Zach Zucker
(Picture: Dylan Woodley)What do you do if you are a comedian busily readying a very silly show for the Edinburgh Fringe when there is a mass shooting in the town you grew up in? This was the situation faced by Zach Zucker in July when a gunman murdered seven people in Highland Park, Illinois. Zucker was distraught. He knew the families of people who were shot as well as relatives of the killer.
For a while he considered junking the original show, Spectacular Industry Showcase, and completely rewriting it. In the end he has subtly shifted things around so that there are references one might pick up if aware of the back story, a reference to right wing politics here or a line about a “last shot at fame” there. But if Highland Park casts a shadow for those in the know, he is foremost a comedian and the main attraction here remains high-octane absurdist humour.
