Meet Liam Mills and Ellie Sharp, the Creators of Trash Fic

A big thanks to Liam Mills and Ellie Sharpe for talking with us today. So, you guys run Trash Fic, a regular event at Rough Trade. And Nottingham's only fan fiction comedy night. Right, let’s dive in! For the uninitiated, what exactly is Trash Fic?
Liam: Put simply, we’re a fanfiction comedy show. We find some of the best and weirdest fan-made content on the internet and perform it live for our audiences, usually with commentary and act-outs. 
Ellie: Imagine a book club, except instead of books, it’s the superior medium of online erotica, and instead of people discussing it, it’s a pair of morons on a stage making jokes about butts.

Fill us in on Trash Fic’s back story.
Ellie: Liam and I actually met through Nottingham’s poetry scene but quickly realised that we’re both entirely too ridiculous for something as serious as poetry. I had the idea for a dramatic reading of various fanfictions and Liam immediately transformed that idea into something real.
Liam: The decision haunts me to this day.

Who turns up to the events?
Ellie: One thing we’re proudest off is just how diverse our audience is. We like to joke that we’ll have a room full of people and not a gender among them. The only thing they need to have in common is a love of the rude, the lewd, and the ludicrous.

How is the event funded?
Liam: Entirely from ticket sales and fan donations, honestly. We’ve been super lucky: in the early days we didn’t charge for tickets, and people were kind enough to chuck us a couple quid whenever they could. These days we charge £6 for tickets and, amazingly, people are willing to pay it! 
Ellie: This is my contractually obligated moment to mention that you can donate to help fund Trash Fic at ko-fi.com/trashfic! Please. Please give us money. If I’m going to disappoint my parents, I’d like to at least have an income!

You are the hosts. So, what exactly does that involve?
Liam: We host, we perform, we write the material, we dance on stage like trained monkeys. We’re a triple threat, baby. 
Ellie: We’re on stage for pretty much the whole night. The only time we take a break is when we occasionally force special guests to read something truly obscene. The creative process of Trash Fic is usually Liam and I trying to figure out the best ways to make each other laugh. We’re just very lucky that other people seem to share in that. We tend to just get together and let our creative ids float back and forth unfiltered and hope a few nuggets are left behind at the end of it.

So, what makes comedy fan fiction good comedy fan fiction?
Ellie: Ah, see, that’s the thing, good comedy fanfiction can’t actually be good or The best fanfics are ones that come from somewhere deep within the writer’s soul! If they don’t take it seriously, it can never be a true Trash Fic! So much of this event was born from my history as a fanfic addicted shut-in teenager. And we’re not here to rag on people for their art. Trash Fic is, at its heart, a celebration of an online culture that absolutely deserves celebrating! 
Liam: That’s really important, actually. A lot of people think we’re here to make fun of “bad” fanfiction, but we’re both adamant that there’s no such thing. Fanfiction is a really pure artform and we gladly relish in its weirdest, trashiest, silliest edges.

Are the Trash Fic nights a good place to make friends or for romances to blossom?
Ellie: If intense descriptions of what Wario is hiding under those overalls is what revs your engine, then Trash Fic might well be the place to meet your soulmate. Otherwise, it’s definitely the kind of place to make friends and meet people. That’s the best thing about getting a bunch of freaks in a room together!

I believe there is also a Trash Fic e-zine avaiable at the event?
Ellie: The content of the zine is created by both of us but the amazing design elements in them are all Liam. I’m lucky enough to be partnered with someone who actually knows how to make a zine and is willing to indulge my dumbest ideas. 
Liam: We tend to put at least one fanfiction that we (mostly Ellie) wrote “in-house”. In the first zine it’s a Simpsons/Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover, and in the second it’s a Garfield detective noir with some puns that’ll make your eyes water.

Why an e-zine?
Liam: We actually have a couple physical zines now! We initially put out e-zines because they’re cheap to make and cheaper to share. We are, at our core, tight-arses.

Is it a tough crowd at Trash Fic?
Liam: We almost constantly get heckled, but usually from good-natured fans looking to join in. We still talk about a personal favourite - the “moss” guy - who kept yelling incomprehensible nonsense about moss for most of our 2019 Halloween show. We didn’t necessarily “deal” with that guy because neither of us knew what he was actually saying. 
Ellie: Usually though our hecklers are just fans joining in on the fun. We have a lot of audience participation in the show, so things tend to get a bit raucous. That’s how we like it. Feels punk, if punk was pioneered by a roomful of dorky queer people instead of, like, Sid Vicious. 

What do you see as the future of Trash Fic?
Ellie: Honestly, I’m still reeling from the fact that people even want to show up to watch us read out things we found on the internet, so the idea of a future for it is kind of nuts. But we absolutely want to keep growing and developing Trash Fic. We want the show to keep outdoing itself in terms of spectacle but we also want to take it beyond just the show itself and into other media. If I could wish for anything, it’d be to have the chance to adapt some of our favourite fanfics for the screen! 

Anything else about Trash Fic you’d like to share with us?
Liam: It’s just good, anarchic fun, y’know? We have a great time on stage and we hope that comes across to our audience. The fact that we even have an audience still blows my mind, but we’re so grateful that people show up. 
Ellie: Also, if you want to keep up with us, we’re on Instagram and Facebook! Go follow us!
Liam: Please! 
Ellie: We’re desperate! 

The next Trash Fic event is at Rough Trade on Wednesday 19 April, 7pm