Blogging the Fringe

Saturday 4 August 2007

We're all a little strange...

It has taken me up to now to figure out that people saying "cheers" mean "thank you" and not just getting ready to drink.

I helped someone move something today and kept scowling as he "cheered" me along.

What the hell did he have to be so happy about?

Older and wiser, I now know better than to try to teach manners in a country that invented them.


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THEATER REVIEW- Armchair Renaissance Man


Stephen Carlin is a bumbling, dishevelled stand up comedian. There are few American comedians that would get away with his amount of stuttering unease, but as a genuine Scotsman he seems to be not only forgiven, but exactly the kind of guy you’d find extremely funny at 4 am at the bar. He graciously performs at the Fringe out of a toilet-less tent, which he credits to last year’s fussiness as to the quality of the venue’s facilities.

Carlin uses his time to educate his audience through a PowerPoint on how to become a more cultural human being. Littered with obscure references to aging pop-stars and top five lists on how they should die, the presentation was slightly shabby, but nevertheless likable. The jokes are predominantly one-liners and too much time is spent referencing the joke after the punch-line, which nearly takes away the “punch”. Overall, there is very little exposition, self-debasement, or the type of lengthy thematic story-telling that I have come to expect from stand-up routines.

Still, as an armchair philosopher, Carlin does have a few gem observations; my favorite was a chart on the relationship between a musician’s age of death and his percent of allotted credibility.


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THEATER REVIEW- Coffee

Awkwardness is too often used broadly and without proper homage to the different degrees and types. Sometimes awkwardness is separated by shades of uncomfortable blushing, amount of pointless fumbling, or perhaps the texture of its silences. James Campbell’s delightful one-act play indulges itself in all of these ranges of awkward moments…and even invents some new ones.

Coffee is charming, clever, and woven deftly by its praiseworthy simplicity and comedic timing. The launching concept is fairly unoriginal: two strangers meet and exchange quips when they share an early morning coffee. One is an ambitious career woman (Isabelle Adam) arrived entirely too early for her “breakfast meeting,” the other is an enigmatic stranger with a nut allergy (Misha Crosbt). But, though “boy meets girl” is a cliché, it turns out to be endearing when done well.

Both actors were excellent; Adam’s has especially mastered the subtleties of the craft that make her character convincing between lines of dialogue without launching the role as mere caricature. Comedy performances often miss the potential in a straight-delivery, while opting for the absurd; Coffee strikes a nice balance between improbable and utterly believable. The humor is amplified by the sparse dialogue, allowing each planted image a chance to take root; when asked whether it is all, or merely some, types of nuts that cause his anaphylactic shock, Crosbt’s character admits a hesitation to “play Russian Roulette with a bag of mixed nuts.”

My only recommendation would be to tighten the script by eliminating the clumsy and excessive attempts to inflate the character with additional third dimensional depth. One example of this was a never explained referenced to a dead muse that brought a quick flare of anger to the stage which appeared out-of-place among the rest of the lighthearted material. If this emotional outburst had a point other than showing the actor’s range, it was sadly lost on me.


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THEATER REVIEW- News Revue 2007

A long running favorite of veteran Fringers, I was informed by the people behind me that this was the only show they had made an annual tradition out of scheduling ahead. Energetic and talented, the versatile four-person-cast gives a fantastic performance mocking recent news stories through satirical songs (“all the lonely people” as a cyber-dating manifesto) and skits. Every scene was kept short and most hit a chord with the nearly-sold-out audience that agreeably chortled and jeered at most every joke.

Nearly half of the humor was targeted at Americans, and these elicited the largest laughs; George Bush’s stupidity, the Iraq War, and even Paris Hilton (sodomized) behind bars!---nothing was sacred. Between Israel, Whales, and the year 1973, there is something for everyone in this variety show. The one-line puns served filler among scene-changes and were particularly pointed, keeping the pace break-neck. There was no time to be offended or shocked--- only tickled at the audacity of the equal-opportunity ridicule (“experts report that pedophilia and childhood obesity are inversely related… because no one wants to fuck a fatty”).




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