"I Like Loud, Ugly-Laughing Audiences."

Sarah Gaul's headed to the MICF with her musical comedy, Slumberland. "I write all my own material," says Gaul, "and sing and play it live on piano. The songs range in style from Broadway to jazz to folk, and the subject matter is fairly diverse. I tend to go between writing about social issues, relating to my experience as a woman, changes I'd like to see in the world, my concerns and fears — right through to ... weird relationship stuff and what are actually the road rules for bikes."

Sounds like a pretty eclectic, and personal, hour. Some would have reservations about being so open on stage, but not Gaul. "I hope people get to know me and [the] stuff I like or think," says Gaul, "because that's literally all the show is about. I also hope people maybe learn some stuff, maybe have their world view challenged, and feel like they've escaped the humdrum of real life for an hour when they come into my weird and wonderful world."

It's something that crowds are more open to than you'd think": "I love a rowdy, packed house — I like loud, ugly-laughing audiences, and I love chatting with audience members during the show." Gaul recounts "one of my much earlier shows at a pub, a couple of years back. It was a small ('intimate') audience and one guy in the audience got up and danced with his partner, which was lovely, but then his partner stumbled over to the stage to talk to me, fell over the front of the stage and passed out in front of me".