Tag Archives: Comedy

08.28.16
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[Victoria Fringe Festival 2016] Dirk Darrow Returns for 6 Quick Dick Tricks

edmonton-fringe-festival-2016-the-play-is-titled-6-quick-diLOCATION:
The Roxy Theatre
2657 Quadra Street
Victoria, BC

SHOWTIMES:
Sun Aug 28 – 10:00pm
Wed Aug 31 – 8:00pm
Fri Sep 2 – 9:45pm
Sat Sep 3 – 2:00pm

The mystery of how paranormal investigator Dirk Darrow landed into our century to solve crimes for us is explained 6 Quick Dick Tricks. After past shows like Not Completely Serious Supernatural Investigator and 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick, he apparently is here to stay! Tim Motley is a master of his craft, and he’s created a very memorable character which has certainly made me want to come back for more! He’s a comedian, magician and actor who knows how to work a crowd and his abilities to probe into the mind of audiences, myself included, makes me wonder just how does he pull off his parlour tricks? By random choice — technically he asks if the subject knows him or not — people attending his shows might get selected to choose a card, any card, and he will tell you exactly what you got.

I’m sure there’s a way to mark a selected card after it’s being handed back, but he’s amped up how this trick works. The pack is contained by an elastic band and instead of one, five people were selected! He nailed every card selected, and while I kind of pulled a fast one on him — when he asked to toss the pack back at him — it was before he could count to three. He managed to roll with it, and Dick has his wry wit to snap back at me and I laughed.

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08.27.16
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[Victoria Fringe Festival 2016] Little Orange Man is Not Only Dreamy but also Delightful

3117012_origLOCATION
Downtown Activity Center
755 Pandora
Victoria, BC

SHOWTIMES:
Sun Aug 28, 4:30pm
Tue Aug 30, 9:45pm
Wed Aug 31, 6:00pm
Fri Sep 2, 8:15pm
Sat Sep 3, 10:30pm

Little Orange Man is one of those shows running the theatre and Fringe circuit for six years now. It’s produced by SNAFU, and has toured far and wide. There’s an undeniable charm where Kitt the Kinder-Whisperer (Ingrid Hansen) is looking for help and gets it from strangers (the audience). She dearly loves her grandfather and that’s all audiences need to know.

Underneath the fast-paced comedy antics that we see, the story that unfolds is lovely and bittersweet. She’s hyperactive and imaginative, just like the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, and she loves the Danish folktales that her Bedstefar (the Danish word for grandfather) tells her. I’m amused by how she manages to turn her lunch into puppets to re-enact those stories, and when she pulls out puppets to play with, that’s when the true narrative takes shape.

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09.04.15
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[Victoria Fringe Festival ’15] Tracking the Birdmann’s Flight to Vancouver Fringe, A Review

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LOCATION:
Performance Works
1218 Cartwright St.
Vancouver, BC

SHOWTIMES:
Sep 11 | 10:40 pm
Sep 12 | 4:30 pm
Sep 13 | 12:10 pm
Sep 14 | 6:55 pm
Sep 17 | 8:30 pm
Sep 19 | 7:25 pm

DURATION: 50 minutes

The nose knows that even on the last day of this act’s performance at the Victoria Fringe Festival, The Birdmann in Momentous Timing must not be missed. If he has flown the coup in one city, at least his show can be found in the next stop. In this festival circuit’s case, that’s Vancouver Fringe Festival, in British Columbia! This product is certainly offbeat, blending a variety of stage shows — balancing acts, transgender dance, magic tricks and standup — into one seamless unit. A few bits felt unneeded (like the lacklustre transmorgifying box of tricks) and others more compelling, like being able to juggle plastic bags. There’s a deftness with a knife that I won’t go into detail about and that’s a highlight of this show. Elsewhere, if there’s a metaphor behind an ironing board and a clothes iron, no one is telling about what it is.

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09.02.15
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[Victoria Fringe Festival ’15] Where’s the Fandango with Sama Kutra? A Review

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LOCATION:
St Andrew’s Gymnasium
1002 Pandora
Victoria, BC

SHOWTIMES:
Sept 2 | 7:45 pm
Sept 6 | 8:45 pm

DURATION:
55 minutes

Judging by the images than by the title alone, I half thought that Sama Kutra might borrow from the Spanish or French clown tradition where tragedy sometimes dominates the stage. By pure word association, no individual should be surprised that the Kama Sutra factors into this weird and zany world of two clowns realizing their love for each other is gone. Quite literally, there’s no Spark or Sizzle (played by Jed Tomlinson and Jacqueline Russell) left. They can’t even perform the Fandango (their last name) together lest they get into an argument I Love Lucy style. The way Spark goes off is very reminiscent of how Ricky goes off when Lucy does something silly to anger him. This play goes further to show them on the verge of separating until a magical bolt of lightning strikes and sends them off to Oz. Here, they try to find that magic that led them to fall in love, and what results is hilarity at its best.

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09.01.15
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[Victoria Fringe Festival ’15] Dirk Darrow Returns to Victoria with Two Ruby Knockers, A Review

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VENUE:
Victoria Event Centre
1415 Broad Street

PERFORMANCE DATES:
Sept 2 | 6:15 pm
Sept 4 | 10:00 pm
Sept 5 | 4:45 pm
Sept 6 | 6:30 pm

LENGTH:
60 minutes

Any criticisms I had before about Tim Motley‘s characterization of the gumshoe, Dirk Darrow, are moot after seeing him in 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick. This newest show by this Australian performer is a solid tribute (done as a parody, complete with puns) to the noir stylings from the golden age of cinema, with a few terrific magic acts buried within. When compared to what I wrote on 28DLA.com years ago investigating the supernatural aspects that drew me to this show, there were other parts in the production I had to question. This review is reprinted with permission (see below) where I noted his jokes included modern cultural references. I love the fact this new act stayed 100% in period.

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08.31.15
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[Victoria Fringe Festival ’15] Haunting the Stage with Hitodama, A Review

hitodramaLOCATION:
The Roxy Theatre
2657 Quadra Street
Victoria, BC

SHOWTIMES:
Aug 31 | 7:45 pm
Sept 2 | 7:45 pm
Sept 5 | 3:45 pm
Sept 6 | 8:45 pm

DURATION: 60 minutes

If you love scary campfire ghost stories told in the vein of Tales of the Crypt, then Hitodama is one fun play to see. This title is also the Japanese name of what Westerners know as Will-o’-the-wisps and they are far more sentient. This production from Mochinosha (also known as The Wishes Mystical Puppet Company) will certainly show how well versed the producers are in the lore from the land of the rising sun. They also performed the raunchy show Oni at last year’s Fringe using the same techniques as before. They use paper cut-outs to create shadows on a silver screen and this style is very àpropos when considering how the supernatural is often perceived. As an avid paranormal enthusiast, I wanted to see this show as fast as humanly possible. But even on premiere night, which was last Friday, the only way I could have made it is if I had a doppelgänger. As long as it was psychically connected to me, my third eye would know all.

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