Serving Bait to Rich People

August 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10, 2013 

Artpoint Gallery

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/397-serving-bait-to-rich-people

 

Alexa Fitzpatrick is a Jewish/Irish girl from Jersey who gave up a career in medicine to become a full-time bartender.  First at a dive bar in New York and then a dive bar in Aspen until finally she became a bartender/waiter in the posh Aspen location of the famous Nobu restaurant.  Alexa has taken her experiences bar tending and waitering and decided to create an amateurish one hour stand-up comedy routine about it all. It’s not about what you do, it’s about how well you do  and unfortunately for Alexa, her Fringe show Serving Bait to Rich People just isn’t up to snuff.

Standing on stage with a microphone delivering her one liners and some longer form jokes, Alexa has a likeable enough personality and some good energy, but not the content to pull off a well-rounded Fringe show. We get many well-worn punch lines instead of storyline (My sister has this great guy to set me up with, she says we have so much in common…we’re both single!)  and lines that just fall flat (Why do we never hear about wet wine? It’s a liquid, why is it called dry?). To be fair, Alex does have some smart bits mixed in with the banal, like her skewering of Cosmopolitan magazine’s philosophy which she claims tells women, “Remember girls, it’s all about pleasing him, so if he doesn’t like it, you’re doing it wrong and he doesn’t like you because you are fat.” It’s after her delivery of these clever and biting notions that the rest of her sex-laden, pedestrian comedy seems even more uninteresting.

But more problematic than this or the flow of the jokes which veer wildly all over the place in time, subject and theme, is the fact that Alexa has notes on stage to help her remember her act. Disguised as a prop in a restaurant bill folder on the table beside her, Alexa frequently glances down between punch lines to find her place in the show. And we know it.

This kind of ill preparation along with a stand-up routine that had very few original or creative moments of humour made for a long and mostly dull hour. Yet, there were those audience members giggling away at the jokes Alexa was slinging. Either they hadn’t heard the standards she rhymed off or they’re the type of folks who will laugh at this type of humour time and time again. Hey, I’m tremendously glad they had a good time. But for me, a string of bawdy sit-com-like jokes helped along by a cheat sheet does not a quality Fringe show make.

RATING

For Fringeaholoics – You go to the Fringe to see shows, not acts that would fare well on amateur night at your local comedy club. Alexa has promise as a compelling personality on stage – perhaps she’ll come back again when her talent has matured. SKIP IT

For light Fingers – The show delivers mindless humour that goes down as easy as watching a network sit com. If this is your thing– then perhaps you’ll be amongst those laughing in the audience. MAYBE SEE IT

 

Til Death: The Six Wives of Henry VIII

August 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 10, 2013 

Alexandra Centre Society

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/392-til-death-the-six-wives-of-henry-viii

 

Wow – if my high school history lessons had been half as much fun as this wonderfully researched and spectacularly performed show, I might actually remember way more of what my teachers were trying to impart. Til Death: The Six Wives of Henry VIII, written and directed by Ryan Gladstone and performed by Tara Travis, is a thrilling romp of a show that finds the funny in English Royal history while never once dumbing down the subject matter for the audience.

One by one we meet the dead wives of the notorious serial husband Henry VIII as they fall from the sky to a holding place prior to heaven. There’s first wife,  Spanish firebrand Catherine of Aragon (played to great effect as a Scarface-esque talking bad ass), Anne Boleyn (who Travis plays hysterically as just  a head), Jane Seymour (ever the prude), the ugly Anne of Cleaves (Travis channelling Frau Blucher, warts and all, from Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein), Kathryn Howard (think Paris Hilton at her sluttiest) and final wife and widow Katherine Parr (dutiful but besotted with another).

The wives are being held in waiting because, as the disembodied voice of St Peter (sounding very much like a Ricky Gervais rant) tells the women, only one of them will be allowed to enter “Royal Heaven” as Henry’s consort and it’s up to them to decide who.

The show then rolls out in the obvious direction with each wife making her case on why Henry loved her most and therefore deserves to join him when he arrives. What isn’t obvious however is Travis’s superbly frenetic, almost Vogue-like, transformations back and forth between wives, right down to taking care to remember which woman is holding poor Boleyn’s head. It’s a tour de force performance that had the audience laughing non-stop from start to finish. So much that so that it’s easy to forget that we are getting a very comprehensive and fascinating lesson in not only history but Royal lineage. At one point the women decide that the wife with the closest ties to royalty should be the chosen one. This sets off a tirade where each one in turn rattles off her impressive family tree of regal ties until all the women realize that they are in fact descendants of King Edward the 1^st. It’s a remarkable piece of writing and a difficult narrative passage to master and it does cause Travis to work up quite a sweat. But she is well rewarded with the effort by the screams of laughter coming from an audience she holds in the palm of her hand. If perhaps just a tad too long.

By the time we get to the one hour mark in the show, we feel that it is starting to wind down, only to find that a new wrinkle in the wives’ decisions forces them to once again take turns telling more of their tale and make their case. The slight groan of ‘here we go again’ though is quickly forgotten when Travis continues to entertain and enlighten us with even more wonderful material.

When Henry finally does arrive and the wives announce their decision, Travis has given all she has, the audience is on their feet and I imagine that every teacher in attendance is thinking, why can’t I do that?

 

RATING

For Fringeaholics – Incredibly funny, smart, informative and one of the best performers you’ll see all Fringe. SEE IT

For light Fringers – Now THIS is a one woman performance. I’d even venture to say that if you can only see one show this Fringe – this one should be it. SEE IT

Radio: 30

August 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9, 2013

Lantern Church Gym

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/404-radio-30

“Ever have one of those days? Ever wonder why.” These are the opening lines of a radio spot that Ron, a commercial voice actor, must master in Chris Earle’s Radio: 30. They are also a prophetic clue about what is to become of poor Ron during the taping of said commercial.

Ron is the successful ‘go to guy”’ when it comes to voice overs. He has the sound clients are looking for these days – the warm, friendly sincere sales pitch. Ron delivers a commercial like he’s talking to a best friend. It’s easy work he says, just half an hour at most and then he’s done for the day. The best part is that he makes more in that half hour than most people make in a day. So yeah, life is pretty good for Ron. Except he doesn’t actually have a best friend. Or he did but then he slept with his wife and there went that. And oh yeah, the great job he has? Well Ron knows that he’s simply the flavour of the month and soon enough he will be replaced by the next guy with the newer sounding pitch. Just like he replaced the guy before him.

We learn all of the messy details in between takes as Ron sits in a sound booth waiting for his technician Mike to give him feedback on his attempts and/or make changes to the script. Along the way we learn some tricks of the trade like how not to make breath sounds when recording and how when you smile your voice automatically sounds happy regardless if you are or not. Good tools for radio work, but for Ron they are also good tools for dulling the pain and stress he’s feeling. Turns out the easy-going warm and friendly sales pitch guy is actually full of angst that is eating him alive. And we get to watch.

Unlike most Fringe shows where big characters and over the top charisma win the day, Earle uses restraint and intelligent mellowness in both his superb writing and excellent acting to tell his tale. Juxtaposed to the underlying angst that eventually causes Ron fall to pieces in the recording room, the calm delivery is eerily effective and satisfyingly difficult to watch.

Unsatisfying however was how difficult it was to watch this show was from a staging point of view. Arriving last-minute as one often does racing from one Fringe show to another, I was forced to take a chair in the bank of seats situated way over to one side of the theatre and behind Earle’s back. And while he tried his best to crane his neck around to give us better sight lines, we spent most of the show watching him from behind. It was actually a fellow patron who pointed out that all the director needed to do was position Earle facing out toward the audience to solve this problem for good and for everyone. Very true. With such a subtle vocal delivery it becomes crucial to see Earle’s face when the breakdown begins and while it didn’t limit the enjoyment of the show, it did damped the emotional impact somewhat. But if turning an actor around 90 degrees is my only quibble, well that my friends is still a Fringe show worth seeing.

RATING

For Fringeaholics – There is a reason this show was a huge hit when it premiered at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 1999. And there’s a reason that it’s a huge Fringe circuit hit again this year in its updated version. Good theatre lasts and good drama is a gem to find at a Fringe. You’ll want to make it part of your experience this summer. SEE IT

For the light Fringers – Dramas are hard to come by at Fringes where the comedy rules the day. And while a show about a breakdown may sound like a buzz kill from all the fun you’re having, this well-conceived show is worth taking a time out for seriousness. SEE IT

Nashville Hurricane

August 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9, 2013

Dade Art & Design Lab

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/410-nashville-hurricane

 

How do you follow up on what was by all accounts (mine included) a perfect Fringe show? Two years ago Chase Padgett and his multi-character cabaret 6 Guitars took the Calgary Fringe Festival by storm, wowing audiences and gaining universal praise from all the critics. In fact it was so popular that Chase successfully brought it back to last year’s Fringe, along with a slapdash-feeling new show that didn’t even come close to the prowess or creativity of his first effort. But if there was any fear that he only had one marvellous show in him, Nashville Hurricane puts those worries to rest. Third time out and Chase once again gives us his enchanting multi-character narrative, but this time he lets his acting take centre stage over his playing/singing. The result is a more mature and complex story that tickles our funny bone, breaks our hearts, and has us cheering for some odd and bedraggled characters.

The story concerns Henry, a young, socially inept but frighteningly smart ten-year old boy living in white trash poverty with his tattooed, foul-mouthed, trouble maker of a mother. Henry isn’t much for school, but through reading he manages to achieve stellar scientific knowledge and the ability to put it to use. He even manages to fix his drunken mom’s TV set using only gum and tinfoil. One day picking up his absent father’s guitar, Henry learns that he can see music like shapes or a puzzle and self-diagnoses with synesthesia –  a condition where there is a mixing of the senses due to cross-wiring in the brain. Unfazed by this condition, Henry teaches himself music, but only to play for himself. He is far too shy to want to perform for a crowd.

His mother however has other plans. Down on her luck after several entrepreneurial ventures fail (her manure business goes belly up because “folks didn’t like my poop”) she pushes Henry to compete in a local talent show where the top prize was $300. Henry thrills the crowd, wins the prize and gets taken under the wing of a sleazy minister turned talent manager who begins to mold him into the superstar he believes Henry can be. God, the agents tells us, wants us to prosper and by golly Henry just might make all of them rich if all goes well.

However, this isn’t a happy rise to fame story despite the fact the Chase keeps us laughing hard throughout  much of the show. In fact it’s the opposite. Nashville Hurricane is really a chronicle of loss – loss of loved ones, loss of freedom, loss of dreams and loss of power – and the potential to find happiness in spite of it.  Hey, I told you this was a more mature kind of show. But make no mistake, this maturity doesn’t at all dampen the fun Chase has with these characters or the delight the audience has in their presence. Frankly I could sit and watch a show with no one but Henry’s show-stealing hooligan-with-a-heart mother and laugh hysterically for a full hour.

Writing delicious characters and bringing them to life aside, a Chase Padgett show would not be complete if he didn’t at least play a little guitar and sing. We don’t get much of it in Nashville Hurricane, only two songs. But the finale, which will make you look at a beer bottle in a totally different way is worth the wait. The guitar sits on stage all show teasing the audience and practically making us beg for Chase to pick it up. I’m sure some will say that he didn’t do it often enough. But I’m actually glad he used musical restrain in this show. It turns out the way to top your original Fringe success, is to not give the audience exactly what they’ve come to expect.

RATING

For Fringeaholics – Go if you previously saw 6 Guitars. Go if you haven’t. Just make sure you go. SEE IT

For light Fringers – Same as above. SEE IT

 

FRUITCAKE Ten Commandments from the Psych Ward

August 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10, 2013

Artpoint Gallery

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/393-fruitcake-ten-commandments-from-the-psych-ward

 

As an outsider looking in, I imagine that working as a psychiatric nurse requires compassion, patience and benevolence towards those who at times are unable to help themselves. I’ve been told by those in the profession that in order to survive the experience, one also needs to develop a good sense of dark humour about the whole thing. Laughter in the trenches, so to speak. Rob Gee’s FRUITCAKE Ten Commandments from the Psych Ward gives us a show that wonderfully illustrates both sides of the job.

A registered psychiatric nurse for eleven years, Gee has specialized in acute cases working at facilities in both the UK and Australia. He’s seen the worst of the worst and turned it into a funny, insightful, interesting and surprisingly touching sixty minute show of sorts. I say of sorts because Gee’s one man performance does not take the traditional confessional route that so many other Fringe show’s follow. Rather, Gee, who is now a full-time stand up poet, uses his new vocation to craft a show that is more vignette slam poetry than actual plot. And to make it work, he uses God.

Coming to us through the mellifluous voice of a hearty Caribbean woman, God announces each scene of Gee’s play by telling us one commandment of the psych ward including, “Thou shall honour the psyche” and a missive extolling the virtues of realizing that “it is what it is”. Following each heavenly order, Gee launches into a related skit of his experience with the patients and staff he encountered over the years. But it all starts with the super-charged and hilariously blunt ward nurse who rattles off the status of patients in the unit before taking what sounds like a much-needed break –  “Anita’s bookies are betting she’ll do herself in, Jess says she’d rather eat shit than move rooms and that’s pretty impressive considering she’s an anorexic, paranoid Andrea has been admitted for hitting a police officer with a rubber chicken at Safeway and Marin tried to pull his front teeth out but other than that he’s alright”. It’s a superbly performed, take no breath, breakneck delivery by Gee that sets up the characters in the show and gives us permission to laugh not at the patients per se, but at the circumstances they find themselves in. It’s this distinction that makes FRUITCAKE a quality show.

Gee is a funny guy and the stories he tells about his patients are bizarrely amusing – there’s Duncan the paranoid schizophrenic who is sure that the experiments that the people in his head are doing to him is the cause of his schizophrenia, Herb the speed freak who is unintentionally hilarious when high and then of course there’s Andrea, the chicken whacker who is just trying not to be poisoned. Gee’s imitations of these souls are laughter inducing to be sure, but at no time do we ever get the feeling that he’s mocking them. Underneath the comedy in this show is a respect and understanding for their plight and a healthy ability to laugh at what one can’t control.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than through one of the last patients we meet, a man in the midst of a stress induced psychotic episode who self-harms in the most gruesome of manners. Gee plays him without judgement and even though there is room for laughter in this scene, we are left more touched than amused. It’s an impressive balance.

 

 RATING

For Fringeaholics – It might feel more like a string of skits than a comprehensive show but Gee is a thoroughly compelling performer with a keen eye for dark humour and a sensitivity for his subject that is intelligent and endearing. SEE IT

For light Fringers – You’ll laugh and learn and be happy to spend one hour with this talented performer. A great addition to the few shows you’ll catch this Fringe. SEE IT

They Call me Mister Fry

August 2, 3, 4, 6, 9 and 10, 2013

Lantern Church Gym

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/405-they-call-me-mister-fry

Pop quiz – what do Up the Down Staircase, Blackboard Jungle, Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds and Lean on Me all have in common? If you answered that these are all stories about underprivileged/problematic school kids and the inspirational teacher (or principal) that connects with them and turns their lives around, sure you’d be correct. But more importantly, they all have a charismatic lead character, a teacher that makes this clichéd story we’ve seen a million times over compelling and to a greater or lesser degree worth sitting through once again.

Unfortunately this is not the case with They Call me Mister Fry, Jack Fry’s one-man show about his experience as a first-year teacher teaching fifth grade in South Central Los Angeles. It’s a true tale from start to the exhaustingly long ninety minute finish and it has all the hallmarks of a story of this nature. Inexperienced, naïve teacher? Check. Out of control kids? Check. Troublemaker student who can’t be reached? Check. Stubborn student who eventually bonds with the teacher? Check. A teacher who is moved and grows due to the pluck of his students? Check. It’s all there and then some.

This is not to say that the stories themselves aren’t absorbing, at times they are. Especially when we learn exactly why the juvenile delinquent Anthony is the way he is, and cringe when more tragedy befalls the youngster. These are real stories of real people and one can’t help but be moved by their struggle.

The problem is that Mr. Fry’s struggle alongside them just isn’t that enchanting. Jack Fry does his best to both amuse and touch his audience but strains to do justice to either. His imitations of his students, fellow teachers and fiancée are one dimensional and poorly crafted.  His comic bit playing alter ego King Arthur as inspirational leader to either himself or his students comes out sounding like a cross between Gollum and Peter O’Toole and not in a good way. And his poignant moments try so hard to get an emotional rise out of the audience that I for one was left quite unmoved.

In the program, the play is described as, “a story about redemption, transformation, the fragility of life and what our purpose is.” I can agree that all of that is in there somewhere. But during a scene were Mr. Fry is sent to “teacher jail” for inadequate performance all I could do was shake my head in agreement. Mr. Fry might have managed to work his way towards being a better teacher, but in terms of a performer, I’m afraid he is still inadequate.

RATING

For Fringeaholics – This won’t be the worst Fringe show you see by far. But the 90 minute run time, the well-worn story and the mediocre performance certainly don’t make this a must see. Still, the true stories of these kids and what they have to contend with is worth noting. MAYBE SEE IT

For light Fringers – If you are only seeing a couple shows this fest, you can do far better. Or at least I’m hoping so! SKIP IT