Emily Wilson – Fixed

After a phenomenal Edinburgh Fringe debut in 2022, which saw her nominated for the main Newcomer Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Emily Wilson is taking her show Fixed to the Soho Theatre in March.

Sharing the story of her disastrous experience as a finalist on The X Factor USA at the age of fifteen, Emily takes her audience through her most embarrassing, cringey, and downright hilarious moments of this nostalgic adventure with a mix of stand-up, original music, and archival footage.

Here she talks exclusively to The American about the catharsis of turning national embarrassment into a piece of art.

We all did things as teenagers that now make us shiver, whether it was slipping a love poem you wrote into your crush's locker, or posting a video of your ukulele rendition of 'Payphone' by Maroon 5 on YouTube... or singing for your chance at fame in front of Simon Cowell (below) and the rest of America on season one of The X Factor USA.

The last one was me. I would never do the first two very specific things!

My one-woman-show Fixed is about my experience on The X Factor USA when I was fifteen. Without spoiling too much: I auditioned for the show in a duet with my best friend, Austin. We called ourselves "AusEm" (try and think of a cooler name, I'll wait). I believed we were not only immensely talented, but also destined for fame.

The judges loved Austin, and hated me. And by a show of voluntary applause, the audience agreed. I was rocked. I'll save the details, but in the end, I made it to the top twelve finals before getting the boot. Literally as soon as America could vote, we were voted off.

Let me quickly say: don't feel bad for me. I'm not asking for that. What happened to me sucked, but waking up at 3am to stand in line with thousands of other people in Newark, New Jersey because you believe you were born to become an international superstar is also delusional and psychotic. It's not that I'm glad I got brutally rejected at fifteen, but, ya know. Fair's fair.

After X Factor, I stopped performing and spent years being lost (i.e. got a degree in communications). Then after college, I tried standup, and my love for performing resurfaced. And this time, I was in the driver's seat. I controlled where the laughs were.

But I never talked about X Factor. On or off stage. For years. Why would I draw attention to my most embarrassing memory, my biggest failure, the time when literally all of America agreed that I was a loser who actually had the nerve to say (verbatim) that she could beat Lady Gaga at the Grammys?

Because it's funny. It took me a while to see it, but it's really funny. And now, as I relive it on stage, I'm finally in on the joke.

When I started writing the show the focus was to tell the story, to get it off my chest. It wasn't until I performed the show for the first time that I realized how many people saw themselves in it. That's the true success I find with the show. The thing I was so afraid to talk about, is something so many people relate to.

Nobody likes who they were as a teenager, national stage or not. But with time and perspective, we can rejoice in accepting those cringey freaks. And hopefully laugh really hard in the process.

Emily Wilson will perform Fixed at the Soho Theatre in London from March 13 – 18, 2023
To book tickets go to sohotheatre.com/shows/emily-wilson-fixed/

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