After a stint with a work in progress show at last year’s Fringe, Chloe Jacobs is back, better than ever, with the stand-up show Twilight: Breaking Down. Jacobs begins by talking about how her time as an Oxford university fresher led to her reading her childhood self-insert fanfiction on stage at the Edinburgh Fringe, forcing her to accept and face her past as an 11-year-old fandom member.
Jacobs works to make the show inclusive, to avid Twilight fans or those who are unfamiliar with it, acknowledging that there may be some boyfriends with no knowledge of the franchise who have been dragged along. She ensures that this show has the ability to stand alone, made evident by the fact that these very boyfriends end up laughing the loudest of anyone in the audience. As an 11-year-old, Jacobs was unaware of controversies surrounding parts of Twilight, and today she pokes fun at how absurd her fanfic therefore is, and makes it known that she is aware she is not Native American (although her character is).
Between readings, Jacobs talks about her experience as a neurodiverse teenager, and how this influenced ways she interacted with media, and led to her forming obsessions and then friendships through fandoms. Jacobs also discusses utilising her writing skills to write “gifts” for people online, including branching out of the Twilight fandom to write a smut piece about The Inbetweeners, with source material potentially more appealing to the aforementioned boyfriends.
It is difficult to describe, and you’ll maybe have to read the 30,000-word fanfic yourself to be able to properly describe the plot, but Jacobs’ hilarity shines through regardless. A large majority of the audience will have had similar experiences, whether it’s having written embarrassing fanfic themselves, being obsessed with Twilight or similar media, or being part of the world of fandom.
Despite drawing on a niche topic, I highly recommend Twilight: Breaking Down for anyone looking for a good laugh.
While the show is no longer running, Chloe Jacobs hopes to return to Edinburgh Fringe 2027.
Updates can be found on her Instagram here.
Image by Chloe Jacobs, provided to The Student as press material.
