Here’s what to hit at the most hit-and-miss festival in town
Actionable
Blending music video slides and monologue Bob Wiseman’s tale of lawyers and the music industry is touching funny quirky and engaging. This is everything you could want in a fringe show.
His first real experience with lawyers was when he signed a record deal while still playing keyboards in Blue Rodeo. Solo work had to be vetted by the company lawyers and they didn’t necessarily enjoy Wiseman’s words or style.
Wiseman is self-deprecating while harpooning the legal system and lawyers. His music adds another enjoyable sometimes melancholic layer to the show.
This opening performance isn’t without its hiccups but the rare unpolished moments can be easily overlooked and will likely be worked out by now.
This is one of the best so far.
DREW ANDERSON
Almost a Love Story
After seeing this piece — written and directed by the Calgary Sun’s Louis B. Hobson — it’s easy to understand why it placed first at the provincial one-act play festival this year in Whitecourt. What a lovely sensitive show. The script is tight and the story engaging.
Almost a Love Story is about 20-year-old Daniel (Sean-Paul Boynton) who discovers his late father David (Greg Spielman) was having an affair. What’s more his lover was a man — Callum (Neil Hardy). This sends Daniel into a tailspin of anger and forces him to question his father’s true identity. So he confronts Callum.
Meanwhile the audience sees how desperately in love Callum was with David and how broken he is over his death.
lan Walsh’s portrayal of “Auntie Henry” an aging queen who loves to sing show-tune excerpts to explain life situations adds some humour to the production. He encourages Callum to let David go and also helps him face Daniel.
I only have a couple of criticisms neither of which takes away from the piece as a whole. First I found the space constrains the staging. The actors — who are sitting on chairs upstage of the main area awaiting their “turns” — seem to get in the way of the actual action. The other thing is some of Daniel and Ellie’s anger over David’s affair seems a bit forced. My only other criticism and this is a pet peeve of mine is the bit of navel-gazing about acting in the show.
All-in-all a touching love story. It’s also one of those shows in which you can’t help but pick sides. In four words: Go see this one.
KATHLEEN RENNE
Don’t Make Fun of Jesus
Jesus this show is funny! Standup comedian Sherri D. Sutton delivers a hilarious one-hour routine that’s primarily autobiographical. She talks about growing up in Georgia in a southern Baptist family; her homophobia and her fears of coming out of the closet; the years she spent in a cult trying to deal with her hidden homosexuality; and how she finally broke free.
Woven in with her life story is some America-versus-Canada humour along with some amusing — albeit politically incorrect — imitations of African-Americans Asians Irish German and Eastern Europeans.
Sutton is no novice to the comedy stage. She trained and performed in New York and even opened for Roseanne Barr. Her professional polish is evident.
But it isn’t all laughs. There are a few serious moments in the routine that make you think about life and how best to live it. Though I found some of the American-versus-Canadian jokes a little stale (how many coloured-money jokes must I hear?) the rest of her show feels new and original. For one thing how often do you get a behind-the-scenes peek at what it’s actually like to be in a cult?
I was worried that this show would just be one big crap on Christianity. Yes she takes issue with religious extremism in a fair and funny way but not with religion itself. Sutton doesn’t make fun of Jesus.
KATHLEEN RENNE
The Peter n’ Chris Show! with Peter n’ Chris!!
It’s hard enough to keep someone’s attention for an hour but it’s even harder to keep them laughing.
Peter Calone and Chris Wilson seem to have tapped into some sort of bottomless well of inspiration for their sketch comedy that is more like a cinematic action epic.
This may be the only time that musical dance numbers in a comedy show don’t reek of a lack of ideas —dancing is perfectly in character for the pair who play best buds living off nothing but their own vivid imaginations. But when the rent needs to be paid Peter decides to get a job.
And that’s the whole premise. Chris doesn’t want the fun to end so he spends the whole show trying to stop Peter from scoring that barista job. How they manage to legitimately squeeze in dog surgery assassins cheesy training montages and slow-mo car chases (through school zones) is up for you to see. And there’s the dance numbers of course.
What makes it all brilliantly come together is the energy of the pair and the perfect pace. It’s absurd yes but never over-the-top. What could easily be derailed by loud zany action is reeled in with slow burn setups and running jokes. It’s infinitely quotable and by the end makes you wish you were as “fun-employed” as they are. This is a shot of hilarity straight into your veins.
RICHARD LAM
Phone Whore
Cameryn Moore isn’t the scantily clad young woman you see on your TV late at night beckoning you to call that 1-900 number. There are no soft-lit candles in her room and no she is definitely nowhere near the bed. But she is here to tell you her stories.
Her tales are laid-back to the point not looking to shock but simply to inform about the phone sex industry. She speaks casually lighting a cigarette pouring a drink even taking a pee break. It’s an eye-opening glimpse into what truly is just a business that offers a service — the call durations the client cards with transaction history and preferences and the clinical precision of the calls themselves.
And the calls get more graphic more taboo and eventually just jaw-droppingly wrong. Soon your thoughts go from wondering what else she’ll say to praying she doesn’t go where you think she will. But most importantly she doesn’t judge and nor should you. It’s human nature. And no none of the play can be quoted here.
Phone Whore is essentially a one-woman monologue a running confessional a series of anecdotes that add up to a powerful whole. In the end it’s the details that stick. The fine line between an innocent fantasy and the repressed and morally wrong is what sneaks up on you. What’s most squirm-inducing is how far people go — the play begins with wholehearted laughter but closes to stunned silence.
RICHARD LAM
Third Time Lucky
This one isn’t for the faint of heart. Paul Hutcheson opens with a solid dose of vomit and shit you know just to warm you up.
This monologue on some of Hutcheson’s experiences in life is hilarious gross and sometimes touching. His work with troubled youth his experience in an Australian old folks home (he wants someone to shave his pubes when he gets old) his relationships (or lack thereof) and his work as a teacher in Toronto all provide fodder for his act.
There are parts of the show where he allows the audience to choose the content. At one point he says he has 30 sex stories written down and asks someone to yell “Stop” while he moves his finger up and down the page. Where he stops determines the story he will tell. It’s an interesting touch ensuring the performance will be different each night (unless he’s making that part of it up).
If you’ve seen Hutcheson perform before you’ll recognize this show. It doesn’t stray from his formula of real-life tales (likely stretched) with some physical comedy loads of sex talk crowd interaction and moments of touching honesty.
All in all this is just good goofy fun and perfectly suits the gaudy queer interior of Club Paradiso. Definitely worth checking out.
DREW ANDERSON
