Annie Rauwerda has been a constant presence on certain corners of the internet for what feels like forever, but is only just making her Edinburgh Fringe debut this summer.
The Wikipedia superfan has operated the Depths of Wikipedia social media accounts since 2020, dedicated to digging through the online encyclopedia’s most unusual, amusing or outright bizarre content. Whilst she has developed and performed a live show format of her beloved pastime since late 2021, Underbelly’s Cow Barn has become the first Edinburgh Festival Fringe venue to welcome her.
The format of Annie’s show was already hard to gauge from the outside, being unclear as to how she would spend an hour of the afternoon lightheartedly dissecting a resource that has over 7.2 millions articles in the English edition alone.
The end result though, is a genuinely hilarious trip through the free-to-use resource.
Her minimalist, low-budget show comes in the form of herself standing on stage, accompanied by a laptop which is mirrored on the screen behind her, playing a slideshow consisting of Wikipedia screenshots and basic font offering brief descriptions of that slide and Annie’s accompanying comments. It wouldn’t look out of place in a high school classroom, which just adds to the charm.
Annie is a chaotic and bubbly tour guide through the best that Wikipedia has to offer. Her show opens with little fluff or explainer other than the basics of who she is and what she does and instead dives straight into a whirlwind tour of bizarre Wikipedia entries such as “List of sexually active popes” and lists of “Islands in lakes on islands in lakes on islands in lakes”.
The resulting 60 minutes is packed with laughter from the audience and genuine passion from Annie, whose love for the resource is hard not to find both endearing and infectious. Her jokes, quips and facts are interlaced with tales of the good parts of humanity and the heartfelt stories that she has come to learn through connecting with Wikipedia editors, contributors and even photo subjects in the case of the Thai couple who have been the face of humanity for 17 years on the “Human” Wikipedia page.
It makes a website that can feel genuinely overwhelming at times seem a lot smaller, and tight-knit in terms of the community that edits and operates it. Annie nonchalantly made reference to several Wikipedia editors and basic details of their lives as though they were schoolfriends or neighbours she’d known casually for years.
Whilst Annie and her show are a delight, I could see why its style may not appeal to everyone. When I say it is a whirlwind, I truly mean it – Annie hops between topics at a fervent pace and the audience is dragged through each Wikipedia page, sometimes without much time to comprehend what it is that they’ve just covered – to the point where I can’t actually recall a lot of the pages she discussed, despite knowing that, in the moment, I thought to myself “I need to remember that one”.
This style, in combination with Annie’s colloquialisms and general personality, make for a package that feels like it would appeal more broadly to Gen Z and the younger generations. It is by no means a criticism, but rather a “bear in mind” for some audiences seeking a more traditional comedy show.
Tickets are available here: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/depths-of-wikipedia
