Friday August 15th 2025
Drag Queen, Eddie Jen
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
An American drag performer at this year’s Fringe who was attacked at the beginning of the festival has continued to perform his show despite the traumatic incident which left him shaken.
Drag Queen, Eddie Jen, was handing out flyers on The Royal Mile to his show, ‘Seeking a Pen Pal for the End of the World’, on the 29th of July at the beginning of the Fringe when a group of young men approached the Fringe performer. Being aggressive towards Eddie Jane, the situation esculated with one of the men ripping off one of the performers’ bows.
Eddie Jen immediately took out his phone and began filming, with the men trying to hide their identity in a corner shop on the mile. Confronting them, one of the men assaulted the performer, leaving Eddie shaken prior to beggining his month-long Fringe performance.
Eddie Jen explained, “They went into a convenience store and I went in after them, asking why did they do that? They were waiting for me when I came out. I tried to go back to flyering when I felt something hit me on the back of the head. They ripped off my bow again and this time they dumped their drinks on me. Then they meandered off while I tried to collect myself. A nice Scottish gentleman came up to me and offered me paper towels.”
Eddie Jen’s show, ‘Pen Pal for the End of the World’, is the true story of an immigrant Drag Queen who began writing to her high school English teacher in the aftermath of the failed insurrection in Washington D.C. on January 6th 2021. Performing every day of the festival, Eddie Jane was forced to power through and perform to her highest ability despite the attack.
Posting the video he filmed during the attack to his TikTok account, Eddie Jen received over half a million views with many people sharing positive messages prior to the beginning of his show.
Despite the traction received through TikTok, Eddie Jen’s initial performances had poor attendance, opening his first show after the attack with zero people in the crowd making the aftermath of the incident worse.
“Two days after my attack, and after my TikTok video of the incident went viral, I opened to zero audience members. The next day I had three people in the audience.”
“Attendance has been very poor. My average is around 4 or 5 people and my highest was 21, and this is for an 80 seat theatre. This week I’ve cancelled three performances due to zero ticket sales.”
Eddie Jane did not report the incident to the Police, battling on with his performances despite the traumatic experience.
“The greatest violence I’ve faced at the Fringe has been the lack of audience members, despite the enthusiastic reviews. Violence here is not bad at all.”
Despite the attack prior to the festival even beggining, Eddie Jen has remained positive and optimistic, explaining, “The outpouring of love and support has been amazing. The truth is there are going to be rowdy teenagers everywhere.”
“I love Edinburgh and I hope to come back for many, many years.”
Eddie Jen’s show, ‘Seeking a Pen Pal for the End of the World’, is being performed everyday at Just the Tonic at The Caves – Just Up The Stairs from 1:05pm to 2:05pm.
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