Toronto Fringe Roundup #2

A roundtable conversation about Toronto Fringe on the last Saturday, as Tom McGee (Featherweight), Janelle Hanna (Robert.), Al Lafrance (I think I’m Dead), Danny Pagett (Prank), and Rebecca Perry (Bikeface) join host Phil Rickaby to talk about Toronto Fringe so far, what they’ve seen, what they are looking forward to seeing and much more.
Recorded 10:00, July 14, 2018.

Tom McGee
Twitter: @mcgeetd
Website: www.tdmcgee.com
Theatre Brouhaha: www.theatrebrouhaha.com/
Featherweight: https://fringetoronto.com/festivals/fringe/event/featherweight

Janelle Hanna
Twitter: @janellemhanna
Robert: https://fringetoronto.com/festivals/fringe/event/robert

Al Lafrance
Twitter: @notsoweirdal
Instagram: @notsoweirdal
www.al-lafrance.com/
I Think I’m Dead: https://fringetoronto.com/festivals/fringe/event/al-lafrance-i-think-im-dead

Danny Pagett
Twitter: @spoonydan
Instagram: @danquo
Prank: https://fringetoronto.com/festivals/fringe/event/prank

Rebecca Perry
Twitter: @rebeccaperry21
www.rebeccaperry.ca
Bikeface: https://fringetoronto.com/festivals/fringe/event/bikeface

Transcript

All right, so welcome to episode 136… 36! 136 of Stageworthy, this is the second fringe roundup for the Toronto Fringe Festival and we’ll go around and everybody say your name and which show you’re representing and we’ll get things started. Right on. I’m Danny Pagett, I wrote and directed Prank, which is going on at the Tarragon Extra Space.

Hey, I’m Todd McGee, I wrote and directed Featherweight and starred in it on Wednesday. Going on at the Pac-Town. I’m Al LaFrance, I wrote, directed and consistently star in I Think I’m Dead at the TPM Backspace.

I’m Janelle Hanna, I’m in Robert by Brianna Brown at St. George the Martyr Church. Nice. I’m in Final Exam, our last show’s today at four o’clock so if you make it out that’s great, but if not, see some other stuff.

So just to jump in, we didn’t get a chance to talk about your show because you weren’t here last time. Could you tell me a little bit about I Think I’m Dead? Yeah, it’s a storytelling show about insomnia and parallel universes and mental and physical breakdowns of all sorts. It’s the most personal thing I’ve ever written but I masquerade it as a thing that’s not going to be all that personal but it’s just a lot of secrets is all it is.

And it’s probably the only thing I’ve ever written that I’m proud of. How long have you been performing that? That show? For almost a year now. I opened it in Edmonton last year which, if any of you are ever curious about opening a show at Edmonton Fringe that’s probably not the place you want to do that.

It’s a big festival, they have expectations. A lot of shows arrive at Edmonton with already some buzz that they’ve built up. Yeah, most of them you didn’t just finish writing them four days before.

So that’s why I’m taking it back to Edmonton this summer. Sandra Shamas did that with her first show where she premiered My Boyfriend’s Back and There’s Gonna Be Laundry at the Edmonton Fringe which is probably one of the most fringe titles I’ve ever heard. So she premiered hers there, so you know, long history of doing that.

But you’ve taken that to Australia as well. Yeah, I took it to Australia, took it to the States, did it a bunch of times so now it’s correct. Now I’m doing it right, and now I’m super happy with it.

There’s a world with this one. Do you find it difficult, because this show is, as you say, one of the most personal things you’ve written, but you masquerade it as not personal. Do you find it difficult performing that every night, or have you gotten into a groove of it? Now I’m in a bit of a groove, but it always depends because every once in a while someone will see the show who’s involved in it and that throws me off.

It’s bizarre when that happens. Generally, if I’m feeling good, then it’ll be fine. There’s still once in a while where I start… This week I’ve had a lot of trouble sleeping again, which hasn’t happened to me in a long time.

There’s times where I start talking about when I start to believe that I’m losing my mind when I’m sleep-deprived, and I’m like, oh no, what if it’s happening right now? And so the parts where I question reality become way too real. But that works out. I think that makes me give a better performance, because it’s true again.

This is experiential theatre. It’s a one-man immersive. It’s like, this could be happening right now, you guys.

It’s not as difficult as it was, but it’s still pretty draining to do. Because it takes a lot out. How do you deal with that? After the show, are you like, I need to be alone for the next few hours? I tend not to really do that anymore.

I try to take a little bit of time to calm down, but I do close the show by telling everyone in the audience that if they want to, I’m there to talk, or whatever. And that’s been happening a lot. So I get the ten minutes of teardown is my time to get ready, and then I go in to have coffee with someone for an hour after the show yesterday.

So there’s no time to fully calm down. But that’s okay. That’s just sort of the thing I do now.

But otherwise, if I have the time, I totally will take the time to calm down, because I’m usually way too amped up, because it’s also the fastest show I’ve ever done. It’s four pages longer than the last solo show I did, and it runs four minutes longer. Good God.

I find it really interesting with personal stories. I did a much lower stakes, but I did a solo show when Honest Ed’s closed that was about Honest Ed’s and my experience with Honest Ed’s. It was awesome.

I was in Honest Ed’s office, and I went and bought the four final things I could find at Honest Ed’s and basically made a show about who built these things, and what are these, why would any human make this. I found an animal grave marker with a typo in it. It had a poem on it.

I was like, someone wrote this. But it was interesting, because what it basically did was enable everyone who’s at this giant art event, and having a great time at the art, but also a bunch of people were like, I just fucking want to mourn Honest Ed. And it opened up those conversations.

Yeah, I finished the show, and they’d just be like, I once bought a pair of jeans here. It’s probably outside. Did it have that voice? Yes, litreally every single person I talked to was like, some weird old British lady.

Maybe kindly, but possibly bad for Gryffindor not winning. Oh yes, absolutely. But yeah, I can only imagine with a show that’s that personal, but also about a topic.

I don’t know, I’m a bad sleeper myself. No one fucking talks about it, so having the permission to talk must be great for the audience, but also must be fucking exhausting for you. That’s cool.

The more exhausted I am, the more I sleep. Good work, audience. We’ve also just been joined by Rebecca Perry, producer of Bike Face, which is one of the patron’s picks this year, so congratulations on that.

Thank you very much. So we were just talking about our show, but generally I want to ask everybody, so how’s your Fringe been? Well, it’s 10am and I’m drinking a Red Bull, so that should do something for this. This tells me quite a bit.

We both helped close that silent disco last night. Yum, yum, yum. You were there on the dance floor.

I was near the dance floor with my broken toe being like, that looks fun. I will remember. You know what I mean? Don’t stop believing.

All of it, all of it. Fringe has been good. I’m not at 47 shows, which I am very dissatisfied about.

How many did you manage to do? I’m at 34 right now. Still. She didn’t do the full… Fell short of the full Twins.

But there’s two days, people. There’s still two days. She can still do the full Chua.

Yeah. And in fairness, I purposefully did not see the 11pm show last night because I wanted to go to the silent disco. That’s fair.

A couple of things that I’ve noticed this year that I thought I would talk to you guys about. This is one of the first years that I can recall seeing so much discussion about reviews. Yes.

I was going to bring that up. I myself started a big thread. Well, this is the thing.

Occasionally, I’ve seen somebody complaining about the review that they got and maybe rebutting it. But this is the first year I’ve seen it on a widespread level. And I’m wondering, has something happened with the reviewers this year? So actually, NOW Magazine, in order to cover every single review, has employed some people from the GeneratorTO program that have just finished basically a training program that educates them on how to be a reviewer in Toronto, specifically, to the best of my understanding.

I actually attended a GeneratorTO talk yesterday that was about criticism and reviews. I totally wanted to go to that. It was really cool.

The three biggest topics, just so everyone knows, including the podcast listeners, they were basically talking about reviewing shows that are considered niche, but in the sense of disability arts or sign language theatre and stuff like that. And those were sort of the two big ones. And that was led by Shea Ehrlich, who is a reviewer specifically for those niches.

The other discussion was what is the future of reviews and criticism? And so that was the discussion I joined, which was led by Carly Maggot, which was very interesting, because it was talking about how as newspapers and sort of print decline and social media rises, how is that going to change reviews and what people are attracted to? So she was talking about, for example, instilling like, you know, having somebody film their gut reaction right after a show and then talking about it 72 hours later and then a week and a half later and sort of how that would change how someone felt about it. And then the third and final topic was something that I believe the first sort of test run for was at the Storefront Theatre with the Numbers game, which was having a critic present in like the first stages of rehearsal and then before they open and then after they’ve opened and sort of seeing how that changes their perception of the piece because they actually get to see how much work goes into the piece. So they were all interesting topics, but back to sort of reviews specifically, there was a lot of discussion within all three of the tables as to what is best practices for a review because a lot of people who were speaking up about bad reviews, it didn’t surprise me that those reviewers were the greenest around the ears, if you will.

And also, they were the reviewers that didn’t want to accept any sort of open dialogueue after they put their review out into the world. So to preface this with kind of a sad story, I kicked two teenagers off the John Kaplan show yesterday because they were like making out on the John and they moved the sign and I was like, you sons of bitches, get the fuck out of here. And then I had a long chat with a friend because the change that I’ve noticed, it’s interesting though because it was a bit unexpected for me, but this year, the big shift I’ve noticed is with John’s absence as a huge gaping hole in the festival in terms of someone who approaches things constructively.

I saw him deliver one of the most scathing reviews both outside of theatre and on paper that I’ve ever seen and it was still so nice and constructive and kind while still being firm and ultimately for this particular show, corrective because it was like, please don’t do this. Like constructive criticism. Yeah, exactly.

And he was mad. He was really mad about it but he still delivered a really fair even-handed review. And so I was really curious what was going to happen in lieu of John and what I found really interesting is Glenn Sumi’s kind of really stepped hard into that role.

Yes. He’s very, I really commend him. Because for someone who has made a point of saying like, I don’t really want to get to know the artists, like that interferes with my job and who I’ve always felt is a bit more distant as a reviewer, he sent out a really useful tweet a couple days ago which is still a sentence that I hate saying about anything but basically being like, hey listen, if you’ve got a one-end or a two-end, that’s fine.

It’s not the end of the world. That’s one reviewer’s opinion. Go to work.

And so there was such great response to it and everything else and I’ve seen him do that on a few things where he’s seen shows and he’s like, hey I love this. I disagree with the review that we’ve published but that’s just my opinion and it doesn’t even validate that one. I’m just saying this was my experience of the thing, I liked it.

And that’s so fucking healthy and so helpful and I didn’t, like I love Glenn but I didn’t expect it from Glenn but I think he’s kind of seen that absence and it’s been, I’m now the ur-reviewer. He’s stepping in. Yeah.

On the other side of that coin, I’ve attended a few shows with him where other people have reviewed it and given it like five stars and he’s been like, I also don’t agree with that. So, but I actually do appreciate that he is acknowledging that these reviewers are voicing their objective opinions but also as someone who is much more seasoned it’s really interesting to me to sort of hear what he thinks about things because it’s true, he’s seen almost as much as John in many ways. Yeah, absolutely.

Because he was like John’s right hand man for so long and so it’s interesting to see him sort of like man this like team of 12 reviewers he didn’t have before and also sort of navigate that relationship because as far as I can tell from what he said like it’s a really interesting and fascinating one because he’s kind of in charge of like nourishing their minds but also he has to educate them on best practices at the same time. I’ve always appreciated Glenn’s separation between, from the artists because John Kaplan was always very like friendly with artists and he had lots of artists who were friends and things like that but I’ve always kind of appreciated Glenn’s, like Glenn doesn’t hang around after the show he doesn’t go to the reception he doesn’t make friends because he doesn’t want like you said he doesn’t want his objectiveness to be compromised. This was the first year where I actually realized that because I’m friends with Carly I’m friends with Steve and I’m friends with Jack Gard We’ll talk to you.

Yeah, absolutely but it suddenly meant that all three of them were like it’s conflict of interest for me to review you and I was like yup no, absolutely fuck well that’s that’s like actually a like good on them 100% but it was one of those funny moments where you’re like oh I’m really glad that I have these people in my life but suddenly like three major reviewers can’t review my shit yeah yeah we’re out roamed there were objectively some some unfair reviews absolutely there were also some pretty quick five stars as well yes yeah quick ones quick fives yeah that’s still an unfair review I’ve seen a few there was there was one that there was one that I saw today that was not they agree it was a review that somebody had made us think about that I didn’t think was actually that unfair of a review that now it’s sort of becoming they’re like they’re sort of like spinning like the company sort of spinning it as like as an underdog story like marine land a few years ago I’m like yeah you mean sea land for legal reasons sea land it’s like marine land doesn’t need money we’ll have to sue everyone don’t worry about it but but yeah like there’s been there’s been a few a few that I’ve seen like floating around that I’m like yeah no that’s totally unfair but I I saw one sort of sort of floating around today that was that was about and and you know like I haven’t seen this show so so everything with a grain of salt but I read the review and I read the criticism of it and the criticism of it was mainly that the reviewer had said there were parts that were that were spoken in Spanish and and they found it confusing like they they found that it got in the way of the plot because there wasn’t a translation and the sort of counter campaign to it has been like Toronto is a is a very diverse city there’s a lot of Spanish speakers in it we will not do this blah blah but like all that the reviewers seemed to be saying in the review was that it made it hard like that like that like maybe dramaturgically you could you know you could you could tweak it so that we can understand the plot better even if we don’t understand what they’re what they’re saying I’ve seen shows where it’s a different language but they’ve staged it in a way where you understand through body language like that’s sort of what you’re saying right? there’s ways to communicate without necessarily having the words above their head exactly well and from what I understand from that particular show they’d spent a lot of time talking about that and and had addressed it in terms of how they felt about their staging and what’s interesting is now actually responded oh really? yeah yeah there was a sergeant involved last night and they were saying that um Glenn got in touch and because they they requested another review yeah and Glenn was like well I can’t send anyone else but um I or I can’t post another review but I am happy to send someone and we can do a follow up about it um which again to my mind is like signals such an interesting thing from the reviewing community which is let’s actually engage which is night and day from like you know I still remember you know my first solo fringe show like sitting there in the green room of uh oh that god awful private boys school like oh yeah halfway to tarragon sweltering heat and like flipping through I and now consecutively trying to find the reviews um and that meant everything like those reviews are the make or break do or die get that review and like that’s that’s your ticket whereas now now um but it seems like all the review landscape is kind of flattened in an interesting way yeah and it’s it’s so interesting to me that they’re responding yeah because there’s been some amendments to it I don’t know if you guys have seen that oh really the one that comes to mind is hold on I’ll get the title right um a brief history thank you oh right there a brief history of beer thank you al um so basically there was part of one of the reviews for a brief history of beer complained about the fact that I guess tarragon was making it hard for people to buy beer and bring it in even though that was a part of the show right it was something they had negotiated with Toronto Fringe and I guess there was just a few wires crossed with tarragon um but the problem is that shouldn’t make it into a review yeah so what’s nice is that is one thing that I know got amended like 24 hours after it was released and that made tarragon sort it out yeah yeah yeah so like I think that was a different situation like people just speaking up so it’s interesting because that review almost helped fix the situation right yeah it’s funny because I previously have not really seen responses to reviews that were not anything other than sour grapes this is the first time that I’ve seen people yeah that’s a good point like some people with legitimate grapes but also like some response from the reviewers at all yeah yeah so I think it’s changed too because so many publications are reviewing everything now right so that changes the game because there are just more reviews oh yeah and it’s also interesting just to see like how one publication is like raving about something and the other one’s panning it there’s a lot of that going on that is such an interesting thing right there’s no universe there’s almost nothing that’s like everybody loves this show and there’s a few of them there’s always going to be a few there’s one that got five N’s and then like got like an F from my entertainment world I actually think that’s a good mark of theatre because you want people to either love it or hate it you don’t want them lukewarm yeah yeah your job is to get a reaction was it one left hour yeah litreally like the people like the my entertainment world review was the first one they gave them an F and then all of a sudden they’re like getting raves and to their credit like they’re making they’re making theatre that’s like interesting nobody’s walking out of that saying it was alright which is good yeah and that’s your job right I think as an artist good or bad whenever your job is to get a reaction and obviously they are forgettable theatre is the worst when you walk out someone’s like what’d you see you’re like oh I saw oh god I don’t know my friend stage managed it I don’t know I don’t remember what it was somebody was in love I think yeah I think it was love it was kind of funny but also kind of sad it’s an hour and it was at a theatre that had air conditioning but it was hard to get to speaking of discussions Janelle and I this week there was a show that we both saw we actually talked about it on the podcast last week it provoked a very interesting discussion from a lot of different companies but basically the long and short of it is someone got a one end review that said some very inflammatory very accusatory things and I saw the show and I couldn’t even think of what possibly they could be referring to which I think shows that you know reviews do need an open dialogueue because I was having trouble understanding where this reviewer thought this was coming from so after reading it I attended the show again it was like I didn’t because it was a comedy stand up thing I realized that there was different jokes that were going in every night I think they have about 90 minutes of material and whatever 60 comes out so the day I saw it I didn’t see anything the second time I saw it there was one joke where I was like there’s a tweak you could add to that but I know Janelle has been really awesome we’ve been trying to get people out to go and see it I think the thing that bothers me the most was unfortunately at the end of the review I’m trying to say this tactfully they said some really discouraging things that I think would make this stand up comedian maybe not want to continue and that to me is very dangerous because the fringe is about experimenting the fringe is also about championing new kinds of theatre and so I don’t think that this critic should put down the only comedian out there who is doing a set about Asperger’s because he has Asperger’s and he’s sick of people who don’t have Asperger’s telling him what to do and so I think it’s important to say I acknowledge you’re doing something different I acknowledge you’re doing something important keep honing your material don’t just stamp on somebody I know and I don’t see the point I didn’t feel right about it no me neither and I don’t you know he’s touring too he’s not from here and we all that’s so hard I don’t know actually about Al because we don’t know each other he’s from Montreal right? yeah sure and I don’t have this experience but it’s one thing to get a shitty review when you’re here and you have a community of people I can spin it with you yes and all these people behind you and it’s another thing to not be from here get panned and I think that’s when you know reviews do matter for them a little bit more than perhaps Toronto based artists Toronto is a very difficult place for an artist who’s not from here yeah as Al can attest too and I’ve seen many people and I also have encountered people when I was touring who Toronto isn’t even on their radar yep anytime I’ve been in the fringe circuit it has blown my mind I hate to say it how much more welcoming the other fringes are I don’t hate to say it because I think we need to change I know we do you know what it is I think it kind of shocked me because I was like why is it so easy to fringe everywhere else yeah it’s like if you go to other cities and they’re like welcome we love having you here Toronto’s like whatever you’re almost more excited we have 12 festivals happening today and you do not give a shit yeah that’s the other thing Al you posted something earlier about this I have friends who won the CAF lottery which allows you to select your entire circuit and purposely skipped Toronto because they’re like no I still want to feel good halfway through July like I’d like to have the energy to do the rest of the tour so I’m not gonna go to Toronto because it’s it’s a rat race yeah and it’s like it’s known as being a place that’s hyper competitive and less friendly in a way like this was a city that had issues with people posturing over each other like for years which is not a thing anywhere else because no one else will refer to someone as a competitor yeah in a fringe you’re just like oh that sold out great maybe that overflow will come to me it’s never like those fuckers they sold out which feels like that that that happens here and it’s just you know the a lot of the main issue that a lot of us have who are touring is like the incredible strictness on things like time like I went over by 30 seconds on the show and then I got an email from a festival and I’m like yeah I went over 30 seconds because I because I talked to the audience that applauded for longer than I’m used to I’m terribly sorry that I did this to you people the mayor got an email that day would you agree would you agree would it be safe to say Al that Toronto because there’s so much going on at once even though people are posturing on top of each other it might be that like someone’s posturing for their folk gig at the Monarch or something instead like or do you find it no I mean specifically specifically fringe yeah okay interesting yeah but not this year because there’s no posturing anymore because there’s nowhere to do it which is surprising and also weird that’s really weird that’s like that’s that’s a disappointing thing is is that there’s nowhere to put your poster yeah it’s because you’re in a whole hockey rink right with that that all of the boards are like permanently damaged because that’s the point of boards in a hockey so why can’t we just poster all over that shit for a week well there’s there’s that one and again this goes back to part of our discussion last time there’s that there’s there’s the one poster board right by the tiny box office yeah off to the side shipping container the shipping container off to the side not nowhere near the place where people actually are yeah which is like okay why is that there well and I know that well part of the reason that they instituted that was I was there during like the most disastrous poster rush oh yeah a few years ago and someone break a leg uh people got hurt in that yeah well I watched well it’s your point about postering over people like what was nuts was it was like the running of the fringe and they’re like on the count of three go it was so stupid the thing the rule was as long as your posters were attached we do whatever you want so the Randolph folks made like the size of a fucking sail right um because there were a thousand of them and they ran it like width wise so you would have to like burst through like a football which would have been very cool yeah very cool you know what my regrets are even a tom-shaped hole in there yeah exactly like sideways running but when the dancer hurt break their ankle or something like that I mean like a bunch of shit went down but I remember like I had my one shaky shake poster and I was like I guess we’re doing this and then like it didn’t fire a star pistol but it felt like it started running and I watched someone fall and I litreally had to leap over her and I was like in midair I was like questioning your humanity holy shit I hope you’re okay but it’s also a stampede so I can’t turn around and help you because then I’ll get hurt yeah just sums up Toronto Fringe right here well that was just that they cut out like years ago though right yeah like that because then they just made the poster wall in Honest Ed’s alleyway which they had for about two or three years yeah which was nice because it was like it was you you had to look at you you’d walk right past it to get to the bar I really liked being able to walk down there and go what was playing like yeah because you get to see that show’s visual representation absolutely that they’ve had time to work on for longer than there are still shows I’m hearing about now that I have not heard about as a fest and I’m like oh that sounds great oh it closed yesterday shit on the fact that this is like a practice that was out done a couple years ago the issue it takes several years of good behaviour for Fringe’s reputation on the circuit to actually change because like on a on a touring level particularly like you won’t necessarily do the same city every year right and so when I yeah when I posted like I posted last week on Facebook just like oh hey Toronto still spiritless still strict on rules because that’s what it felt like because again this is also the only place where like I’ve met before today where I met two of you that I had not met before I met one Toronto artist the entire time here because there’s not the same level of mingling that I experience everywhere else right so I just posted that and then it became a giant thread of a bunch of people who don’t do Toronto anymore telling me about all the things they hated about the times they were here and I’m like that’s not you know that’s not me it’s a long time for that to change no I was just going to say like this idea should bother us it bothers me a lot yeah and I said this to your partner the other night like it’s going to be the artists that change it not to say that fringe doesn’t care I had a great time this year to be clear totally it is starting but it’s you know we have to change it right but again there’s things certain things that that are barriers the like receiving an email because you went over 30 seconds it’s kind of bullshit also to be honest I know a lot of people who are done with fringe because of the you know late comers yeah like we’ve all had family members agents important people 20 seconds late litreally like what does that do except alienate the audience right especially with the way that some of the venue managers deal with it maybe there could be a choice like you have like a five minute period in Montreal and a lot of other cities you get to say whether or not you want to be able to have late comers yeah and you can decide an amount of time for a lot of places yeah so you can be like all right well if you show up 12 minutes in nothing’s gonna make any fucking sense before that please one of the things that I always appreciate half hour children show and people showed up at 25 minutes there’s a loose entry did they still get it oh they did it we did it one of the things that I always appreciated about Montreal is the fact that they had an artist liaison and that was like you know in Toronto if you want to answer to a question who yeah like you may not get it at all you’re probably not gonna get it but in Ventotron yes in Montreal there’s like there’s somebody who’s like that’s their job they’re the artist liaison got a question they will tell you where you need to go to check in do you not need do you need help with like did you lose your billet like whatever like talk to this person they’re like that’s their job well and I know this year too and I don’t know where this went but they were trying to connect up like international companies with a Toronto company yeah and did they do that that was offered yeah okay well like that’s a start yeah we gotta be doing stuff like that like it’s nice to know that the festival is aware but there’s still a level of disconnect but I think it will just take a time this is also the only festival in all of Canada where I haven’t met the festival director oh well yeah that’s actually very true which has never happened to me like you know in Edmonton Edmonton’s a 300 show festival where every single person meets Murray within 48 hours yeah I remember being in Edmonton and like the director was always made the point like he met everybody last year he was postering on day one and he would always buy tickets to the show that had the least tickets sold that day yeah it’s just it’s just like you know and I remember going to Montreal and I you know you get you get a hug from Amy like yeah you meet everybody and here you and you know what it’s when I was doing shows here that I remember like even doing like the the volunteer breakfast and like the staff was like yeah whatever like it was like I was treated with contempt by staff for helping you know it was like I’m you know I’m helping we are here like the the yes we don’t get to do our show without the friends but the friends doesn’t happen without the artists absolutely there needs to be some kind of accommodation yes with the artists for it’s just like more than just like well we give you the money yeah actually having an artist liaison would be very it would be super I know in in Edinburgh they have a whole building I know one of Lucy’s plans is to eventually make something like that just as a heads up it was something that wasn’t accomplished this year but as I’m sure you can all agree a lot of big changes happened this year yes and I know some people have feelings about Eventatron but that is the Edinburgh model I love Eventatron me too it makes my life so much easier and so I know it’s frustrating sometimes but basically also like with making the program just comedy in this section just you know musicals basically the more Lucy aligns us with Edinburgh the more that we can probably become a much larger scale festival which if I had to guess might be the goal which is good and I also know they made a concerted effort this year and now to do a lot of pre-coverage with international artists like for example Adam Schwartz got a big mention and now the Mystical Wishes Puppet Company which had Shadow Kingdom and Space Hippo got a whole article to themselves I know that’s not a lot but by Toronto standards that is much better than last year so things are starting to shift just because we were talking about negatives I’d like to side note I realized I didn’t meet Lucy I also didn’t go to the poster run so perhaps she was there and that would have been my opportunity but my opening was at the same time and to your point Rebecca I think a lot of the issues I’m seeing with this year’s fringe are that the festival we’re in that awkward teenage pubescent growing pains phase the 30 year teenage phase it’s still there one day I hope to learn what puberty is but it really does feel like the festival has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger and rightly so and it’s a sign of the success of all the efforts of both the artists and management in years past unfortunately we’re at a tipping point where we’re not Edmonton sized yet we’re not Toronto sized anymore all my limbs are stretching what’s happening in these phases and that is a tough place to be and I mean like you know I’ve certainly made my views clear on a few things that I was frustrated with this year but I also recognized that like it’s always tough on you know it’s like when they’re building a new subway it’s a pain in the ass right now but I also didn’t live through the building of the previous subway so I’m going to bitch about it because I can’t go on Eglinton anymore but I also get to use the subway so all I’m going to say is let’s get this metaphor going let’s talk LRT shall we but no but I think there’s a lot of signs of that and also you know it’s easy having now done Fringe for a bunch of years to be like oh no but my experience two years ago was this but I also don’t have to contend with the fact that like Ed’s disappeared or like the festival is growing and is going to continue to grow and I think part of the reason Toronto is such a vicious competitive market is there’s so much theatre in Toronto all the time that I think that’s how we learn so when Fringe happens we’re like we gotta be like Marvish we gotta have posters everywhere we gotta destroy the competition one of the things that other Fringes like the competition doesn’t exist so much it’s like it was in Montreal that I first heard there’s audience enough for everyone which was a lie in Montreal that is a lie but it’s a good attitude to have that like we can share your success is not my failure if anything it’s going to fuel your if you’re a person who’s uninitiated to the Fringe and you go to a show and you love it you’re like give me ten more please so that’s not a bad thing one thing that I will speak into the sort of like unwelcoming feeling that sometimes the Toronto Fringe can give off I think part of that and this has always been sort of how I’ve sort of not justified it but sort of like my reasoning for why this may be is because Toronto has such a fairly recently burgeoning independent scene that over the past I would say six or seven years has just like exploded and it’s a big tight group of friends that don’t actually get to see each other a lot of the time during the school year and then so when they see each other at the tent it’s like a reunion every year between all these groups of friends that really don’t get to see each other so there’s this there’s what’s happening is these people being so excited to see each other that they forget that there’s other people at this festival right and particularly over the past two years with the loss of the storefront we’ve lost a couple of our big meeting places where we would see each other every month or every two weeks and that’s a feeling I’ve seen echo through a lot of my theatre friends particularly from the storefront so I think that’s amplified it a little bit this sort of like oh my god I haven’t seen you in so long we were so used to seeing each other like we were still in theatre school when the storefront was around and now it’s like we either have to schedule hangouts or wait for the fringe and because the media I think also is taking the cue of the storefront theatre unit one or two being closed because they’re like oh well I’m going to spotlight these indie artists during the fringe now which also might be a thing that will need to be adjusted as the years go on but I did notice that like we’ve missed this guy look he’s in the fringe we’re like oh that girl’s doing something super cool I also think something I noticed last night that I was actually really happy about this year I feel like last year I was tangentially involved but this year particularly I’ve met so many fewer because I love meeting artists I love talking about people’s stuff and like seeing people’s stuff I’ve seen less this year and I’ve met like no one this year so it’s nice to meet you but it took a podcast because and part of it is I mean like it’s a geographically slightly larger space than Ed’s and so as a result it’s very easy to make a little island what was crazy though was last night they had the silent disco which I was so skeptical of like I walked in just being like alright it was fucking amazing and what was crazy was it was the first time I saw litreally all of fringe mix and suddenly a bunch of people who would not have met or talked to each other gave everyone like a you know it was like seeing good play with people you haven’t met where you’re like oh well we just had a common experience we talked about this and I know fringes like still figuring out what the programming looks like in the tent but like to me that was such an interesting example of just like oh suddenly there’s like basically a baseline that everyone can talk about where it’s either like oh were you at it or no okay well here’s what it was it wasn’t what I was expecting like blah blah blah and that was really fucking nice and I kind of wish that was earlier because that would have been such a nice opening note to kind of like has there been too much going on at postscript there hasn’t been enough time for socializing or like why is the what’s no I don’t think so some of the events have been like a smidge under advertised and so I think people have just gone to hang out with people and then there’s been this other cool thing happening on the other side of the bar that you could also participate yeah okay I do appreciate the lack of stage this year because I remember last year I came straight from a great performance we were so fucking happy all we wanted to do was talk about it the actors were going to come join us afterwards it was their like awful 1045 comedy musical slot and we got to the fringe tent we were so excited to talk about the show and then another fringe musical like just like people had signed up for a slot on the stage and they were fully mic’d and they were not good just like all we wanted to do was talk about the show that we just enjoyed and instead we were subjected to like can we get a suggestion we’re going to write a song about it this is what I was worried my friend’s show was going to be you’re being better about sort of dividing if you want to see the performance yes which is great the only thing that’s been a little too loud has been the bands playing but I think that might have just been their choice of how to produce that speaking of shows what have you guys seen that you have loved lighters in the air I love that show probably not going to get a chance to see that and it breaks my fucking heart yeah I adored that that’s so good I love dive bars I love open mic culture and and I think that that’s a that’s a great example of it and I am astounded this is the I’ve never seen so Chris Hagen wrote this he wrote all the music and wrote the whole thing and I’ve seen like shorter things that he’s done I’ve seen him do sketch and I’ve never seen a full on 80 minute musical production of his I don’t know that there have been and I think this is really great it’s like it’s solid performances throughout and you know it’s not a perfect show by any means but it’s it’s a fantastic experience and and yeah and I gained a bunch of fringe crushes watching it so that’s always good that’s always good that’s good has anyone seen Josephine yeah incredible yeah it’s awesome like yeah I think it’s sold out for today but if anyone can rush oh that’s it and they drive out after yeah yeah they’re going to Winnipeg next I think so that’s really great for them Winnipeg check this out yeah I mean all the way Winnipeg got it last year and it’s sold out almost it’s all because that show that show’s got legs for days I had people warning me from the Ottawa front and from Montreal fringe like if you don’t buy in advance Rebecca you’re going to miss something you really like also Ashley with a Y I’ve seen that twice I loved it so much she’s incredible and and also Scott White is great on the piano I feel like at this point we should give her like a Vegas show here yeah I would watch that rent out a theatre just have shows every night I would go and see Ashley like every night yeah season pass to that this is the first fringe where I’ve actually seen more comedy than musicals which for me is different because there’s a lot of really cool comedy this year that being said like I did see the last party compulsion and polypeel all were great but they did sort of state they were in development and I am curious to see what sort of the next step is for all three of those musicals but I feel like this year something about comedy was just in the forefront it’s been coming up for a while there’s been more and more sketch more and more improv more and more comedy I saw two incredible improv shows they were also sort of sure things I saw entrances and exits which was amazing when I heard that they were going to be doing an improvised farce I was like that’s impossible you can’t do that we did an improvised police drama two years ago and I was like nope that’s harder than that it’s fantastic and then I saw D&D live I was fortunate enough to see it when Colin Mochrie was there did you guys see generally hospital no it also got the accessibility award it was very funny it was like a brand new troupe right out of the second city conservatory and you could tell their energy was electric they were so connected in every scene also like at points where people corpsed it was funny because it was because they were such good friends testing each other’s theatrical boundaries if you will but it was very funny because it’s all the situations you’ve always been in in a hospital so everybody could relate there was not a single sketch where I wasn’t hurting from laughing I loved One Small Step and I love everything that company does big ensemble work is amazing and hard to do and they did it in a week that’s what’s insane I was like please teach me how you put that show together in a week because it’s crazy I love Summerland a few years ago and it rocked my world a few years ago and this is like the same company and I will watch them do anything they have 7 o’clock show tomorrow night and then they got patron’s pick so they have one right after it at 9.15 at Randolph and it’s so worth your time I laughed it’s like they’re so freaking talented it’s just insane on the note of patron’s pick the best new play this year Women of the Year for a trade was very very powerful that show was very under promoted well now here comes in sort of the discussion that we were talking about with Al like they are from Winnipeg they’re not from Toronto and so I think the Winnipeg fringe is litreally the most welcoming fringe I’ve ever been to you basically just need to put up some posters people are like I want to support you I don’t think that happened here unfortunately and I had hoped sort of Toronto fringe would sort of warn them like hey here’s the kind of things you might want to do to promote your show because apparently Best New Play was not enough to just yeah I didn’t know we won Best New Play until like halfway through the first but in previous years Best New Play has been something that fringe has like promoted has it been Toronto or well yes yes and no so they they um there were some partnerships that no longer exist yes for New Play that they gave extra promotion A and B I was talking to someone about this the other day there was an interesting arc because like Help Yourself won Best New Play right after Kim’s yeah so like all eyes on us huge press because Kim’s exploded right um and Help Yourself did very well like we had a great run of it but um it’s it’s been interesting watching over the years because a couple of the Best New Play winners in past years have gotten kind of the two-end treatment and I think it went from Kim’s where it’s like holy shit sure fire thing holy like this is the fucking gold star to just kind of like oh no this is just a play this is another play and you get a full page ad in the program which is very helpful although the programs this year matter less because everything’s online yeah um but for my money I like in the years like maybe the three or four years right after Kim’s I was like I must see the contest and now I’m like okay yeah some people liked it that’s cool I like that but like yeah I’m gonna go see the plays I want to see I’m not gonna automatically run to this because it won yeah but it’s similar to what we were talking about earlier with reviews right it’s like cool this was like a festival of people’s opinion that’s rad but you know I’d rather go see this sketch comedy show that sounds really interesting than the show that I feel like I should see yeah yeah the show was ready to go up at Tarragon theatre next season like it was a shame to me that it didn’t have such a full house and then like 60 people on the waiting list because it deserved that kind of press and attention and it was also a very topical conversation essentially it was just sort of tracing during the Louis Riel period what was happening with the fur trade and also sort of women’s rights as wives and as like a metis wife versus a wife of somebody who was in parliament it was just a very interesting conversation that didn’t point any fingers but it certainly illuminated a lot of truths I think we’ve known for a while I thought it was going to be a runaway hit of this festival coming into it so I’m sort of surprised that hasn’t happened to that well hopefully it gets life you know it’s so hard when it’s touring right yeah oh that’s good yeah I think so I saw anywhere yeah Michael Ross Alberts yeah I was so like on the edge of my seat from almost the first moment oh yeah really well the two of them were incredible performers oh absolutely absolutely incredible performers but it was just like from the moment like you’re up late I’m like what is going on here and it just at no point did it really let up for me and I when it ended I was like well holy shit there’s this wonderful like slow leak of information oh yeah it does not drip drip yeah do you have like a rock in your stomach I did for almost the entire thing it’s like what’s going on it’s modern pinter like it’s it’s very very pinter-y yeah it’s really good did it peak your pinterest did any of you see awkward hug no I wanted to see nothing but good things yeah cause it’s a really interesting premise so Corey T. Bear who wrote it it’s a story about so when he was 19 years old he knew that both his parents that there was something different about them and he didn’t know until he was 19 that both his parents have cerebral palsy cause they they just never mentioned it like he knew that they had some form of disability but he never knew what it was and so so it’s the story of like his entire life and like helping them move and slowly learning everything because they just never really leaked information like my favourite thing of the whole show is when he asked his parents how they met he was like hey how did they met and his dad just went rehab and then never explained it and that’s it that’s all he knew for 20 years did you guys enjoy the hostilities yeah i was about to say that oh that was so good it’s great it’s great and it’s like perfect venue the bovine i said to him afterwards as a cynic as a notorious cynic things that i find inspiring make me uncomfortable like things that i find genuinely inspiring make me uncomfortable and i was like your show made me very uncomfortable i was ready to like i was like this is like it’s genuinely inspiring i wanted to conquer the world after that show absolutely yeah speaking of wanting to conquer the world after the show shout out to the show it was like a great show but b so i know natalie and i know claire and it was so strange it’s one of the first times i think i’ve seen someone write an intensely personal solo show and then i was like i was like i was like i was like i was like was like i was like i was like i was like car between a a co she doesn’t know Claire at all and she was like if this lady doesn’t look like she rode a bike I’m gonna be livid and I was like that’s a really good point because like the entire tone of that show would be so gross if it was just someone’s like yes I rode a bike across Canada I’m a twig! But anyway it was great and afterwards yeah like same thing with Rob and Joe like for obviously for different very different reasons but yeah I like I like that in particular his fringe can be such a just like a fucking mental beatdown yeah it’s really nice to come out of a show and and Al I haven’t seen your show and I’m hoping to catch it but again my friend came out of it yesterday and just I got a like a text storm from her she’s like yeah I’m just gonna check out the show and she’s like holy fuck I bought this pin I wish I’d bought more! I felt that way, I really enjoyed your show Al. I was trying to describe, one of the people I know from work was like what do I see at Fringe? I said go see Al’s show and I was like what is it about? I said sort of dealing with insomnia mental health at like a breakneck speed like just like hold on Are you every reviewer? Oh my god! Steve Fisher! Glenn Sumi! Kelly Vittard! Problem I’m having with this show is because it’s it’s about a bunch of different things that it’s sort of hard to describe why it works is almost every single review is just just a list of spoilers just a list of like this happens and then this happens and this happens so therefore this and I’m like yeah but what if what if you let me do that part? It was so much fun! Bruce Willis was a ghost the whole time! This Fringe I’ve tried not to read any reviews until after I saw the show so I actually went into yours being like I know Al’s style of storytelling but other than that I don’t know anything and I’m glad because then everything was a surprise for me and I was one of your audience members that was making like audible gasps! I’m that lady! Did anybody see the Merkin Sisters? I love that show so much! That’s one of the weirdest shows I’ve ever seen but also so amazing except I was sitting beside these old ladies who spent half the show being like so fucking stupid and then somewhere along the way Good! Half of the show being like this is stupid They got one over I was sitting next to this dude who tried to leave 10 minutes into Morrow and Jasper Oh my god! What did you do? He was on a date, he clearly just wanted to fuck this woman and I guess he was like I’ll do the culture thing So we were at the back of the Terragon in that back row directly in front of the booth and during one of the blackouts he like stood up over her and I’m like what’s he doing? Are they gonna have sex? What’s happening? And then he’s like wait what? And she’s like no we’re staying And then he sat back down and was like I just don’t understand, I don’t understand this And I litreally spent the rest of the show just kind of wanting to talk to this guy and slap him a bit And it was funny but it was the same thing by the end he was laughing And he was just automatically talking during every blackout I was like buddy, first time out huh? Yeah yeah But it was fascinating and again I love those audiences that are like that feel the need to vocalize whatever they’re experiencing like I don’t understand this show so shut up who cares! I assumed I was gonna see a very serious show about merkins Yes You just have to appreciate a show like that for what it is and you will have so much fun There’s like, I don’t know if anybody goes into the merkinsist and be like so what’s the plot? And if they do they’re in the wrong show I really want to know what these ladies thought they were getting into Like if they were like I don’t know Or do they know what a merkinsite is like? Actually I watched somebody in the front row halfway through the show be like so what’s the plot? And their friend was like Oh this is so much better! It’s a different way of saying American Oh Space Hippo, did anyone else see that? I didn’t get a chance to see it, no Okay so it’s the Wish’s Mystical Company The reason I specifically went to Space Hippo vs Shadowland Is it’s the one where Elliot Loren is performing all the music live As composed for the entire shadow puppet show This takes shadow puppetry to a whole new level There was a point where they illuminated like the Milky Way With like a whole bunch of different lights making stars and constellations It’s not just sort of like cutouts that are black and white or whatever Like everything is in colour, everything has like a stylistic almost anime feel to it And the way they use light and shadow to give you like 3D perspective on a flat screen Blew my mind I’ve seen other companies that do a very good job with shadow puppetry You know shadows to like Mind of a Snail, they always do cool stuff But this had a whole bunch of new layers to shadow puppetry I didn’t know existed It also gets my best title frame vote Space Hippo That’s another thing Space Hippo and Police Cops in Space Which I also saw that movie Saw it twice, loved it so much I saw Harvey and the Extraordinary How was that? I did not expect to have feelings at the end of that show I thought this is just going to be some little sweet show about whatever And at the end of the show I was like okay, I’m feeling things And I did not expect to feel things at the end of this show But thank you, it was beautiful I love it Aside from theatre have there been any moments in frames that have stood out for you? What was your favourite Fringe moment this year? Silent Disco, baby I got to go on in my own show which was fun Was Michael sick? It’s so funny because everyone was like oh my god Mike are you okay? I’m like no he’s just employed So Mike, he plays Terrence on Kim’s Convenience Who up until now has been a second tier character He works with the main characters but he’s the gag character who shows up to be awkward The butt of the joke The butt of the joke, 100% and he kills it So we’re on season 3 right now and when I cast him he’s like I’ve got a first rate refusal from Kim’s I’m like yeah, your TV show should have that Continue to be on TV So that was fun but he’s like we’ve never gone past 7pm And the odds that I’ll have to miss a show are so low I’m like okay well look I wrote it, I’m directing it I can learn the part and if shit goes bad then I’ll just do it Anyway, so he shows up right at the end of the run He’s like okay so apparently my character’s really big this season No one told me So I’m very excited So he warned me that the odds of him not being able to make the show are pretty high And then the day before he was on set he asked one of the ADs And they’re like oh god no, you’re not getting out So we did the usual thing where Cat Sandler came up and hyped me And be like he just learned it today I’m like well, strictly speaking yes But I also spent some time looking at it But it was wild and it was super fun Because I used to perform a lot, I haven’t in a long time And it was just kind of cool to get to do it It’s also a gross part and you just feel like shit Which was great but also terrible And yeah, super fun and weird But it really was one of those moments It’s so funny because I didn’t realize that after the fact In Shakey Shake we’ve had the director go on so many fucking times We have a running joke that by the end of our run Whenever we finally stop she will have played all of the parts Because she’s played about half But neither of my castmates had ever had a director go on And they did not think this was going to fly Because I didn’t go on with the script I was like I know the show, I have to do it And I could just fucking tell And they came in when I was working on the one scene I didn’t know So they came in and I was like oh god, the lines Fuck, what’s the line? My name is Jeff. Fuck, okay, my name is John They were so nice and so supportive I saw them go to the bar, I saw them order some Jameson But it was great and afterwards they were both so complimentary But yeah, it was wild and it was just a really cool fringe experience And also because this is my first adult show that I’ve written and directed It was really cool to get to lead with that And really ride that fringe wave in a really cool way Audiences love that though We’re so on your side That happened at One Small Step too And it was just magical We’re all on their side and I love that People love it It’s the theatre story, and actually I’ve had people send them Because they want that theatre story Oh sure they do I was there when the director went on Speaking of when I was there Was anybody there when, was it First Dates? When the power went out Yes! And David Fox seemed like his underwear On the steps of St. Blas Yeah, with a guitar But you know, those are stories that live on Because I still remember people talking about The first time that Evil Dead the musical was performed And there was like the big blackout On the Eastern Seaboard And they were scheduled to perform So they just moved everything to the parking lot And had a bunch of cars turn their lights on And performed it there Those are the stories that Just sort of live in forever So on the note of stories from the Fringe Have you guys attended the show? The award winning show The Tosho Knife The Tosho Knife Award Really? The Cutting Edge Award Which I consider the most coveted award of Toronto Clearly based on popularity The reward is so huge It’s based on who remembers to vote There’s one thing that is Unique to this city No other festival will give you a weapon as a reward So that’s cool I attended two of those And they were some really good I actually also then spoke in one as well So let’s see, I’ll give you some of the top stories So my favourite BYOB story was About ten years ago There was a A real life kidnapping experience That was in real life It was a show where it was like It was like someone being kidnapped And there was only three audience members because it was in a car And a neighbour called the police on them So they go to an intersection And four cop cars barricade them in And the actor has his hands on the steering wheel And he was going to radio the stage manager But he went, oh they might shoot me So he kept his hands there They came in and talked to him And then luckily the stage manager Heard the commotion from around the corner And like ran over and was like Don’t shoot! So that was a crazy story It was just nuts And my understanding was they let the cops know But then they drove into a different jurisdiction And so new cops were like, no It was somebody who like I guess Was in a house that had seen this happen Multiple times So it was actually like A good Samaritan being like I think there’s a cult next door Another good one Another good one was a BYOB story Where they were doing a show in a parking lot So they would put like Posters around this parking lot saying By 6 a show will be happening Well one guy did not get his car out of the parking lot in time So they did an entire show On rollerblades around his car And then the JP Towing shows up In the middle of the performance So they integrate it into their performance As like JP Towing Takes away this poor man’s car Oh my god And then the one that I told was just I was in Edinburgh and of course Faulty sockets everywhere because everything is like Six centuries old And basically I went to Plug in the iPad for my show And press all the cues And the iPad just wouldn’t work because they had a power outage So in the dark With just like candles I performed my very last show of the run And like I had no sound cues I had no backing music So I did half of the cues With my mouth and I just sang everything acapella And then of course The power goes on about like two minutes Before the show ends so the last song I sing Is called Sail Away to the Sea So halfway through I just hear the music Come on for the beginning of Sail Away to the Sea So I just like sing it one and a half times But like the audience came in and was like Hey guys so here’s what’s happened And so you notice there’s no lights And then they actually were so supportive And after people were like That was like a unique experience I’ll tell people about that So it’s true, audience members want to be on your side And if you give them reasons They will so support you Also kudos to you for just going on I saw the show, that is a meaty role And it’s got intricate complex shifts As a person Well and I cheated because I just Used a lot of Mike’s performance And I was there every night so I was just watching it And feeling all the beats and honestly when you’ve seen a show That many times in a row Because we have a show every night So you know the rhythms and you know the things But yeah it was cool And it was funny because I’m like I’m going to do as close to Mike’s performance as I can I don’t want to fuck up whatever actors And then the minute it started I could hear myself I’m like ah shit this is just my version of it Here we go It’s a cool debate that your show Propositions the audience Actually today I’m looking forward to seeing Frank as well to see Will you guys have to talk about internet fame Danny’s also going on in that I’ll be playing both of them Turns out there’s never been a said debate We’re at the end of the hour So I want to thank you guys for having this conversation Any final thoughts about Fringe That you’d like to share 48 hours left see as much as you can Only 48 hours left I think for me the big And this goes back to our reviewing conversation The biggest interesting thing I’ve actually lost sight of this Because I used to when I was just fringing I’d circle all the things I thought were interesting And I’d go and see as many of them as I could And then it became a review whore And I was like well maybe I don’t need to see as many And this year my schedule was fucked So I kind of did the same thing But I was like no I’m going to make an active thing But then I absolutely fell back on reviews And I feel so shitty about it Because I know I missed a bunch of things I liked So I guess my parting advice for the fringe Is go see that fucking show that sounds interesting Fuck whatever reviews have said But if there’s something you’re just like oh that’s kind of fun Or oh that sounds up my alley Just go see that Because honestly I’ve never had a bad experience when I’ve done that If you’re already interested in what they have to say There’s a good chance you’re going to enjoy yourself Absolutely Toronto tends to be a little bit tied to the idea of reviews Because you can see the audience Is sort of like shift when the reviews come out And I sort of wish there were more opportunities For people who go to see a show To share Their Their little review Some kind of fringe tent if you will As if there were some way For people to share that Tent if you will Or some kind of fringe bus Yeah they do fringe bus forums in Montreal Which I always thought was pretty nice But you know there is that whole wall Right when you walk into the drinky rink To the right Like it’s just like you know It’s just drawn to shit But it could just be a giant place for people to say Oh I saw this There’s the Jenny wall Where audience members will write What they liked about a show And it’s really cool because they will actually group them together By show and you can see What audiences are responding to Twitter and Instagram both exist And are Very frequented by the youth I’ve been told I’ve tried to tweet my reviews As much as possible Even if you don’t If anyone’s listening who’s not a Performer even if you don’t Want to like just publicly state your thoughts About something just writing to That company or something just being like Hey I had a great time It’s not a lot of effort It can change somebody’s festival Absolutely Yes it can One last shout out I gotta give to Adam’s show tonight Asperger’s Tales of a Social Misfit All the advance sales he’s donating to Nightwood In honour of all the support he’s gotten So go and get advance tickets For his show it’s at 11 o’clock tonight At the Annex Theatre If you can’t go buy tickets and get somebody else to go Last show And it’s really cool that he’s donating all of his profits Yes And it’s basically in honour of all the support he’s received Because initially a lot of it was female artists And so he is giving back Which I think is really cool And it’s a good show He’s a one of a kind comedian Alright thanks so much you guys Thank you