Neurohilarity: Exposed.

Neurohilarity—Royal Albert

This is a showcase of some of Winnipeg’s most talented neuro-divergent comics. I loved the show and the variety of styles and personalities. Host Carole Cunningham is joined onstage by Scott Koropas, Adam Schwartz (working hard as both a comic and promoter), Kaitlyn Brightnose (a bright note here), Rollin’ Penner, and charming Danielle Kayahara. I can’t imagine someone not loving this show. Well worth taking in!

Lisa Campbell

Porn & Pinochet

Caturro Productions—Planetarium

This stand-up comic seems to struggle with the storytelling medium; his piece more closely resembles a comedy act in which the punchlines don’t quite stick their landing. The onstage set pieces that imply a more theatrical offering are under utilized, and the show fails to live up to the “funny as hell” promise of its program billing. Cañete’s narrative leans heavily into a perceived cultural difference in his Chilean-Canadian upbringing that elicited little more than polite chuckles from the audience.

His Gen X coming-of-age tale breezes past its most unique elements, which come long after the extended preamble to his return to Chile as a teenager. Somehow, relatively typical sexual discovery and family dysfunction take up far more space in a story titled ‘Pinochet’ than the fascinating reality of attending a fascist-supported grade school in dictatorial South America. This intriguing experience comes and goes in mere sentences and is followed by an emotional climax and conclusion that is not connected well enough to the previous acts to allow the audience to share in the performer’s complex feelings of losing a habitually problematic parent abroad.

Ashley Frantik

History of Edinburgh

Ross McMillan—The Asper Centre for Theatre & Film (U of W)

Winnipeg stalwart of stage and screen fame (he’s been in movies and series I’ve loved -RIP Steve) Ross McMillan, is always worth seeing. His vast experience makes him comfortable on stage and with his audience. I thoroughly enjoyed this multimedia show with a surprise video guest, lots of laughs, exploration of family relations and life. You even get a bit of history thrown in.

Don’t miss this. The audience was most appreciative and it’s great to see something different done so engagingly.

Lisa Campbell

Cactus Makes Perfect Improv Comedy

Cact-Us If You Can—Son of Warehouse

What do you get when you mix five hilarious improvisors with one sassy succulent? You’ll just have to Cact-Us If You Can to find out! Winners of the first ever Winn-City improv cage match, hometown heroes Cactus Makes Perfect are in your Fringe and ready to rock! If you like improv, comedy and houseplants, this is the show for you!

House of Gold

Brighter Dark Theatre—The Output

House of Gold, simply put, is great!

Being in a smaller venue, it’s quite intimate and it really makes you feel like you’re a part of the dysfunctional Gold family. Each one of the cast members has a moment to shine and you can’t help but cheer (or laugh) along as they do so. The script is incredibly strong with the staging and acting enhancing it even more.

I took my girlfriend with me, someone who isn’t a very big fan of anything to do with theatre but she was giggling to herself the entire time, while still being fully engaged. She even raved about it as we got into the car and drove off.

This is the one show that I doubt anyone would want to miss out on! Go see it!

Emily Adam

Not Quite Sherlock: The Gaslight Detective

Chris Gibbs—MTYP – Mainstage

This year is a fortunate one for Fringers as some well beloved pros return after far too long an absence. I was so tickled to be able to see veteran actor Chris Gibbs reprise his role of self-effacing and ever so gullible Barnaby Gibbs. Chris is charismatic as he frequently breaks the fourth wall to engage in humorous banter with the audience. Set in 1896, this farce of a detective story is so entertaining that I’m sure once you enjoy this you’ll definitely be in for part two, Not Quite Sherlock : The Tunnel of Terror, also at this year’s Fringe. I already have my ticket.

Lisa Campbell

Dressed as People – A Triptych of Uncanny Abduction

Parry Riposte Productions—Tom Hendry Warehouse

As posted, we have three stories. The opening tale is eerily disturbing and stuck to my mind throughout the entire show. In fact, it was so unsettling that it clung with me through the next story and I lost focus often, reminiscing about the horror while the second tale continued. The final story was the lightest of the three, but there is still plenty of heartbreak and misery.

If I was to produce the show, I would swap the order and switch the positions of the first and final stories. This is not a feel-good show, so I’d leave the audience with the most horrific for last.

Ray Yuen

Red Light

The Barbarian Bombshells—Red River College Polytechnic

I struggled to remember this show only a few hours after seeing it. A problem I didn’t have with any of my other shows and it was my first, so I was fresh. After a lengthy warning about content by recording, Dana Graham took to the stage in a lovely red gown only to repeat word for word the same message. Besides being a waste of time, the warning was unnecessary, with the most scandalous thing occurring during her tale being a penis plopped in her hand. Rather tame by Fringe standards.

This supposedly true story is sold as a tale stranger than fiction. I call it a fairly normal weekend in my younger years. Dana is a competent actress, well rehearsed, but she came across as a disembodied voice due to her strange choice to be unlit during the show. I talked to the tech afterwards so as to be sure it wasn’t a glitch but he shrugged and said it was her choice.

Lisa Campbell

“34 of 36”

Is the number of years I’ve been attending, volunteering, and reviewing out of the 36yr of Fringe experiences.

I have enough stories for a play on its own. Back in the summer of 1990 I walked onto the Old Market Sq., a friend said something’s going on (Fringe started in ’88). Living on Bannatyne, I figured I’d check it out. Chinese cultural ctr, 2 magicians performing real hokey gross tricks, then a screen came down, and a film flickered, with one person pulling down their pants, then proceeded to put shaving cream on their naked posterior, followed by a shaving! I was hooked.

I came back in 91′ as volunteer (My volunteer# was…..101!), 16 yrs later running the beer tent with a ton of stories…another script on its own. The King’s Head was a one floor bar and unbelievably cramped. As it expanded, they would later take on letting the Jenny Revue, and hosting the Jenny Award’s in the wonderfully top floor dark venue, there were many other historic venues for the Jenny Revue awards show in the past, but the King’s Head would become their home, for over 10 years.

After my volunteer tenure ended, I was asked to join the wacky Jenny Revue show. After 12 days of reviewing, We’d meet at King’s Head on the last Saturday to make fake categories list in order to be nominated for an honorable and much cherished Jenny award.

The Jenny Revue was also involved with the Dr. Caligari’s Midnight Cabaret, (usually right in the middle of the fest) where you saw some cream of the crop talent along with some wacky amateurs and til this day is lit by flashlights in this 2 hrs. Cabaret.

One other highlight was when the early Fringe pioneers, Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, doing a benefit for Wpg. Fringe Festival, where Tim Hogue(master of King’s Head) and I (Capt. of the beer tent) were on stage at Tom Hendry sitting in a mock beer gardens on stage as patrons as Wes and the gang did a hilarious parody of the “Fringe circuits”.

There are treasure trove of mind boggling, hilarious, riveting and emotional stage plays that will be permanently burnt in this ol’ memory banks. Along with some amazing talent through the decades, and some who I’ve gotten to know, that come to entertain us Winnipegers year after year! Add in the kinship with the volunteer core, the vets who keep coming back year after year. This community that has been in me heart for 12 days in July for the last 3 decades.

Now go Fringin’

Kevin Campbell