I came home from work today, the first day of my catsitting period while my Jammy is off at her lake.  She has a lake, or something like that.  She’s there, anyhow, and her cat is not,hence I have the cat at my home.  Today was the first day of this transplantation du kitty, so I was eager to hurry home and see how he had adjusted. 

..and seriously, just how DOES a cat lock himself in one’s bedroom while you’re out?   How did he DO that?

Anyways.   I feel like writing, as it’s been a couple days now since an update in what may literally be the least popular chud on the intertubes (hey, I’m no ROY ORBISON WRAPPED IN CLINGFILM, nor do I pretend to be) .  I have a few shows I wanna see later this week, but that’s miles away.  And yes, I still have my SUMMERWORKS Toronto trip to finalize, but there’s still something missing.  And then, only a little tipsy after having a few while watching Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut WHIP IT this evening, I realized…I still have the Calgary Fringe to pimp! 

Which isn’t cool…I did it with Winnipeg, and then Windsor, after all.  And I don’t know if anyone saw any shows based on my own disreputable advice, but on the off-chance that one of the many spambots who frequent my page DO attend Fringe festivals, I feel I should keep this going, at least as far as Calgary (BC, you’re on your own, this is starting to get old).  But we’re getting pretty far from my quiet little government town home of Ottawa…just how many of the shows coming to the Calgary Fringe this year HAVE I seen,even?

It turns out, Five.  One of thm even made into my own self-proclaimed Top 5 shows list of this years Fringe in Ottawa, so that must count for SOMEthing, if only in my own mind.  That show, by the by, was THE PETER N’ CHRIS SHOW, and I don’t really have any new praise to give  it that I haven’t already.  Besides it being pants-shittingy funny, AND deftly-staged theatre to boot.  Take that, Sophocles (I don’t even know what that means).

Next! More comedy in the form of DALE BEANER AND THE TURTLE BOY, another two-manner from gents Devon and Connor, and told in a sketch-comedy form recalling the best of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.  This is a well-written,well performed bit of wackiness-with-a heart, and there’s a reason it won best of venue here in O-town.  Checkitout.

Next up is SEEKING…, an ensemble romantic comedy featuring three disturbingly talented cats, whom I would name if I hadn’t just cleared my desk of my reference material to keep the nelwy arrived cat from knocking it around.  Oh, responsibility! *shakes fist*  Suffice it to say, each of the three actors plays a couple of characters in this intertwining story of love, lust, and would-be romance gone right, wrong, and wherever.  It’s beautiful stuff, very funny, and just real enough to kick you where it hurts. 

And then there’s PHONE WHORE.  Starring and created by Cameryn Moore (and if you’re attending the Calgary Fringe, you WILL hear her shouting the words ‘Phone Whore!’ at you at least a few times, bless her), it tells a night in the life of a phone sex operator.  And THIS one gets real enough to kick you in all sorts of nasty places, places you didn’t know you had.  As I’ve mentioned before on this chud, this is a show that sticks with you, and gets into your head…Cam is a pretty smart storyteller, and manages to take her audience with her to places they probably wouldn’t have otherwise gone, easing them on their way, like they were one of her clients.  And aren’t we, really?  Do yourself a favour and see the show.

Last is, appropriately enough, THE LAST GODDAMNED PERFORMANCE PIECE, a Jayson MacDonald bit, so if you know Fringe at all you know it’s got cred.  This version is put on by Ben Meuser and a local Ottawa actress whose name escapes me, but it should be a must-see on every Cal-fringers list.  Jayson Mac has never balanced comedy and drama more daringly than here (I’m kind-of making that up, having only seen two of his shows previously…), and when I saw this particular duo peform, I was hurting myself laughing before they’d even officially started the damn show.  Later on, after what must certainly be the scene-specific comedy highlight of the Ottawa Fringe, they knuckle-punched me to the heart like experts.  They’ll make you cry every which way!

It was an awesome show, and you’d be fools to miss it.  Great script, great actors.  You want more?  Okay, well, there’ s Gemma Wilcox in THE HONEYMOON PERIOD IS OFFICIALLY OVER.  Which I have NOT seen, but I’ve seen Gemma Wilcox, and she’s like magic on legs, so see her, for heaven’s sake.  And then see more shows.  And then, I dunno, drill for oil or rope steers, whatever you Calgarians do when you’re not Fringing.   But support indie theatre first, awright?  I gotta go now.  Love y’all,

The Visitor