Random Fusion

Short post today (or maybe not, we shall see how this goes).

Well, the Fringe is almost over and things are beginning to wrap up. Today there are shows till midnight and then on Sunday there are shows on till 7ish. The Frings is wrapping up for another year and I can't tell you where all the time went. It just seems to have zoomed by.

I have enjoyed this year more then most I think. I have done a lot of socializing and hanging out, and because of the more relaxed nature that Shauna and I have around each other now, we were both able to get to talk to a lot of people this year.

I am looking forward to staying in touch with Eric, Chris Gibbs, the guys from Monster Theatre and some of the other folks I have gotten to know a little better this year.

More Later...

Posted by Random Fusion at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, so the plan to post every day about what was going on at the Fringe was a bit of a bust. I am away from the computer for about 95% of the day and well, that doesn't lend to much blogging. So, without much further delay I bring you UBER POST!!!

Uber Post

Ok lets start with a brief description of the shows in my venue and the people who are involved with them.

AQT is doing a show called 60 Moments of Life. Its a one man show staring Terry Kosta. I havent seen the show yet so I cant say all that much about it. Wayne says the show is not that bad but will not be most folks cup of tea. Terry is a nice guy and is working hard at making sure his show goes well.

The British Comedy Club Of Great Britain is presenting Rainer Hersch's Instruments of Mass Destruction. A very funny show that has got the crowds fighting for space in the theatre. The show is Wayne's and I have seen the crowds lining up to see this show hours before it starts. The show is basically Ranier talking about music and musical intstruments. You would think that this would make for a boring show but you couldnt be more wrong. I laughed all the way through this show. Ranier is a nice guy and Wayne is having a great time working with him, despite the huge technical requirements (for a Fringe show) that are called for.

Next up is CRUMBS a local improv troupe with international renown. Devin, Steve and Lee have been doing improv in one form or another in this city for as long as I can remember and this is my first time tech'ing one of their shows. I am having a great time working with them. Crumbs are the foremost authority in the city on something called "Long Form Improv". This means that they take suggestions from the audience, most often a single word or a short phrase, and make an hour long show out of it. The last couple days have seen shows about airplane bathrooms, breast milk and last night was lips and cell phones. These three guys are vey talented and this is shown by the fact that last year they were the only group asked to come to the Berlin International Improv festival, a well known internation comedy festival.

After Crumbs we have GoodSide Productions who are behind a popular show called "Sixty, with more lies about my wieght". This show has the well known Susan Freedman in it and it seems to be drawing in some crowds. I can't say all that much about the show since I have yet to see it, but I can say that the people have been leaving in with smiles on their faces, so it cant be all that bad.

Coming up quickly after that is Jadey Theatre Productions presenting a FABULOUS show called Cheap Excuses. this is a fantastic show and I am having a fantastic time working this show. Jess Dawson plays Maude the clown for this show and is a delight to work with. The show is very poingant and sad at times, which is the norm for most European clown shows. It strikes numerous emotional chords with people and you can not help but leave this show feeling something.

Whew! Thats a lot of shows already! But wait! Theres more!

Mark Dawson is another clown from out of town and he is presenting "The Road Less Travelled". I can't really say anything about the show since I havent seen it yet but I can say that Mark is a Great guy and Wayne is enjoying working on the show.

The next show is my favourite of the entire venue. Monster Theatreis presenting The Big Rock Show: History of the World in One Hour. I met these guys two years ago and I am loving working with them. Ryan, Bruce and Jeff (who I only met this year) are a comedy troupe out of Calgary and are some of the best people I have had the opportunity to work with. This years show is a laugh a minute from the cave man scene at the beginning to the cave man scene at the end. And I particularly loved the Roaches Corner segment. The songs they sing are very catchy and when Bruce sings Mongol Connection, I fall down dead laughing. This is most definately a show you MUST catch.

Ok, well thats a lot to digest and lots of links to follow for the moment.

Next post will have more.

For all your Finging needs, check out:

The Winnipeg Fringe Festival

Peace out.

Posted by Random Fusion at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Minor Changes

Fixed a couple broken links, did a little bit of tweaking and took out that Blog Chalking thing that didnt seem to be working too well.

I really want to move this over to my own site so that I can do what ever I want to it, but I seem to have let some of my skills slip and right now my HTML skills are far from l33t.

Ill Write more later.

Posted by Random Fusion at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Adventures From The Fringe

Well, here it is Sunday night and I am finally getting around to writing something for the blog. We have done three days worth of work and done three pseudo techs, which basically means we have seen three shows so far.

Doh.

Wayne Buss! is my venue partner again this year. Wayne is one of the best people ever to work for and I am VERY glad to be working with him again (and very happy that he has commented to the same - he said he was really glad to see me back this year). The first day started fairly early with the usual talks from the had tech (who is Geoff this year and not Arlo) and Bertram who runs the festival. Wayne and I looked at our tech book, talked about what shows we wanted to do and then divided them up. We got to hang around and chat with the other Techs that are back from last year and the years before.

In years past, after the speeches Wayne and I would head off to the Chinese Cultural Centre and carry risers up a dozen flight of stairs (or maybe its two dozen) and then in the afternoon we would head off to our own Venue to set up. This year, Geoff has had the venues preset up so that the tech rehearsals can begin right away. This was a huge change, but a good one and I hope it doesnt change.

The first group we had in was Phoenix productions doing "Bannocks Creatures". I am not a huge fan of kids theatre. So, well. I dont have much to say other then, to me, an adult, it sucked. Maybe a 6 year old will find it better. For their sake, I hope they do.

The second group we had in was the Spleen Jockeys. Now I have known the guys from Spleen for at least ten years now or more. Some of them I have known for at least that long and at least one I have known since I was a kid. This year its only two of the usual four but that doesnt mean the show is any less funny. Justin and Darren are twoing a two person show

The third group we worked with was Crumbs, but only Steve Sim showed up. Crumbs is one of the premier improvisational groups in Canada and have been invited in years past to go to the International Improv Festival in Berlin. Steve Sim, Lee White and Devin ( i dont know his last name). The guys have always been funny and I love working with them.

We should have had a fourth group in to do a tech this afternoon, but they were busy performing in Thunder Bay and couldnt make it (sheesh).

I am looking forward to the festival beginning already. Wayne and I have yet to meet our House Managers yet, but we both suspect they will be the same folks as last year with one possible change. I think I can safely say that we some of the best house managers you could possibly want. They are experienced, smart and they like what they are doing (well, you would have to like it to do it for 40 plus hours a week and not get paid for it).

I love this gig, this is the best job anyone could have and I am always so happy to go and work for the festival that they could (dont tell them this though) pay me nothing and I dont think I would mind too much at all. I love meeting all the actors and seeing people I have known for a while. Chris Gibbs and Eric De Waal are back this year. The guys from FDLT are back as well (but only Chris is in my venue this year :( ). Some old friends from Calgary are back this year with another "history of" show, this one aimed at a younger audience but still it should be funny.

I will eventually post as many web links as i can here for the companies in my venue.

Posted by Random Fusion at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thoughts and Other Public Consumables

1. That 50 questions thing I did a week ago is all over the internet. And I mean its everywhere!

2. I am consuming a ton of liquids today.

3. Because of #2 I am constantly making bathroom runs.

4. I am desperetly wanting to redo the layout of the blog but I dont really know how.

5. Bored dot com is a great site to waste time at.

6. I've only done five of these little things in this post and already I dont know what else to write!

Ok. July 11 is the first day of my employment with Winnipeg Fringe Festival (linkage) and the actual festival starts on the 16, only five days after, which seems a little wierd to me since the technicians are used to a week before.

I will attempt to blog each and every day no matter what. Each day I will make sure I post something about how the day went, what interesting things happened and what shows you should come see. Every post during the run of the fringe will be mostly reviews of shows I have caught so far. I dont have a lot of cash so I am going to have to do the tech badge thing and get myself into the shows I want to see.

So far there are a handful of people in the venue I know from before and it looks like some of my more favourite people will be back (if not in my venue at the festival itself) and so links will be appearing very soon.

Thanks and good night.

Posted by Random Fusion at 7:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)