Entry Level Bob

Sour Candy Comedy—Son of Warehouse

This show was a hilarious and relatable comedy storytelling show about insane things that happen at work. Bob shares a variety of stories with us about some of the things he has dealt with on the job as well as reasons he’s been fired from certain jobs. He is a compelling storyteller and has an audience member hold a bitterness bell to ding when he’s getting too fired up about a particular tale. He had us howling with laughter and it made me think of the stories that I have from my time at a variety of jobs of all sorts. Sometimes at work we are given an opportunity or are in the right place at the right time to bear witness to some very strange aspects of humanity. Sometimes it’s so wild you can’t even imagine making that stuff up. Thankfully, so many of those stories are hilarious in retrospect and make for great comedy.

Calantha Jensen

Unreal: A Mindreading Experience

Mindshocker Entertainment —Dave Barber Cinematheque

This cheekily self-aware mentalist invites the audience to join in the game, immediately prompting us to question reality. Relying on a healthy dose of audience participation and interaction, his intense soundtrack helps set the mood during his mystifying mentalism. A great show for all ages; indeed many families were in attendance tonight and thoroughly enjoyed the show.

Ashley Frantik

Stitch in Time: A Knitting Cabaret

Melanie Gall Presents 2—MTYP – Mainstage

When you see women, mothers and daughters flocking to a venue proudly carrying their knitting, you know a Melanie Gall show is in the air. Ms. Gall is a Fringe favourite and known knitting enthusiast; having produced various shows for our Fringe fans with a knitting theme throughout the years.

She managed to source 100 songs with a knitting theme! Quite amazing! She treats us to some of these songs of WWI and WWII popularity, when women and some boys, girls and men were encouraged to do their duty by knitting for the troops. With these songs she has touching and beautiful videos of these people and sheet music covers, which are an enriching accompaniment.

It’s important to mention you do not have to be a knitter to love this, as I can attest. It was heartwarming during Melanie’s preshow interactive talk, to hear tales of the friendships, knitting circles and new hobbyists born at her shows. A wonderful experience all round!

Lisa Campbell

Let’s Kill A Dragon

SensibleChuckleTheatre—John Hirsch Mainstage

5 adventurers, 4 flesh and blood with one knitted doll, work to complete a grand adventure and avoid falling prey to adventure guild HR for poor performance in the field. Essentially a series of comedy skits in different locations, we follow the crew’s adventure to the dragon they need to ultimately take out in order to save their jobs. Playing larger than life characters, heavily steeped in tropes and strong accents, the delivery and writing is fun, if occasionally dragging with bits held for too long. Also, just a personal gripe, but I’m not a fan of AI art being used outside of the context of insane memes, and its usage to fill out the backgrounds was a bit much for my tastes. Extremely watchable and fun, any fans of wacky comedy and silly fantasy adventures would do well here

Josh Fidelak

The Ethan in the Room

Stark Raving Productions—Théâtre Cercle Molière

What a powerhouse of a show! I did not quite know what I was walking into when I arrived, and the show is excellent in its absurdity and comedy. The script gets into some important discussion of gender roles and identity but Ethan Stark has created something much more than that here. This show begins with the greatest mic drop of a land acknowledgement I have ever heard, and delivered a VERY essential message that had me gripped and several people crying. I am blown away by the brilliance of this work and I know that Stark is only beginning. My only regret, which I know is shared by a few others as well, is that we wish we’d seen it sooner so that we could have recommend it to our friends earlier in the festival. There are still a few performances left so make sure you get your tickets.

Calantha Jensen

Absolute Magic with Keith Brown

Keith Brown—PTE – Cherry Karpyshin Mainstage

Keith Brown is an excellent magician whose warm personality really draws in the crowd. There is a lot of great magic with lots of crowd participation in this family friendly performance. The crowd was oohing and aahing, with a few “What”s, and “How”s after a number of the more perplexing revelations. There is even a very uplifting and inspiring story about chasing your dreams.

He has also setup a website FringeMagic.ca to help promote all the magic acts at this Fringe.

Murray Hunter

Kore

Chronically Ch(ill) Productions—Planetarium

The story of Persephone, entirely modernized and re-imagined. The story itself, like all Greek mythology always includes the themes rampant in that canon, abuse, misfortune, family trauma. But in this retelling from the perspective of the underworld queen herself, Demeter was no weeping mother, gnashing her teeth at her daughter’s cruel kidnapping, but instead the source of trauma, re-framed as something less mystical and more mundane, an emotionally manipulative and cruel mother bringing trauma to her child. The dialog is snappy and often quite funny, deflating some of the tension coming from learning more of their toxic relationship with crowd wide laughter. Absolutely worth a watch, and definitely excited to see what the company does next.

Josh Fidelak

Not Quite Sherlock: The Tunnel of Terror

Chris Gibbs 2—MTYP – Mainstage

I’m always up to see the mega talented Chris Gibbs. This is his consecutive second part to his Barnaby Gibbs character this Fringe. No need to have seen the previous one to enjoy this.

Gibbs relates the exploits of the guileless Barnaby and his idol, the crook hiding behind the detective guise to of Antoine Feval. He also adds a Canadian villain, using him as an excuse to poke fun at Canada and Canadians.

Bad, bad audience tonight, with a reviewer (myself) not cleverly hidden and several noisy patrons exiting during high points of the show. As usual, Gibbs made fun of both. Don’t be a fool and miss this.

Lisa Campbell

Super Funtimes Magic!

The Baggy Pants—Planetarium

I LOVED this show!!! Christopher Bange is an experienced magician and his sleight of hand was fantastic! I saw tricks that I’ve never seen before and was delightfully impressed. I am grateful that there are folks devoted to their craft who can provide the wonder and thrill that many of us seek specifically from magic shows. We want to be amazed and surprised and this show definitely delivered. Very kid friendly, so make sure to bring your little ones, although as an alleged grownup, I still enjoyed it immensely.

Calantha Jensen