We closed out the 2024 Winnipeg Fringe with our 31st Jenny Awards at the Across the Board Game Cafe. A huge thanks to the management and staff at Across the Board for hosting our Awards show.

A Few Words of Remembrance—The tribute to Steven Eric McIntyre and Coral McKendrick was a little hard to hear at the awards show, so here it is in its entirety:

Back in the day, when the beer tent really was all things Fringe, a heated discussion began, fuelled by the discouragement from the lack of coverage of local companies performing at the Fringe. Remember, no internet, no TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram. It seemed that the local print and television media were firmly and heavily biased towards the international and out of town groups. Rob Slade, Steven Eric McIntyre and Coral McKendrick put their heads together to remedy this.

And so the Jenny Revue was born. It was to be a vehicle for regular Fringe goers to spread the Buzz about the gems they had found, and events and happenings on the lot. Jenny would not assign stars, so you really had to read the reviews to find out about the shows. The Jenny would not in any way be affiliated with the Festival organization, to allow for editorial freedom. And to be printed, reviews could not be anonymous. Ideally, all copy would be generated by the public.

It wasn’t difficult to find the Jenny crew. We toggled between the Beer Tent and the King’s Head. You just had to look for a large, loud woman wearing a straw hat and you had found Coral. Michelle Cook became the resident gadfly, eventually taking over Production Queen. Murray started as a typist, huddled over a laptop, deciphering scrawls on dirty and torn bits of paper that were the reviews, but he evolved into the IT God. Steve coerced Dave Pruden into providing daily cartoons. The Fringe was finally convinced to allow Jenny some media passes, allowing for a more predictable flow of copy. Rob, Steve, Coral, and later Shawn Kowalke produced and hosted the Jenny Awards.

So here we are, thirty one years later and still going, as far as we know, as a unique entity on the Fringe circuit.

You may have noticed the two black arm bands on the trophies this year. This is to honour the loss of two of our founders, Steve and Coral. They were a big part of a great thing, and looking down on us, we hope they are enjoying the show.

And now the Awards, the winners are in Bold:

1. Doin’ the Math: An Award for the Number Crunchers.

1. 1 Family Friendly Comedy Show, Please! – Happy Capybara Productions
2. A One Human Being, Potentially Comedic Performance of The Nightmare Before Christmas – Living the Dream
3. 1nce Upon a Lie: Paul Strickland – Paul Strickland Presents
4. El Diablo Of The Cards 2.0 – Ewerton Martins
5. Stroke of Luck 2 – Circus and Storytelling
6. 5-Step Guide to Being German – Paco Erhard | German Comedy International
7. 7 Minutes In Kevin – Wackatoolis Incorporated
8. 40 Below – What If Theatre
9. 1,000 Pieces of π – Broken Rhythms Victoria Society

2. Under the Rainbow Umbrella: An Award for the Fabulously Fierce.

1. A Lesbian in a Bear Store – Willow Roots Productions
2. Daniel in Love (For One Night Only)! – Prairie Coast Productions
3. GO – Pitchin’in Productions
4. I Ruin Things For A Living – The Placeholder Show
5. Just Friends – Lavender Theatre Productions
6. Nuit – Trip the Light Theatre Collective
7. Report. Distort. Retort. – Alembic Theatre Creations
8. The Ethan in the Room – Stark Raving Productions

3. Sellin’ Yourself: The Most Shameful, Shameless Self-Promotion Award.

1. Cact-Us If You Can – Cactus Makes Perfect Improv Comedy
2. My Grandmother’s Eyepatch – Clowns Can Dance
3. Racism from the Eyes of a Racist – Squid Eye Lens Productions
4. Rob Teszka: Magic Dropout – Rob Teszka Magic
5. The Savannah Sipping Society – R-G Productions
6. What is the Problem. – Tea Party Productions
7. You’re Driving Me Crazy – Glass Confetti Productions

Editor’s Note: My Grandmother’s Eyepatch won, but was not present.

4. Musical Mayhem: An Award for Perfect Pitch.

1. Barbie: A Parody – Meraki Theatre Productions
2. Bloodsuckers! The Musical – Kiss the Giraffe Productions
3. Chase Padgett: Grab Bag Cabaret – Chase Padgett
4. Just Friends – Lavender Theatre Productions
5. Making It! – Megan Phillips
6. The Condo Down Under – The Old Elmwood Radio Theatre
7. The Mailroom – JHG Creative
8. UNSUNG: The Accidental Villains of History – Duck and Roll Theatre

5. Dancin’ and Romancin’: A Love is in the Air Award.

1. Apoptosis – Metanoia Theatre Co.
2. Cooking 4 Kids with Undead Newlyweds – Undead Newlyweds
3. Fifth Date – The Gargoyle Players
4. Love, Death + Rascals – Crosseyed Rascals
5. PICASSO lovers & muses – Bolero Dance Theatre
6. Tango, It Takes Two – PointeTango
7. The Great Gatsby – Illustrium Creations
8. The Two Gentlemen of Verona – Indifferently Reformed

6. Is It Hot in Here or Is It Your Show?: An Award for Va-Va-Voom.

1. Escape From Winnipeg – Plisskin Productions
2. Funny Answers to Your Sex Questions – Collins Entertainment
3. Jon Bennet: How I Learned to Hug – Jon Bennett
4. Later That Night – TBA Productions
5. Moms Moms Moms – DD Brassiere
6. Red Light – The Barbarian Bombshells
7. Shunga Alert – Theatre Group GUMBO
8. The Get Laid* Show – The Other V Name Productions

7. Kooky Kudos: An Award for shows bringin’ the Fringiness.

1. Precarious Endangerment – Hogans Circus
2. Butterfly Dreams – Rem Lezar Theatre
3. Ingi’s Fingies – SNAFU
4. Little Red and the Werewolf – All About Theatre Kids
5. My Dinner With Arby – Out Of Body Physical Theatre
6. ParaNorma PI – BadPuss Productions
7. Spank Bank Time Machine – John Michael Plays
8. What the Hell Was That?! – LST Entertainment

8. Scars and Stars: An Award for hitting rock bottom and living to tell the tale.

1. Agency – Broken Record Productions
2. Between Gigs – Tickle the Lemur Productions
3. Dear Jax – To the Hilt Productions
4. Entry Level Bob – Sour Candy Comedy
5. Kore – Chronically Ch(ill) Productions
6. Letters from a Space Girl in Love – If Only a Dream Productions
7. Nuclear Family – MaxQ Productions
8. Runaway Princess, a hopeful tale of heroin, hooking and happiness – Runaway princess
9. The Naked Mennonite – Real Live Entertainment

9. Time to Get Moppin’: An Award for playing fast and loose with bodily fluids.

1. A Taste of Blood in the Mouth – Cerridwen Productions
2. A Woman’s Guide to Peeing Outside – Holly M Brinkman
3. Bloodline – Taylor Presents
4. By the Spit of Your Tongue – Buried Seeds Productions
5. HerPlease – Three Gallows Theatre
6. ImproVision: Nicolas Cage Match – ImproVision
7. Queen Shmooquan. The End Times Show! – Queen Shmooquan

10. Head Games people play: An Award for Games you won’t find at Across the Board.

1. ACK NOW – Theatre & Play
2. Airborn(e) – Alien Dreams Production
3. F*ck Marry Kill: The Improv Show – FMK Productions
4. Martin Dockery: TRUTH – Concrete Drops Theatre
5. Meteor Shower – Hill Party Productions
6. Porn & Pinochet – Caturro Productions
7. Power Grab – Extreme Players
8. Ringmaster – Hijinx Drama Club Inc.
9. What is the Problem. – Tea Party Productions

Editor’s Note: There was a tie between Martin Dockery and F*ck Marry Kill, with Martin winning the tie breaker trivia question.

11. Higher Learnin’: The You Just Might Learn Something Award.

1. Caberet of Murder – Blair Moro
2. History of Edinburgh – Ross McMillan
3. Joan of Arc Ascending – Doctor Keir Co.
4. kicked in the end: a magic show – Shawn DeSouza-Coelho
5. Shelf-Control – Distingo
6. Stand-Up Science Presents: Volcano – Ben Miller
7. The Kid Was A Spy – big word/ jem rolls
8. View From Sunset Towers – Shoestring Players

12. Enchanted Escapades: An Award for the Stuff that Dreams are made of.

1. Barry Potter and the Magic of Wizardry – Dirk Darrow Investigations
2. Captain Ted: Disabled Pirate – Strokes of Genius
3. Erika the Red – Monster Theatre
4. Field Zoology 301: Myths & Monsters – Shawn O’Hara
5. Let’s Kill A Dragon – SensibleChuckleTheatre
6. Shadow Necropolis – Mochinosha Puppet Company
7. Supernatural – Gregoire Entertainment
8. The Dungeons ‘n’ Dragons Improv Show XV: The Skeleton Key – Miki Media Inc.
9. The Mirror Sphere: The Sworn Protector – Kirkatures

13. The Ass Backwards Category: An Award for Shows that were doin’ their own thing.

1. COMMANDO: The Radio Play – project pigeon
2. Happy Go Lucky – Shoshinz
3. House of Gold* (our Instagram Contest Winner) – Brighter Dark Theatre
4. Jimmy Hogg: The Potato King – Jimmy Hogg
5. My toes striving till the tips of your fingers – Johanne Gour Danse
6. Ragtag Cabaret – Old Cat Parade
7. Reviewing The Free Press – Certified Woke Bae Productions
8. Seasons of Life – Flamenco on the Prairies
9. Ubuntu – Drum Cafe
10. Verbal Tapas – Rob Gee

July 27th-

We have entered the last weekend of Fringe. We ended up reviewing 144 of the shows this Fringe, thanks to a number of ones sent in to us and the hard work of our volunteer Jenny Staff reviewers.

The Fabulous Jenny Awards—I mentioned it in the last editorial, but it bears repeating. Join us Sunday July 28th at Across the Board Game Cafe (accessible and licensed) for our wrap party/awards show. We will have 13 crazy categories to celebrate as many shows as we can fit in. The crowd decides who should win, as determined by crowd noise carefully analyzed by our human sound meters. The winner can make a short acceptance speech and receives one of the highly coveted hand sewn Jenny Awards. Winners must be present to accept. Doors open at 9:30pm and the show will start at 10ish. I hope to see you there!

The 13th Jenny Award, an Ass Backward Category—The Instagram polls for our previously mentioned Ass Backwards category started on Friday and included:

• ImproVision: Nicolas Cage Match
• Buying Bacon
• Love, Death + Rascals
• Letters from a Space Girl in Love
• A One Human Being, Potentially Comedic Performance of The Nightmare Before Christmas
• House of Gold
• Nuit
• The Mailroom

so vote for your favourite. Due to an unfortunate auto-correct, and a poor editing job by me, Nuit is listed as ‘Unit’. The winner will be added to list of contenders for a special Jenny Award. A big thank you to everyone who liked and shared our lovely Jenny’s adventures on Instagram.

-Murray Hunter

And now another column from Ray Yuen…

I deflowered more than a dozen virgins this past week!

Fringe virgins, that is.

I want to take a second to thank great friends for coming out and seeing/supporting my show (check out the SSPs!). Talking with those friends, I found out that many of them were Fringe virgins. They came to see the show because of me, but otherwise, they have never, and would never see a Fringe show.

“Why not?” is the obvious question. I expected the usual answers:

• I’m too busy.
• Summers are short and we want to get away.
• It’s just not my thing.
• Never comes onto my radar.

Surprisingly, the most common answer I heard was:

• I thought it was just all weird stuff I wouldn’t understand!

They enjoyed my show because there was nothing to get or understand. It’s all laid out there—but I’m not the exception!

For all of you out there who never go to the Fringe because you think it’s weird or too deep to understand, that’s not true at all. Granted, you will encounter the occasional show where you leave wondering, “what the f__k just happened?” That’s a rarity. I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands of shows in my lifetime, and for most of them, I either leave with an emotional response, or teary-eyed from laughing. It’s seldom that I leave scratching my head—and if I do, so what? Did I have a good time? That’s all that counts. Even if I didn’t like it, I took a chance. You hear it all the time: TAKE A CHANCE! You never know what’s out there unless you try it.

If you’ve never seen a show, get out there and see some! At $10 to $14 a ticket, what do you have to lose? Where else can you get live entertainment for so little? Take a chance!

Ray Yuen
Jenny Review Coordinator