Cosmolyrical grappled with life’s biggest questions in poetry.

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Phil Long in association with Beth Marshal‘s husband presented Cosmolyrical at this year’s Orlando International Fringe Festival. I met Phil just before his performance outside The Venue. He is from Washougal Washington State and is an airplane pilot when he isn’t writing poetry. A niece got him started writing poetry when she asked him to write lyrics for a rap song. Being a pilot means he is well traveled and he identified with sketches I had recently posted from Sydney Australia.

Cos-mo-lyr-i-cal A deeply personal and highly engaging performance poetry composition pertaining to the branches of astronomy and philosophy dealing with the apparent origin, history, structure, dynamics, elements, laws, and characteristics, of the observable universe including space, time, causality and mind. The performance was a cabaret style autobiographical slam poetry mash up where physics meets metaphysics, ancient wisdom dabbles in modern science and religion discovers doubts. The more that science discovers, the more mysterious the world seems. As he ponders mortality, he hopes for answers in religion, but there are more questions than answers.

When his father was murdered in his youth, the poet was forced down a path that few tread. He scorned the arrogance of wealth and power, preferring to see what really matters. Did he love or was he loved as a friend?

The most fascinating premise of this poem was the idea that all of creation might just be a poem. Could fundamental particles be verbs and nouns? Could all of creation hinge on our perception of its meaning? What if it’s all poetry? Then the ancient myths might seem more real and modern science is just beginning to discover the mysterious possibilities of creation.

Sketching while listening always fractures my perceptions. At times the poet seemed to mistake poetry for religion, but I admired that his faith wasn’t blind. He sought answers and used poetry to mine for meaning in life.

The beer tent is at the heart of the Orlando Fringe.

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The best way to discover what shows to see at the Orlando International Fringe Festival is by word of mouth at the beer tent on the green lawn of fabulousness. A beer truck was parked at the edge of the tent offering beers on tap. “Just do it” orange buckets were below each tap. To get a beer you need to first buy a ticket at another tent. Apparently there is a city ordinance that makes it illegal to pay cash for beer in a public park. The tickets circumvent that ordinance. I got a $5 ticket and tried a beer that was a bit bitter for my taste. It was cold, so I still appreciated it in the hot afternoon.

This was the first day of Fringe and the beer wench was extremely helpful in not only slinging beers, but explaining how to Fringe to newer patrons.  She was also quick to compliment a woman on her beautiful breasts. My man boobs didn’t elicit a compliment. My second drink was a hard cider which is what I decided to drink for the rest of the Fringe. I bumped into Brandon Roberts who has to be the funniest actor in Orlando. He was in a show called Clink which featured acrobatics in a prison setting. He gave me the quick elevator pitch for the show, and I decided that I would have to go for the sketch opportunity. To promote Clink, Brandon said, “Fringing is a dirty business” as he dropped off bars of soap on my table with a Clink promotional photo on the wrapper.

I used the beer tent for cover when a torrential rain storm hit the Fringe. Wind gusts made any attempt as staying dry fruitless. As the rain died down, a man took his folding chair and used it to push up a heavy pool of water that was caught in the sagging roof of the tent. A huge waterfall caused children to laugh with delight. A woman from the fire oven pizza booth came out with a pizza paddle to do the same to another sagging tent. The rain stopped for a bit and I got as far as the Rep before it began to pour again.

Joanna Solomon shares how her love life and career came Hurtling Towards Earth.

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In her solo show, Hurtling Towards Earth, Joanna Solomon from Brooklyn NY, recounted her years as an aerialist in the Argentine production of De La Guardia along with her equally harrowing love stories at this year’s Orlando International Fringe Festival. Auditioning for the role was extremely stressful. She felt like every other dancer and acrobat did the required moves with ease. When she confided that she might be out of her league, another actress told her, “Just fake it like the rest of us. She was amazed and delighted when she got the call back and ultimately the roll.

A small diary sat on a stool on stage. Periodically Joanna would refer to it to find letters that she had written her mom. Her close bond to her mom seems to have kept her sane during the long time she was away.  Joanna also had a boyfriend back home yet none of the letters she read were to him. Once she read a letter, she would clamp it on to a clothes line hanging in the corner of the stage.

She confided that she isn’t the type of person to have an affair but an Argentinian man worked closely with her in the show. While she was suspended from a rope, he would swing her into a canvas wall, softly at first and then harder while making guttural noises. They resisted the urge for the longest time but then had an intense passionate affair. The Argentinians girlfriend of her Argentinian lover came to a wrap party. Joanne had a little too much to drink and when she went into the women’s room, her lover followed her and pleaded his love for her. His girlfriend found them together and she began beating on Joanne who felt she deserved every blow.

Her boyfriend back home hacked into her Facebook account and he found plenty of evidence of her affair. She later found out that he had also had an affair while she was gone but it didn’t help in healing the lost trust. She never said if she tried to get back together with either boyfriend, but I suspect they all probably went their separate ways. At the end of the show Joanne showed a movie clip of one of her aerialist performances. With so many unanswered questions I didn’t fell like the show was over.

Tails to Tall for Trailers presented small town humor at the Fringe.

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ManDamsel and FellaLady from Covington, Kentucky presented Tales Too Tall for Trailers. Comedian and Storyteller Paul Strickland and Erika Kate MacDonald joined forces in this off-kilter musical family
comedy! Funny songs, strange southern stories, shadow puppetry, a pet
named “Peeve” and more! Pee-Wee Herman meets Mark Twain in this final
installment of Strickland’s “Trailer Park Trilogy.”

The show began with Paul on guitar and Erika joined in with hysterical lyrics. My favorite part of the show however was when they set up a simple shadow puppet stage with a bed sheet and clothes line. Erica sat down behind the sheet with a bright light just behind her shoulder. Paul acted as the narrator in front of the screen. The tale was set in a tiny town with a tiny post office. To create the post office Erika took an envelope and opened it up to create the roof. She cut a rectangle out of the bottom and that became the doorway. To create a home, the rectangle wan moved up to the roof where it became a chimney.

I now wish I had sketched this magical shadow puppetry segment of the show. What I enjoyed the most was watching Erika’s reactions to the audience. She had a sort of childish joy that most adults loose over time.  I took the most delight in watching her face light up. She used the screen with cinematic grace. Often she would zoom in on a character by moving it closer to the light, the result being scenes that constantly moved and breathed with life. The show was a fun hour filled with music and laughs.

Late With Lance at Fringe.

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Late With Lance starring Lance Jonathan, was in the Brown Venue inside the Orlando Museum of Art. A poster in the museum showcased the new, hip marketing campaign the museum has started. Over a photo of the museum was written “Orlando Museum O Art”. Was this a typo, had they forgotten the “f” in “of”? Perhaps it is just more hip now to leave out letters like f because o texting. Lance equated the bronze venue to a broom closet. His program which everyone got, had his acting resume on one side. He figured someone in the audience must be a talent scout. He had been the head o Big Bird in a National Tour o Sesame Street Live on Ice. He was Nana, the dog in Peter Pan and a Snow Baby in Ice Capades. His skills include, blending into a crowd, crying and or laughing on cue and talking fast.

The last was definitely true, because he was a whirlwind from the moment he got on stage. He pulled a “Late with Lance” banner out o a bucket and used the lid as a blinking marquee.  He pulled a woman out o the audience to act as his co-host for a talk show. The second she spoke, he interrupted her to point out that her sole purpose was to laugh. He pulled another woman out o the audience and asked her intimate questions that required plenty o thought. When she answered, he would prod for more information, saying “And… please go on.” When asked what her most uncomfortable experience in life had been, she replied “Right now.” David Horgan, one o DEM Guys who sees as many shows as humanly possible, held up well under interrogation. His years of watching theater lead him to catch Lance as he made a remark that was a segway to a musical number.

The auburn hair made Lance look rather young. From my front row seat however I could see that his side burns didn’t match the hair. Lance let us know that he had asked quite a few stars to come to Orlando to be interviewed on his show. He would periodically check with his tech guy to see if anyone had called. The audience would console him in these moments o disappointment. When he isn’t performing exotic Fringe shows, Lance helps his dad and his boyfriend doing a dinner theater show on a cruise ship. A call finally did come, from his dad, and Lance quickly stripped to get into a hula skirt along with a coconut bikini. The wig came off along with his shirt and his young energetic facade crumbled. This was a fun hour of high energy performance. The streamers and banner went back into the bucket.  This was a fun, high energy hour of theater and I admire anyone who can maintain that level of energy for an hour.

Are you a bully or the bull?

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Tasty Monster Productions from the United Kingdom presented Ferdinand in the Red venue of this year’s Orlando International Fringe Festival. The show was inspired by the classic children’s book “The Story of Ferdinand” by
Munro Leaf, Ferdinand tells the story of Tom, a single dad struggling to
raise his son in a world determined to make him fight. Raised on the
story of his namesake Ferdinand, the bull who refused to fight but just
wanted to sit and smell the flowers, young Ferdy learns the hard lessons
in life as his father tries to shield him from the harsh realities of
adulthood.

Tom reads the story of Ferdinand the bull to his son so many times at night that the boy knows the story by heart. Tom’s increasingly demanding job keeps pulling him away from being able to spent time with his son.  He brings his son into work for “bring your child to work day”.  At the end of the work day his boss came in and demanded that he stay late. He starts yelling and bullying Tom in front of his son. Furious, Tom
clenches his fists and is ready to punch his boss. His son however stops
him, reminding him to be the bull not the bully. Tom does however quite
his job on the spot.

The boy begs his dad to come to a school play. It turned out that his son was playing the title roll as the kind natured bull Ferdinand. Tom’s boss is also in the audience.  He confides that he wasn’t ready for all the new responsibility and he needed Tom’s expertise to get through the rough patch. Tom is hired back and for the first time sees the more human side of his boss, who was there to see his own son in the play.



This was a simple heart warming tale about the difficulties of raising a child alone. It was a solo show with heart and sincerity. I was surprised that some people don’t know the story of Ferdinand the Bull. I included a link to the Disney Animated classic above, so if you don’t know the story, then at least watch the animated short.

Alone in the Universe presented a humerous existential look at the meaning of life.

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Big Whoop productions from Vancouver Canada presented Alone in the Universe a one-man sketch comedy experience about the mystery of existence and
what it means to be just a dumb human floating in space, examined
through characters, mime, music, and stand-up. This Fringe show written and performed by Adam Pateman was presented in the Bronze venue inside the Orlando Museum of Art. Adam who was dressed like a gas station attendant was challenged by an alien announcer to solve the mysteries of life, or the entire human race would be annihilated.

Adam followed with a one man monologue that reflected on his past and present. Of course none of what he said addressed the ultimate question but the point was to go along for a fun ride. He seemed to feel that turning 30 was a major life change. Hair grew in new and unexpected places. The following decades bring much greater surprises.

He ultimately concluded that the meaning of life must be the question itself, that we had been given life and the ability to reason so that we might ultimately ask the question. The sinister alien announcer stated simply “No”. It turns out that all of existence came about so that there might be a seventh season of Glee on TV.

Since Adam was wrong the announcer stated that the world would end at any moment. The audience sat in the dark theater and waited. He toyed with the audience by announcing our untimely end several times. Would the show ever end? Were we destined to sit in this dark purgatory forever?

Corsets and Cuties bring belly laughs to burlesque at Fringe.

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Double Tree Productions presents Corsets and Cuties a Burlesque Cabaret in the Black Venue (The Venue) at this year’s Orlando International Fringe Festival. I went to one of their earlier shows at 10:30pm to sketch. What Babs and her troupe do is make burlesque fun and classy in equal measure. A three foot long sausage with balls on the male dancer might not be classy, but it is laugh out loud fun. He also did a number to the song Kriptonite in superman pajamas. When he stripped behind his long red cape, the women in the audience went crazy. He did turn around but kept part of the cape covering his midsection at all times just like the drapery in a Michelangelo.

I love the Three Belly dancers who performed a James Bond themed belly dance.  Theirs is a graceful class act. I wanted to catch their graceful gestures but my sketch was already crowded with performers. Their was a magical effect created by the blue footlights that I would have loved to catch. Sometimes I wish my right hand could move a whole lot faster (for sketching).

The number about the history of the brazier featured Babs in a costume that had impossibly large pillowy breasts. Jaimz wore a German Tirolean costume and the routine has to be seen to be believed. I laughed so hard my sides hurt. The big reveal would often happen with a performer’s back to the audience and these performers understand the art of the tease. Performers walked out into the audience and dollar bills would be stuffed into crevices. As the whole troupe took their final bow, a fist full of dollars rained down on the stage. The show is sponsored by Premier Couples Superstore. Every evenings show is different so there are always surprises.

Autobahn shines it’s headlights on the drama of road trips.

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Handwritten Productions presented Autobahn written by Neil Labute, in the Red Venue of this year’s Orlando International Fringe Festival. It presented five one act scenes with the audience voyeuristicly looking through the windshield at couples in the front seats of their car. The show began with headlights shining in the audiences eyes. The first scene featured a young woman, (Kristen Shoffner) in a black skull T-shirt slouching down in the passenger seat. Presumably her mother, (Candy Heller) sat stoic and silent behind the driving wheel. The young woman chatted non-stop while the driver never spoke and always seemed a bit annoyed. It became clear over time that the young woman had beer released from a rehab program. She had learned how to give the staff all the right answers. The one thing she had learned is that she needed to have one person she could always confide in. She informed the driver that it was her lucky day because she would always confide in her. What she confided however was that she couldn’t wait to start using again. She missed the rush, the heavenly high. It was clear that the stoic driver wasn’t pleased, but she must have had a checkered past as well because the passenger felt no one would take the driver’s word were she to try and turn the young woman in.

A boy and girl sat in a car with a bench seat at a lovers point. The girl, (Jillian Gizzi) was on edge because she thought the boy, (Adam DelMedica)  might want to break up with her. Instead then began to make out. When they come up for air she tells him  about the last boy who broke up with her. She sought revenge by mailing dead mice to his house from different locations. She rejoiced in the fact that police were unable to stop her. The boy’s face turned pale as he heard about her fatal attraction and unending need for revenge. He had been happy with their relationship, but now he clearly wanted out but was to frightened to broach the subject.

The scene that hit closest to home for me featured an older man behind the wheel, (Lucas Perez) and a young girl curled up in the passenger’s seat (Marisa Nieves Hemphill). From their first interactions I presumed this was a father and daughter. He chastised her for her behavior in a rest stop where her temper tantrum had gotten him quite upset. However, the more they spoke, the less close they seemed. I kept trying to guess her age. When she was curled up in the fetal position she seemed like such a young child but as they spoke she seemed to mature. The drivers affection for the girl seemed fine when I imagined he was her dad but when it became clear he was a stranger, his affection became menacing. He was her driver’s ed instructor and he was taking her to a secluded cabin. I wanted to shout out, “Get out of the car!” But instead she chatted amicably seeking forgiveness for her outburst at the rest stop. He spotted a deer on the side of the road, and she begged him to turn around so she could see it. He refused. He was now clearly in control. She curled up again. He asked, “Can I touch your hair?” She asked “Why?” “Because I want to.” he replied. The lights dimmed as he ran his fingers through her hair. Marisa, the actress in this scene, resembles a friend of mine who once confided that a relative had sexually abused her. This is more common than I ever imagined here in Florida. Another friend, who later committed suicide confided that her brother had done the same when she was very young. She had blocked that memory for years. When it resurfaced, she couldn’t live with it. This scene sticks with me because I wish that the inevitable tragedy could be averted.

The plays title comes from the last scene in which the woman says that perhaps the Germans had it right with their Autobahn in that there should be no speed limits and we should speed through life never having time to see the people speeding past us. We are all in a mad automotive rush, but to what end, what final destination? I can’t shake this play which first appeared at the Little Shubert Theater in NYC on March 8, 2004. This is what Fringe does best, five one act scenes that will linger forever. This was the Patron’s Pick in the Red Venue so there is one more performance.

Autobahn

Last performance: Monday May 25,  12:30pm to 1:30pm

Length: 60 minutes.

Venue: Red (Shakes behind through the courtyard and up to a second floor theater)

Rated: 18+ for language and sexual themes

Tickets: $11 (+service charge)

7(+1) Samurai is high energy fun at this year’s Orlando Fringe.

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Actor David Gaines thanked patrons standing in line for his solo show, 7(+1) Samurai. His show is in one of the largest venues which is a good thing because word of mouth will result in even larger lines. On his own, David acts out the movie 7 Samurai, playing all the parts himself. The result is at times mysterious, and often hilarious. His impression of a frightened farmer running through his field is worth the price of admission alone.

Sound effects play an integral part in every scene and he created them all with his voice from the flump of a falling body to the swipp, chunck, jigga jigga jigga of an arrow slicing through the air and hitting its target.  In many ways it felt like the movie was being projected quickly like in the silent film era. The masks were used to represent the villain and then the quiet and stoic hero samurai who helped the villagers learn how to defend themselves.

As an artist, I had to glance down at my sketch sometimes, and when I looked up, David had become another character. Fight sequences might find him changing character 7 times or more every minute. It was a non-stop fun whirlwind that didn’t stop until his open hand with radiating fingers representing the setting sun,

lowered behind his extended arm and the lights faded to black.

This high energy romp is one of my top picks from this year’s Fringe Festival. It is a show that must be seen to be believed.

7(+1) Samurai

Only one show remaining: Sunday 5/24 3:45pm to 4:45pm

Tickets are $10 (plus a service charge).

Rating: 7+

Run time: 60 minutes.

Venue: Orange (The Margison Theater inside the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center)