Fabby Awards at Fringe

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On the final evening at Orlando Fringe the outdoor stage is set up for the Fabby awards which honor the best shows of the year. A live band opened the festivities but the volume was so loud that no one sat inside the tent. Most people kept their distance scattered across the fringe lawn. The top selling show at the fringe was Animatronicans: Under New Management. I had an opportunity to sketch that show but was pulled away on another assignment. I bumped into one member of the cast, Janine Klein, that I had sketched before and she said that any Disney themed show always tends to sell hard. Every show in  the run was sold out.

The critics choice awards are highly anticipated. With 75 awards being presented it seemed like there was an award for just about any show. Actually I take that back, there are over 200 shows which makes it impossible for any one critic to see every show over the 14 days of Fringe. Word of mouth and the Fringe Buzz however clearly swing towards favorites. The award for the best show went to Dandy Darkly’s All Aboard! He was beside himself going up to accept the award and some Fringe artists on the lawn like Paul Strickland were just as excited for him. It is that kind of enthusiasm of artists supporting each other that I find heart warming.

90 Lies a Minute at Fringe

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Paul Strickland an Orlando Fringe veteran brought 90 lies a Minute to this year’s Fringe Festival. From the title I thought this might be a one man play about the political lies of our POTUS. Instead this hilarious comedy featured stories from relatives in the deep south.

He presented in quick witted succession three stories inherited from Uncle False, plus a song. The first story was about a cranky old family car that seemed best fueled by an endless stream of cursing. Another story had the family home straddling two time zones which allowed for family to step back in time an hour when aunt Ima passed away. Another story was about a sunken city and a politician making false promises that citizens were easily duped into believing.  It was at this point that I felt he might be making an allegory about the sad state of affairs in politics today.

Paul the pulled the strings of the story together with a solo song with his acoustic guitar to back him up. All the laughter was followed by poignant reflections in song. The tall tails seemed like family stories that might be told after a large holiday meal. Ain’t True and Uncle False could be any one of our own relatives.

13 Dead Dreams of “Eugene” at the Fringe

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X-Files meets The Twilight Zone in the dark! Fringe veterans, Paul Strickland and Erika Kate MacDonald  team up in this creepy
flashlight and shadow play with original songs. “13 Dead Dreams of Eugene” is based on the true story of a body that was found in Sabina on June 6, 1929. The unidentified dead man was
50 to 80 years old was
found on the 3C highway
near the Borum Road. The only
identification that
could be found on him
was a slip of tablet
paper with the address
1118 Yale Ave.,
Cincinnati written on
it. The Cincinnati
police checked the
address and found it was
a vacant lot. The
closest man to this
address was a man named
Eugene Johnson and for
this reason the unknown
man was given the name
of “Eugene.” It became known as the Sabina Mummy. It
was placed on display in hopes of identification. That’s when the Dead
Dreams began. Experience the shared recurring nightmares that haunted
one sleepy Ohio town, and the stranger-than-fiction story of “Eugene.” No one ever came to claim the body and it wasn’t buried until 1964.

I made special arrangements with the performers to let them know I would sketch the show from the back row to avoid letting any member of the audience see that I was creating this sketch. Pam and I arrived winded because we had gone to the wrong venue and had to run across Lock Haven Park to try and get to Dead Dreams before the doors closed. A woman seated in front of us gave us a high five for our winded enthusiasm. Get sat down and the theater immediately went black.

A slow ghostly voice began talking about the experience of being dead. He recalled his wake, the people crying and learning about his family from fragments of conversations. The dead lack memories so they linger to find out what they can. Eugene was a black man who had been murdered. He was never identified, and his murderer was never found. His body was on display in the town of Sabina for decades, a macabre side show attraction. After the body went on display, people in the town began having recurring nightmares and these were written down for posterity. Town’s people didn’t like to recall those nightmares. Once written they were filed away to be archived and forgotten. Paul and Erika however kept asking about these memories and they were finally given access to the recorded nightmares found in a cardboard box. Those documents are the foundation around which they built the show.

Flashlights, rear projections and string silhouettes are used to recount the tales. Much of the time the room is pitch black with just the ghostly words to carry the tales. This show is Fringe at it’s best. Solid story telling wrapped in mysterious light and original song. Definitely a “must see show” at this year’s Fringe.

812 E Rollins St, Orlando, FL 32803. Tickets are $12 plus a $10 Fringe button needed to get into any Fringe Show.

10:45 PM 

7:15 PM 

5:30 PM

4:45 PM

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.

Truth or Dare with Pepe!

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As part of the Fringe Theater Festival, Pepe is performing at the Black Venue, known as The Venue (511 Virginia Drive Orlando, FL) owned by Blue Star. Pepe, played by Rob Ward, is a Fringe regular. He speaks with a gregarious, affected Miami accent and does everything with a flair. No expense was spared on the set which consisted of a bubble lamp and his signature red high heeled chair. Pepe always has guest performers and for the first show I saw, they were, Logan Donahoo, Paul Strickland, Adam McCabe, Blue Star and Lady Raptastic who was remote on Skipe.. The guests were shown slides of celebrities and asked to provide cutting commentary. Blue despises Miley Cyrus who was shown with her legs spread wide.  Logan did a hilarious job roasting Madonna.

“Yellow Shots” were offered to the entire audience. His “Shot Boy” only had his underwear on which showcased his large bulge. Pepe came up with the idea of starting a restaurant chain called “Bulges” which would be like a Hooters for gay men. It is a million dollar idea. The jello shots were actually orange but Pepe’s pronunciation changed their color. We all raised the shots as a toast and then the room went silent as everyone sucked down the shots. Consuming one of Pepe’s jello shots is a bit suggestive. You have to stick your tongue out as far as you can, and then slit the tip of your tongue all around the edge of the tiny cup to dislodge the jello from the cup. Then you have to wedge your tongue under the jello to dislodge it from the cup completely. If your tongue is long enough and your licking was thorough enough, the entire mass cap pop into your mouth. I grew self conscious half way into the process and tried to suck the jello down prematurely. The loud sucking noise that resulted was more embarrassing than if I had continues exercising my tongue. The many chunks left behind had to be dislodged with further tongue explorations anyway.

A guest from the audience was asked onto the stage and given the choice of Truth, or Dare. He chose a dare. Pepe had a stack of playing cards and the guest was asked to pick a card. The number on the card would result in the guest having to remove that number of items of clothing. He picked a card with a high number and soon he was standing buck naked with his tight cheeks facing the audience. Everyone went wild. When he turned around, Pepe put the jello shot tray over his privates.

Another performance had Fringe comedians doing improve on stage with Pepe as the MC. As one of the straight performers, Chase Padgett was offered a makeover. He stood behind a small table covered in cosmetics and Chris Dinger stood behind him to act as Chases arms. Chase put his hands in his pockets and Chris slipped his arms under Chases pits. They began by applying a powder which Pepe noted is usually the last step in a makeup regimen. Powder got on Chases T shirt and everywhere else. Red lipstick followed which resulted in a huge Bozo ring of red around Chase’s mouth and on his left nostril. The lipstick went everywhere but on his lips. Eyeliner and mascara followed which resulted in black and blue raccoon eyes. By the end of the session, he looked very much like Judy Garland minus the black gloves and high heels. Everyone was laughing so hard they were crying.

Fringe National / International Preview

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On Wednesday May 15th the Fringe National / International Preview was held in the Orange Venue at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center. 44 shows from out of town performers had two minutes to get patrons interested in their show. If and performer went beyond two minutes, Bikini Katie would get up and escort the performer off stage. Michael Marinaccio, Fringe’s producer, and Chase Padgett hosted the event.

The first performer up was Miss Hiccup, Shoshinz from Tokyo Japan, and I placed her in the sketch.  Her show is called “A Day in the Life of  Miss Hiccup“. Her loud flower covered costume was hard to resist. Her physical comedy looks like it could be a fun show. Alexa Fitzpatrick from Aspen Colorado told us about her show called “Serving Bait to Rich People.” Alexa works as a bartender at a Colorado dive in a mountain town where men outnumber women two to one. She got serious for a moment, “I’m in the middle of a break up.” She paused to let that sink in. “But I’ll  be OK, the couple was already having trouble.” I laughed out loud.

That reminds me, there was a guy seated in the front row who had the loudest guffaw of a laugh, I’ve ever heard. One performer commented, “I love your laugh, It’s like you’re hurling acceptance at me.” Oddly a woman in the audience chimed in saying she hoped it would stop. Chase was very diplomatic and stressed that different people have different laughs, and at the Fringe , laughs from all walks of life are accepted. Sadly the guy seemed to have become self conscious and didn’t laugh as loud or as often. Then again, seeing 44 previews in a row can wear an audience member down.

I was impressed by the performance of Qurrat Ann Kadwani from NYC. First off she lamented that her parents gave her a name that no one could pronounce. I can identify with that. She switched
characters often as she talked about what it was like growing up Indian
in the Bronx. I circled “They Call me Q” in my program. Jason Nettle educated us about Fetishes. He said Bronnies and Clappers are individuals who get off on “My Little Pony.” He said he could explain why Michael keeps asking George for a Blimpkin. I obviously have much to learn, so I circled “Fetish” in my program. 

Patrick Combs got one of those fake checks from publishers
Clearing House for $95,000 dollars. He thought it would be funny to
deposit it at his bank signed with a smiley face. He forgot about it and
later discovered that his Bank (Bank of America) had cashed the check
and he was $100,000 richer. When he went to the bank to straighten
things out he was greeted by armed gun men in black suits. His two
minutes were up at the mic, and the audience all went awww. Because we
all wanted to know what happened next. Bikini Katie walked him off stage
with “Man 1, Bank O” written on her thighs.

Chase Padgett and Paul Strickland teamed up to do a guitar duo.  They made up lyrics on the fly and Chase came up with lyrics about laughter that tied into the evenings ongoing theme. I circled, “Chase and Paul: Solo Shows are Hard“. Gemma Wilcox from London took us for a ride in her “Magical Mystery Detour“. She played a dog, a driver and a motorcycle side car, switching between characters in an instant. I suspect this show is a must see, although she moves so fast and so often, she might be hard to sketch.. “Little Pussy“ by John Grady isn’t about Sex, but about a little kitten named faith that he rescued from sprawling LA traffic. Martin Dockery is a master storyteller. I saw him last year and recognized his frenetic energy. I definitely want to see “The Dark Fantastic“.

Paul Strickland: Jokes, Songs, a Hat, Etc!

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Beth Marshall was the producer of Paul Strickland‘s show at the Orlando Fringe Festival and she suggested I see and sketch the show.There was a line of people outside the Brown venue in the Shakespeare theater and I muscled into line. A volunteer scanned my ticked and then asked, “Do you have a button?” I said, “Of course.” and pointed down at my bag that was covered in buttons. Looking down, I realized my Fringe button had fallen off. Thankfully she didn’t notice.

I sat at the center of the top row of the bleacher seats. Jeremy Seghers and members of his cast from Mysterious Skin sat around me. The author of the play had been sent a link to the blog post and apparently he loved the sketch. I was flattered. A green light from the lighting tech booth illuminated my sketch as the room grew dark. Actress Sarah Villegas was visiting from out of town with her boyfriend. She had been in Fringe shows since she was 14 and this was the first time she came as a visitor. She said she missed Orlando and the Fringe in particular.

Paul’s show combined comedy and music in a perfect blend. Many jokes centered around his feeling old at 30 yet they resonate even more when you hit 50. The woman seated directly in front of me laughed so loud that she set off a chain reaction of laughter. I identified with that strange feeling he got when a child stared at him. For some reason, children always stare at me on airplanes or in supermarkets. It is unnerving. Anyway he decided to warm up to this particular child and he made cute faces and said “Where can I buy one of you?” That would be fine he realized, unless the child was black! He performed My Way which is a song any artist who forges their own path can identify with.

You have one more chance to catch his show today, Sunday May 27th at 12:30PM. Tickets are $11. This show can be an exclamation point to your Fringe experience.