her as a crucial cultural figure. She's basically a character comedian - it is a persona, what she's doing. She's someone who knows the cameras are there and she's creating it. I think it's really fascinating what she's doing. It's kind of Warholian, you know.

The thing about embracing the calm predictability comes from a queer perspective. I grew up in a loving nuclear family and I always thought I'd like have kids get married, like I kind of always had that romantic view in my head. And then when I began to kind of explore my queer identity and make more queer friends and like join the queer community, I was interested in the world that was different from that - a less heteronormative way of seeing things.

I wouldn't say that I had an identity crisis, but I think I went to an interesting position where I was kind of trying to reconcile these two sides of myself basically, which I think is kind of what the show is about. It's like figuring out, yeah, I kind of do want to be married with kids. And also I want to like go to like techno club in all black and throw my hands in the air.

Has the the therapy helped you reconcile those two conflicting narratives?

I think so. I guess it just helps me accept what's there. Like I think before I was trying to quash the maybe more kind of like traditional side of myself. And I think it's accepting that both of those things can be true and allowing them to kind of like coexist without feeling like you're doing a disservice to either aspect of yourself.

What do hope that people feel when they come to see Looking Fab at 50?

I hope everyone feels included - there's something for everyone. I've tried to dig deep into myself and then I've tried to find the universal in the specific.

Having a great structure and feeling like it's about something allows it to be more fun and playful for people.

I want people to have a laugh.