Current mood:

exhausted

Frantic Fringe - Mission Complete
It all came together and I managed not just the original 3, but also the fourth show tonight. I believe that this tops by at least 1-2 the number of shows I've seen in a single Fringing, and that includes Saturdays/Sundays when shows start at 1pm. I'm giddy with both artsy and debauchery all at once. An odd dichotomy? Not for the Fringe!

The night started with Buckets and Tap Shoes. I've raved about them since the beginning and was not disappointed in the least. While they're short one of the members from previous iterations, they've held the exuberance and joy that made them so popular. In a nutshell, I'll say this, largely because I was shaking when I left the theatre:
Buckets and Tap Shoes are as good as sex, except without the wet spot and it only lasts an hour. Ok, so the "only" doesn't belong in that last part, but a man can have goals, right?

'Moliere Than Thou' followed after a short dash down Washington and a fortuitous turn onto 4th street to find parking. I learned two valuable lessons from this show. Firstly, my literary repertoire is sorely lacking in Moliere, which will be remedied. The second is to never make eye contact with a performer asking for volunteers to read lines during a one-man show. This was an amazing performance for several reasons, including the vivacious animation Tim Mooney exhibits in his delivery. I was riveted as each soliloquy was so well-written, I felt ashamed to make any claim to being a wordsmith of any sort. It was Moliere doled out to the masses in a palatable, tasty form that is a definite winner in my book.

On a completely different end of the spectrum, we come to 'Vilification Tennis'. For those of you who have Comedy Sportz or Improv Olympics in your area, you already have a slight idea of what the gist here is. In essence, though, 'Vilification' is a deliberately bawdy, raucous, crude serve-and-volley of the most rank insults each player could impart on the other. However, it can be hit or miss, as can any improv, based on how "on" the players are, thus, it was somewhat disappointing, but no less of a great time that had me laughing nearly to tears one moment and cringing the next.

After a break to gather myself, a bit of refreshment and a pet of the cat, I returned to the site of the previous carnage to see 'An Intimate Evening With Mike Fotis' and the title was some of the best truth in advertising there could be. Fotis is a well-known improv comedian that makes up one half (the taller half) Ferrari McSpeedy, who's "Punk Rock" shows had me rolling on the floor. For Mike's first foray into solo performance, he did a bang up job with help from Jen Scott (I think it's 2 t's but can't be sure) on the upright bass. The stories were intimate reflections on a range of subjects and narratives punctuated with Mike's comedic delivery accented by Jen's playing. It was truly worth the late night to be there and, I think, worth doing again to catch the lines I missed while bent over in spasms of laughter.

This concludes the night two wrap-up. Tomorrow looks to be a more serious set that could include 'Speechless' and 'Same difference, but topped off with guffaws at 'The Comedy Jesus Show'

(Note: Instead of providing links, if you'd like to look up any show, go to http://www.fringefestival.org and search for those you'd like to learn more about...it seems to make more sense to me to do that than add links for every one.)