Interview with Riki Lindolme

Ahead of Dead Inside, I caught up with Riki Lindolme to talk about the themes at the heart of the production, the creative journey behind it, and what audiences can look forward to when the lights go up.

What first inspired you to turn your fertility journey into a live comedy show?

 I didn’t set out to make a show about fertility—I just started writing about what I was going through because it was taking up so much mental space in my life. Comedy has always been how I process things, and at a certain point I realized, “Oh, this isn’t just a few jokes—this is a full story.”

There was also a sense that this was an experience people weren’t really talking about openly. It felt both very common and very private at the same time, which made it feel like something worth exploring on stage.

Dead Inside blends stand-up, storytelling and music. Why does that feel like the right format for this story?

That combination felt like the most honest way to reflect the experience itself. Fertility treatment is not one-note. It moves between emotional, clinical, surreal, and sometimes absurd moments very quickly.

Stand-up allows for immediacy and connection with the audience. Storytelling provides structure and context. And music allows for a different kind of emotional access. There are things you can express in a song that might feel too direct or too exposed if spoken.

Using all three forms made it possible to capture the full range of what the experience felt like, rather than trying to fit it into a single mode.

Infertility is still a topic many people struggle to talk about openly. What made you want to bring it so candidly to the stage?

I think I was reacting to how little people were actually saying out loud. There’s so much silence and politeness around it, and meanwhile people are going through something really intense and often lonely.

Comedy is a way to break that silence without making it feel heavy. It lets you say the thing that’s hard to say, but in a way that people can actually receive. The goal wasn’t to make a statement or to represent every experience; it was to share something honest from my perspective and create a space where that conversation could exist more openly.

The show is deeply personal but also very funny. How did you approach balancing humour with such emotional material?

It was a lot of trial and error. Early on, I would sometimes lean too far in one direction- either making it too heavy or trying to add humor in a way that didn’t feel organic.

What I eventually realized is that the balance comes from trusting the material. If something is genuinely emotional, it doesn’t need to be undercut. And if something is genuinely absurd, it will be funny on its own.

The humor isn’t added on top, it comes from the truth of the situation. When the audience trusts that you’re being honest, they’re very willing to move between laughter and something more emotional.

The show premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe to great reviews. How has it evolved since that run?

Edinburgh was about discovery. Performing the show every day gave me a very clear sense of what was working, what needed to be clearer, and how the structure functioned in front of an audience.

Since then, I’ve been refining it- tightening the writing, clarifying the storytelling, and rebuilding a lot of the technical elements so everything feels more cohesive. The show is quite cue-heavy, so part of the evolution has also been making the technical side more precise and integrated, so it supports the performance rather than competing with it.

Each run has made it clearer what the show wants to be, and London is another step toward that.

Many people know you from Garfunkel and Oates. What has it been like stepping onto the stage solo with this show?

It’s definitely a different experience. In a duo, there’s a shared rhythm and a kind of built-in support system. With this, it’s just me, so there’s nowhere to hide, which is both terrifying and really exciting.

I honestly never thought I would have the confidence to do a solo show so this whole experience has been a scary but transformative time.

The show has played in Edinburgh and Washington DC and is now coming to London. Have audiences responded differently in different places?

There are definitely subtle differences, and some of the American references didn't land in Edinburgh. For example, I changed "Post Mates" to "Uber Eats," stuff like that. But what’s been surprising is how universal the core of it feels. The specifics might land a little differently, but the emotional beats tend to connect in a similar way everywhere.

I think once you get into the human side of it- hope, disappointment, control, uncertainty - that translates across cultures.

What has surprised you most about bringing this show to the stage?

The level of openness from audiences. I didn’t necessarily expect people to come up afterward and share their own experiences in such detail.

It’s made me more aware of how much people are carrying privately, and how powerful it can be to create a space where something is acknowledged out loud. That sense of connection has been one of the most unexpected and meaningful parts of doing the show.

What is the hardest song in the show to perform emotionally?

There’s one toward the end that still gets me, depending on the night. It's a song about pregnancy loss and it's the only song that has zero jokes in it.

What is one thing audiences might be surprised to learn from the show?

I think one of the most surprising things is how little we actually understand about fertility and women’s health in general. Also, that someone like me, who has access to the best health care, can still be so in the dark about what's happening with her body. There’s a level of uncertainty that isn’t always talked about.

Dead Inside plays at the Soho Theatre from the 31^st March – 18^th April.

Full information can be found via this link: https://sohotheatre.com/events/riki-lindhome-dead-inside/

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