Good morning Fringers!

Final day of the Fringe! I’m up and about. I’m showered. I have my coffee on the desk to my right, and I’m ready to start the day. So…what’s on the agenda? Well, first thing is to get some Blogging done. I’ve written 33 out of my quota of 40, so I really need to get finger to keyboard. Not that I have to finish today, of course, but I still have plenty of thoughts swirling around in my head, so there’s never any shortage of material.

When I began these Fringe blogs, I set myself the personal goal of making sure that each of my entries would be at least 500 words. Actually, it wasn’t that diffiicult. In the event, some were a good deal longer, and when I started writing about Reviews and Reviewers, I ended up having to divide it into three different Blogs! (Incidentally, there’s more on that subject yet to come).

So…apologies to any of you who have found my style to be long-winded or overblown. And thank you to all of you who have come up to me to tell me you’re reading the Blog! This morning, I even had an e-mail from someone in England who had been reading it…and I hadn’t even told them about it!

Any writer likes to be read. Just like any actor likes an audience. And that’s why we put in all the extra effort over and above what is required. Most Artists do this. I’m sure we’ve all played that game of working out exactly what we have been paid, if it was being calculated on an HOURLY rate. The figures are pretty dismal. As Artists we have no set hours. We will frequently work late into the night. Sometimes (if desperate) early in the morning. We look forward to our work, and are disappointed when it doesn’t happen. We work for low wages, or no wages…or sometimes even at our own expense. We take pay cuts…if there was any pay in the first place. And as for job security….forget it! But WE LOVE IT!

And it’s not just the Artists. Many (if not most) of the Technicians at the Fringe are taking a pay cut to work it. They too work long hours, and have a huge responsibility for the efficient running of the venues and the safety of public and performers alike. These guys and gals are INCREDIBLE!

Then there’s the Administration staff, and Organisers. A whole network of behind-the-scenes people working to make sure the Fringe runs smoothly. Sure, in theory they might have more regulated hours….but I’ll bet most of them end up working way beyond that. I know that Thomas Scott would always…ALWAYS…answer any e-mail questions I sent. When I consider how many e-mails he must be getting each day, it really impressed me that he found the time not only to reply, but to accurately answer the question asked.

And then there are the volunteers. What can I say about the volunteers? Without them, there would very probably be no Fringe! Quite simply, I haven’t got a hat big enough to take off to them!

All these people, working long hours. Hard hours. And not generally well paid…if at all. You’d think the Government would extol such enterprise and hard work? But no. The world over, Governments view the Arts with suspicion, as if we’re all trying to cheat the system. Well….THEIR system. Basically we don’t fit into a stereotype. We don’t tick the right boxes.

But think on this. We don’t remember the Ancient Greeks or Romans for their Accountancy. We remember them for their Art and Culture. That is our legacy to future generations. That is the spirit of mankind.

Damn, 621 words. Overdone it again!

A la prochaine!

FERNANDO

Greetings, Oh Fringers!

It’s late. In fact, it’s almost tomorrow. Come to think of it…it IS tomorrow. Ok, it’s early! Another day over at the Fringe. Just one more to go…and a shorter day at that. Doesn’t it just fly past??

So…I’m interested in what people have been doing for food while at the Fringe. Yes, I know that probably seems like a silly statement, considering the proliferation of food wagons all over the site. And certainly these seem to cater well for the thousands of punters who find themselves a little bit “peckish” while trawling through the Fringe site. But I wonder how many of the Artists actually eat from these places.

Is it just me who doesn’t? I don’t know, but I find most of the food on site to be a little bit…er…”Fast” for my liking. Ok, for ‘”fast” read “junk”. I mean, if you’re into doughnuts, popcorn, chips, and so on, then fair enough, but I just fancy something a little more…I don’t know…wholesome after a show. Of late, we’ve taken to  making a packed lunch to bring in with us.

Maybe I’m just a food snob. Though to be fair, I eat quite economically (but in a healthy way, I like to think) back in England. I’ve always drawn the line at McDonalds, and have never really been into Burger Vans or Kebabs. All of which probably cuts down my options somewhat.

Never let it be said that I didn’t try, though. I had a sandwich from one of the vendors, which claimed to have “thinly cut salmon” therein. Well all I can say is that they must have been cutting that salmon by Laser, because it was so thin it didn’t even register on the taste buds! Not good value for money. I might as well have had an Air Sandwich.

Of course, one can always go off site. And so we did, visiting our old haunt “Block 1912″ for a little bit of sustenance. But I’d have to say that even “Block 1912″ has gone downhill somewhat. The service is slow, the food often overpriced, and the place is just so NOISY now. Not with the hubbub of happy patrons, but with the whirring and buzzing of refridgeration units. Not a great aid to the ambience. I still like “Block 1912″, but I prefer it as it was 6 years ago. But then, nostalgia ain’t what it used to be, to coin the old cliche.

This evening, I finally found the best Fringe meal. “Packrat Louie”, right next to the Varscona Theatre. Calamari for starters, some Red Wine (no canvas), Steak with Lobster, and a Tiramasu for dessert. Wonderful! The only problem is: this is hardly Fringe fare. No self-respecting impoverished Artist could afford food like this! Not even once, let alone every day! Myself included. The fact is….we cheated! We had a sizeable group of family and friends come to see the final performance of “Full of Sound and Fury”, and afterwards we were treated to the proverbial slap up dinner at “Packrat Louie”. A decent Fringe meal at last….but not on our budget. Tomorrow, it’s back to a packed lunch!

A la prochaine!

FERNANDO

We have one show left Sunday at noon and then we pile into the RV and return to Portland Oregon. The tour has been a great experience and Edmonton has been a blast. One thing I have learned is that the reviewers can slam you, but they don’t speak to the people. Even with disparaging and fairly rude reviews we still have had sold out shows. We sold out our midnight show and our show today.

I’m not sure if I had mentioned it but we did something different on this portion of the tour by inviting various performers to come on stage and be our sexy performance poets. We had Jem Rolls, Rob Gee, Jonno Katz and Keria McDonald performed with us. During our midnight show we had a drinking game. When ever you heard select dirty words the audience drank. Even having the small stage, which I felt we took over and owned, turned out to be a cool experience.

With our last show a little under 24 hours away, I am beginning to think of home. The clock is ticking as the final hours pass in this great tradition of celebrating performance in all of its forms. I recommend you make the most of it, because these shows will not return.

It is coming to the end of the fringe. My program is tattered and torn. Flyering has pretty much ended. Amongst the performers some good-byes have begun. Many people are heading onto Vancouver and Victoria but many are heading home or off to other commitments. I must admit I am pretty fringed out. I think between the three cities, Calgary, Winnipeg and Edmonton I have managed to take in almost 50 shows. Pretty crazy. I saw Boat Load and Tippi Seagram today, and I have one show for tomorrow. Even with getting to see so many shows there are several that I missed. Since there is one last day I’ll list the ones I think you should try to catch if you can, but also I’m leaving a list of the shows I wish I had seen.

Recommendations for Sunday:

Inviting Desire (well I gotta plug it, last I checked we have 20 tickets left get em while they are hot)

The Further Adventures of Antoine Feval- this has been held over so you should get a chance to see it along with FruitCake.

Red Bastard also has been held over

Cherry Cherry Lemon; 6pm

Cabaret Terrarium; 8:15pm

More Bange for Your Buck: 6:15pm

Afterlife: 4pm

Pipa: 8pm

Jem Rolls: 8:30pm

Pumpkin Pie: 4:30pm

Shows I wish I had seen:

The Year of Magical Thinking

Grandpas Sol and Grandma Rosi

Circumference

Tasha Diamant’s Human Body Project

Full Frontal Nudity

Letters to Noce

The Seven Lives of Louis Riel

Full of Sound and Fury

Blue is the Water

Red Wine and Canvas

NGGRFG

Lysistrata

Honey in the Lion’s Head

Bashir Lazhar

Chaotica

Tinsel Town

Cadaver

The Author’s Voice

Life in a Box

School House Rock

George Orwell Is Not my Real Name

Cowboy Mouth

One More day of shows be sure to see what you can.

Went to see Rabbit Rabbit yesterday. They had a full house, not quite sold out but close. This is a disturbing show, but even a little more disturbing is that I don’t know if the audience left understanding how disturbing it is. Could the actors and directors done too good a job with their subtleties? Is the script created in a way that cleverly disguises that uncomfortable truth in the show. I mean how can it not be uncomfortable, its about a clown that hires a teenage prostitutes to help “get him straight,” but this prostitute is not his regular 12 year old, this girl is too old for him.

I didn’t laugh much in this show, but not because it wasn’t good but because I was rivited with the relationships and the story. This script reminds me of movies like, Gumo, Happiness, Kids, My Own Private Idaho, Drug store Cowboy ,and the truly messed up Ken Park. Rabbit Rabbit is a perspective not often seen and the pure dysfunction adds to the elements of humor plus the fact that the characters are actually likable does create a somewhat light tone in the obviously dark atmosphere. Larry or Cosmo the clown isn’t played like a lascivious monster slimming across the room and Britney is not played as a tough and rough pro. They easily could have been played like that but instead the actors and the director chose to give the characters more dimension. (Thank God)

Again, my only concern is that it is so subtle, that what is happening in the ending or what may very well happen in the imagined play’s future is missed. I caught it, but many people seemed to be chuckling as they left the theatre when I feel they should have been a little more concerned. But maybe I am wrong and I missed the point.

Still, I enjoyed the performances, I thought they put a lot of hard work into it and Katie Swift was truly amazing, so convincing it was uncomfortable.