Hamilton Fringe Roundup Part II

Brian Morton of Theatre Erebus’ Mary, I have his Pants, Dave Brennan (@brennandavidn) of The Tragedy of Othella Moore (@othellamoore), Olivia Fasullo of Referendum Productions’ The Devil in the Details (@referendumpc), and Ryan M. Sero meet to talk about the previous 10 days of Hamilton Fringe, how their shows have been going, what challenges they have encountered and what shows they have seen.

The Devil in the Details
https://www.facebook.com/referendumPC/

The Tragedy of Othello Moore
https://www.facebook.com/othellamooreplay/

Anybody Else
http://makearttheatre.weebly.com/

Mary, I Have his Pants
http://www.theatre-erebus.ca

Stageworthy:
http://www.stageworthypodcast.com
Twitter @stageworthyPod
Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Transcript

So we are here, it is, if you can believe it, day 10 of 11 days of the Hamilton Fringe. And I’m here with Brian Morton. Hello.

Dave Brennan. Hey. Olivia Fasullo.

Hi. And Ryan Sero. Hello.

And I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty tired. How are you guys feeling? Yep. Yep, you are, I’m 50, you know.

It’s my first Fringe at 17 and I saw 40 shows and had all that energy and now I’ve hit 16 and I think I’ll do it as well, but it’s just. Yeah, yeah, you are doing very, yeah, you’re doing very well at 16 shows. I have not seen anywhere near that.

Ryan, you weren’t here for the first roundup. How has your Fringe been? It’s been excellent, it’s been really, really good. Yeah.

It’s been going very well. I hope that’s true for everybody. Yeah, yeah, I think so, yeah.

How have everybody’s, like, how’s the audience has been? Have you ever had good houses? How’s everything been for your shows? Yeah, excellent houses, great response. The reviews are good. Yeah, it’s been really, really fortunate.

Yeah, yeah, good. And people are really responding to your show really, really well, I think. So they tell me, but I mean, you know, when your friends come up and tell you good job after a show.

Well, there’s that, but I think that there’s something that’s telling that you can sort of tell when the show is done. Did people respond to this? Regardless of what people say after, there’s the moment after the show that tells you if it’s kind of genuine, I think. And I think when I saw it, people were responding quite genuinely to your show.

And I think that this goes for everybody at the table, that we all actually have, that maybe they’re not pure comedy, but there is a strong comedic element. You’re in the tragedy of Othello Moore. But me, I’ll… There’s a lot of fun in that show, yeah.

And so you can tell right away. I mean, in the first five minutes, if nobody’s laughing, they’re not responding to it. Well, so yes, they’ve been laughing.

But they do, afterwards, they have been talking to me about the other stuff, the sort of the more serious elements of my show as well, which is kind of nice, because you can’t always, you assume that they’re with you. Yeah. And you can kind of feel that energy to some extent, but it’s only when people actually confirm it, they say, yeah, I really like this moment.

Yeah, absolutely. The guys from Boca talked to me about it, for instance. Yeah.

Said that they really resonated with some of that stuff. Yeah. It’s hard when you’re used to, you think something is funny, you’re used to getting a laugh, and you have that one audience that doesn’t respond right at the beginning, and you sort of have that, okay, now I’m gonna have to work a little harder.

You guys. I had a funny one, a funny crowd last night. It was full, but the show previous, everyone was getting all the love.

In all the parts, the laughs that make you laugh in the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then last night, it was, I don’t know, that’s the mysticism of comedy.

What time were you on last night? We had a great slot, we were 8.10. 8.10 on a Friday night. Well, because sometimes, sometimes if it’s a, that’s, yeah, that’s very bizarre. It was bizarre.

Yeah, the 10.30 crowd, sometimes they’re a little bit sleevier, they still enjoy this look. You know, it was, you know, but I’ve been doing comedy my whole life, but like that just, it just sometimes happens. Yeah, it’s true.

For me, just like, oh, we’re just, we’re just, it’s like a date. It’s like, it’s just, it’s not. We’re just not, you and I, we’re not clicking on things.

But I assume they still liked it. I think they still liked it. Yeah.

But when you come off the previous show. Yes, yeah. Swaddled with laughter.

Of course. It’s an interesting thing because when I was touring with Keystone Theatre, you know, we did the silent film style and we would have audiences where they’re not laughing at anything. And we think we are bombing up here, but there’s nothing we can do.

We just have to keep going. And then we get to the end and all of a sudden they’re on their feet. Yeah.

They were enjoying it, just not vocally. You can’t hear a smile. That’s exactly right.

You cannot hear a smile. It does not make a sound. And at the end, you wanted to say to them, guys, we’re the silent.

Yeah, we’re supposed to be the silent ones. You guys, we actually started like, and telling people that it was okay to make sound. Because when we’re silent, they feel like they have to be silent.

That’s something that, it’s funny because I was at your show last night, but I find somebody has to give somebody permission to laugh for the first time. You need to have that loud laugher. You need one person who has a laugh like yours, Brian, who like gives everybody the permission to laugh at this show.

One of the things always too is this, you know, those magical notes to nights. Again, when I saw Phil’s show, for whatever reason, the meeting between audience and him was quite astonishing. And you felt it.

Yeah, I should. So they felt it emotionally. So it’s, I imagine comedy is really not my forte, even though I’m doing one this year.

You know, I’m looking for the silences. I mean, when you can get people to utterly still move, and that says that you’re holding them. Comedy is, must be the same, but you’re still looking for that reaction, right? And I noticed as a director, for me, it’s pacing.

I was like, okay, pace fast. And particularly because we’re kind of in panic stations, we’re right on that 60 minutes. It’s like terrified.

So where they start laughing hilariously and they can’t, it stalks them, right? Because we’ll go over and they’ll pull the lights down on the most dramatic moment of the play. Two minutes, right? So, but yeah. On that note, sorry, Phil, I wanted to ask you, cause I saw your show, and how did you and your director approach the moments of, you know, like there’s so much comedy there, but there’s some really serious subject.

But how did you decide, like what was the shading going into, I guess, putting the show together? That show took me about eight years to write. So, and then after eight years, I sat down with Richard in January and we started just like looking at the script really, really critically and like putting it into its final order and things like that. As for the shading, the thing about it is that everything that’s in the serious zone there is there at the beginning when Thomas comes in.

It’s the stuff that, he actually doesn’t intend to talk about that, but it’s so involved in everything that he can’t not talk about it when the time comes. And so as structurally, it’s like I’m warming you up with the laughter, knowing that I’m gonna have to talk about the serious stuff later on. But as for like the actual, like how we approached it, we just knew that’s where we had to go.

And I knew at the end, I needed some kind of moment of levity. And once I latched on to the stairway to heaven thing, that sort of like brought it back to this. Yeah, well, I don’t know, you know.

Oh, that, no, that’s not gonna spoil it. That doesn’t spoil it, no. As I said to you, what really got me was just how precise each beat was.

Terms are from palmini to tragedy, mostly on a dine. And the first thing I said about Nicodemus when doing this show, furious because it’s that precise. And I was astonished to learn I saw the third performance ever.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I saw Christel Bardeliz’s show and she too, because she’s been doing it for so long, seems to hit very precise marks in the text. Yeah, she’s a Zazam.

Whereas other one-person shows I saw them, not to put them down, but they just weren’t, you know, they were kind of over here and here and they didn’t quite necessarily hit those precise little beats. And you need to give those little sign posts for the audience to actually respond to, right? Yeah. And particularly one-person show because nobody else.

Well, actually that’s one of the things that I have that was really specific for me was to be able to know, to like, basically in rehearsal, our goal was just don’t aim for anything. Your job is to tell the story to this audience. And once that becomes the focus, telling the story to this audience, it’s important.

Then you’re making a connection with that group of people. But I’ve seen solo shows here. I’ve seen solo shows elsewhere where it’s almost as though they don’t need me as an audience member.

I’m not necessary. They could do this without me. And so it’s sort of like, it’s sort of, yeah.

But it’s like, you’re sort of like not working with your acting partner there. Right. But yeah, I don’t, I don’t know.

But I know that Crystal is very, like she, you know, she’s been doing this for years. And so she’s, she knows exactly what she’s doing. And I just thought it was like, absolutely.

I mean, imagine it must be similar to stand-up. I mean, my friend, Larry Smith, that’s hosted the talk show for seven years of, before and now has 25 years as a stand-up comedy. Yeah.

And so this certain material that is always there, you know, or certain themes that he can riff on forever, but each individual reaction, you know, particularly when you’re on a bill with a number of comics, you know, often they put him first just to kind of get people to a certain level. Yeah. So he’s not often the headliner, but he’ll often be the person that kind of warms up the crowd and gets them to be receptive to that.

Yeah. That’s a skill set. Yeah, absolutely.

Olivia, as you’re, so here you are, this is your first fringe and your first, your first play. Yes. And so after 10 days with one full, well, basically two full days, cause we’re like, the fringing hasn’t started yet today.

Yeah. How has it been? How are you feeling? How’s your liver? My liver’s been better. I’ve done the beer at the Baltimore house.

That would kill you every time a backer butt. It’s been a really good run. I’ve had a really good time.

I think I’ve been a little swole, like, because I have a bit of home territory. So I don’t know if that’s a good indicator of like how I’m really doing in fringe, but I’ve been having good numbers. That’s good.

Sometimes where there’s no family and you’re like, oh man, I don’t know what’s going to happen. And then, so, and you know, I think we’ve been, the actors have been a little squirt with laughter too. Like, or they’ll laugh at things that I didn’t think were like my best joke.

Always the fascinating thing is, is when the audience does something you don’t expect. It’s funny what they laugh at and what they don’t laugh at. Because like, sometimes the joke will hit so well.

And then sometimes it’s like a random line that I just kind of threw in and they’re like, oh my God, you’re hilarious. Yeah. Do you mean, do you mean lesser jokes? Or do you mean, do you mean like they’ve been laughing at stuff that you didn’t even think was funny at all? Well, there’s sometimes it’s like a lesser joke or even just like a subtle, like more like an attitude thing that I was like, can you just turn your head like this in like directing? And then when they do it, then they’re like, oh man, yes, now that’s the point.

And then the line is like, yes, now that you’ve turned your head like that. Yeah, but you don’t ever know. You don’t ever know exactly what that audience is going to find amusing.

And it’s different, each audience. Yeah, of course. Because I’m in the booth, I’m watching like both the show and like listening to the audience, like, what’s going on? I actually think it’s, the fact that the audience laughs at a different point each time is a good thing.

Because it means that the show is not the same every time. It means it’s living, it’s breathing, which is a really healthy thing for a show. Yeah, it’s still evolving and changing, which I think is the most surprising for me is that I literally have seen like day one to what? Day six today? And each time it’s been different.

You were the first show I saw. And my reaction, because I’m an old guy, was that this was very much a young person’s play. This is just because, you know, everybody probably revolves essentially, my kids.

Not that I know of anyway. So I get to this kind of, and I sometimes feel, you know, my own show, for example, feels pretty much like an old people, we’re all 50, right? And even further, because, you know, Olivia’s show is one of three McMaster productions. Well, actually, I’m from that, but it’s not from the honors performance.

Okay, then I at least correct that. They thought it was, and I did that little write up, but that was the first thing I wrote. I agree.

Are the other performers, the other people involved, were they McMaster as well? I’ve got a good mix. So I have two alumni from McMaster who just graduated. I have someone who’s currently at Mohawk, someone who’s at Redeemer.

And then I have someone who’s, you know, just working full-time. I actually have two people who are like, working full-time or a little bit all day. That’s remarkably diverse.

Most people, particularly with their first production, it tends to be, oh, my friends that I’d know at Evans School. Yeah, no, no, no, that’s not. I had two people who auditioned for me, who I knew previously, and they just really worked for roles that I had.

But other people, I pulled from kind of a wide source of people. We had some online auditions, we, yeah. Your Lilith was the one that seemed particularly strong.

Yeah, everybody’s been, yeah. And had been, you know, did feel like that, what are called, student crowd? Remember when she hit, she did the national? Well, she’s done some more community. Right.

We have someone who’s actually done, like, commercials and stuff, too. So it’s a really wide range of options. Yeah.

Give it another year, and next year we’ll be like, I actually met this person doing Pokemon Go. Yeah. I met them.

Yeah, absolutely. Don’t sass Pokemon. No, no, no.

I sass it up. I actually did a whole bunch of flyering while playing Pokemon Go. Did you? I did, I did.

I was over at the Cenotaph and sat there for a little while. Somebody had dropped a lure, and I started playing there for a while, and, you know, everybody starts talking to each other, which never happens in a city. People don’t talk to each other.

That they don’t know. Exactly, so we’re sitting there, we’re talking, and then I happen to say, well, I’m not even from here, so this is a blast. They’re like, oh, so why are you in town? I was like, well, I’m doing a show.

Flyer, flyer, flyer, flyer. I don’t know if any of them actually came, but. See, what you should do is you should drop a lure.

Yeah. Right in front of me. And then leave your poster.

Ah, ha, ha. Right on the path where the lure is. Yes, and people will come around there like, what is that Pokemon? That’s really weird.

Yeah, that’s a new Pokemon. What is that, the Kamehameha? I can’t catch it. They may be wandering across the stage.

Yeah. I was just laughing about last Saturday when we were joking about flyering the Paul McCartney concert. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Absolutely, and how do you do that? No, I don’t see it. It was just, parking was nuts that night. Oh, my God.

Again, a number of people I know from the fringe went, that’s a gutsy guy. Yeah, right. And he did Elevated Spire.

Sure, there was like five encores. That’s what I heard. Then, this is not, we are too far for Prince, though, but, so we came out of the York Street exit and all these people were cheering at the bus and I was like, look at these, to my girlfriend, I was like, look at these idiots.

Oh, my God. Just in the door of the bus, waving at fans as it peeled onto York Boulevard. Wow.

He is so cool. They can ruin a Paladin Warrior card out. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Just catch this. For real.

No, it’s crazy. You gotta have a Neil Patrick Harris moment with the Sir Paul, right? Yeah. I don’t think he was in town that long enough to do that, Seb.

I think he was like, yeah. I think he’ll sleep. Maybe, you never know.

You never know with this little acro. He’s not sleeping. No, he’s not, no, there’s no way.

So, how, have you guys, everybody’s seen, we know that Brian’s seen like 16 shows. I think you were at least 16, I think. Now, some of this is because I saw Othello more in April, and I saw him taller.

Okay. Previous to its red run as well. So, I’m kind of counting those as having been seen, even though I technically didn’t see them during.

Okay. I will still try to make it to Othello, but I am not new to Othello. Sure, yeah.

It’s side out, though. Yeah. Anyways, so counting goes to, I think I’m up to 18, 19.

Nice. Nice, yeah. So, what have you seen that’s really good? What have you guys enjoyed? Top of my list is Teeny Tiny Music Show.

Oh, fuck yeah. I absolutely love that show. Her energy, the uniqueness of the show, the creativity of the show.

Yes. The fact that, I think it is the only actual site-specific show at the festival, and I might be wrong about that. Yeah.

But I think it’s the only one where it’s like, it has to take place in this bar, in this way. Oh, absolutely. It doesn’t work.

Absolutely. And there are all those reasons and more. I just, I love that show.

I engaged with it, it was beautiful. I have to agree with you. I saw that show, and just the fact that it was coming from all over, with some really amazing, simple theatre magic just happening there.

I just, from beginning to end, I was smiling. And it was just a lot of fun to watch. Even if you were not completely swept away, you were guaranteed to be entertained and enjoy it.

Absolutely. Absolutely. But for me, that’s right at the top.

Yeah, I have to agree. I have to agree. Yeah, so anybody else, are there any other shows that you’ve seen that you really- So tucked up, girls, man.

You know, that show fascinated the hell out of me. And I walked out, Richard and I walked out, and the first thing that my director said was, well, that was cheery. But the thing is, there are no laughs in that show.

But I did not care. It was fascinating to watch. But you don’t need- No.

Not for that show. No, no, no, no. Two girls, a spot on the floor, and a sheet.

But what was astonishing was how quickly they created an ambience. What hit me was Poe’s telltale heart. And Debo picked up on that and said, yes, that’s exactly, here we go.

He’s amazing, he caught that. But again, I love this term, poor theatre, which comes from Gerrit Siekertowski, not bad theatre, poor theatre, that meaning that there is nothing except us to tell you a story. And that can focus you and kind of concentrate you.

And it’s astonishing how sibling-esque they created. You know, they’re not physically that alike, but the relationship that they created was so sister-sister. And they also created, you know, well, that’s probably in the show, they kind of created their mother on stage, simultaneously.

And given the plot synopsis, I don’t think that you can spoil that. No, no, no, no. I said that.

No going into it, just simply from the Lenore DeRogne on the case, which I remember, big old guy, that, you know, 2005, and the murder was in January 2003, and the son particularly went on and on and on. It particularly relates the circumstances around the trial, sorry, around the case. It doesn’t get into the trial and the media surface and the continued hounding, even to this day, because, you know, essentially they served some time in referral, then it had rehabilitated, and now had lives.

And because they were young offenders at that time, which always is a little catchphrase among certain communities, they, Darwin would murder. It was the attitude, right? Instead of accepting the fact that there was some circumstances that created all of this, and that they were, you know, those circumstances created the act. If those circumstances had different, there was some abuse, there was some alcoholism, there was an immigrant, people who had come to Canada, and that difference between the children embracing Canada, got a parent that did not, and all of that thing kind of created a circumstance where they figured, you know, mom not being around is a good thing.

As far as the Bathtub Girls go, the only difficulty that I had was really with the venue, because I was just a couple of rows back, but I had trouble seeing it, because that venue is so, because of the way that it’s set up, as soon as they’re kneeling or on the floor, it’s hard to see, which was a lot of it. So I saw people having to stand up to see what was going on. And that just sort of presented, just as far as the staging goes, I think there might’ve been venues that would’ve been better for that particular show, but as far as the show went, generally it was really amazing.

And you’re gonna see it today. Yeah, I’m excited. Yeah, it’s- It’s good, sit at the front.

Yeah, sit at the front. Sit at the front, it’s kind of like nothing you’ve seen before. Yeah.

So just know that. What about you, Dave? What have you seen that you really like? Other than Bathtub Girls, well, I saw yourself. Thank you.

Yeah, fantastic. But I haven’t had a chance to get out to, yeah, eat that. Making golf motions over there.

I’ll be straight up, I haven’t had a chance to get out to that much, but there’s a gentleman to my right who has. What was kind of cool, and it was directly inspired by the conversation last week, was the raps you started then blonging about with the writer of this. Not in the sense that I was reviewing, because I still, you know, if I didn’t like something, I just didn’t write about it.

It was a question of trying to steer people towards stuff that, exactly what we’re doing right now. Yeah, exactly what we’re doing right now. I like this, and I respond to this, and you might possibly respond to it too.

And the 47 shows in the festival, and just the reality, remember I told you from the buttons, the average is three? Yep. Right? Most people see three shows. We pat them on the back and love them.

But if you see more than three shows, then we pat you on the back and jump up and down, and steer really crazy, like my dear friend Tom Sarkowski, who’ll see 30 plus, and basically has a schedule that he works out. He has a way, he’s gonna see, he’s telling me he’s gonna see everything. He’s got it in his- And he goes to Toronto, and he just fringes, man.

And Tom was on the fringe board for many years, actually predated me on it. And that was it, because he’s a fan. He has no big experience in theatre, or anything like that, but he just supports the whole idea.

And particularly, and most impressive thing, you know, he had a board lanyard, which got him into every show, but he buys a ticket to every single performance, right? Because support. Yeah, well, I think he’s gainfully employed in a job that allows him, you know, it’s still cheaper than a season subscription to Stratton. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That’s a good marquee for the fringe now. There you go. Still cheaper than a good tennis town.

You can see 30 plus mix. And you know, the quality difference might- Yeah, yeah. It could have been take.

But that’s one of the things, it’s funny, the biggest change I’ve noticed, since I’ve been involved in the festival, and you could certainly speak to this, because you’re part of it, you’ve skilled in around for years as well. But I noticed the biggest shift has been the strength of the staircase and the BYOB. That, you know, almost every show there, because it’s, they’re curated shows, they’re, you know, dare I say the hit and miss quality, is much admired.

And so, notice Cordes, they’re going to the staircase, intending to stay there, because why would they go anywhere else when the next show is so wonderful? And they run into other people who are coming out of wonderful shows and saying, that’s really wonderful. And, and Toby Rock, that this is that model, particularly in Edmonton, half the shows in the Edmonton fringe are in the BYOBs, and are curated, and thus, there’s kind of a bit- It’s definitely less than half, but, one of the main ones is the École Francophone, which is a curated venue. And there are people who will go to those first, because they are curated, so they have, and, you know, in Edmonton, they’ve been doing this for over 30 years, they’re a little tired of the hit and miss quality, and some people just don’t want to, they’ll wait until the reviews come out before they go to see something.

But they go to the École Francophone to see some shows that are likely to be good because of the curated nature of them. The, just one of the, one criticism that I might have, because I haven’t been to the staircase, I haven’t had a chance to go there, but I know some of the artists have come back from there, and, they noticed that they weren’t permitted to flyer, to put their flyers on the tables there. I did.

Then they did, and then their flyers got moved to a table elsewhere. Oh, okay. Which- I just put them there.

Yeah. And the only, the only, and I, part of me is like, I understand you’re promoting the shows that are there, but you are also part of the fringe, and we don’t do that at the Baltimore house, nobody does that at the Baltimore house. Either you’re part of the fringe or you’re not, and that’s, that is one criticism that I have of that, but I can see both sides, but I’m, I’m more of on the socialist side of the fringe promotional side.

No, there’s a, there’s a table, by the theatre or something. Where, where, but yeah, I know, like you can get your stuff on the table, it’s just- There’s a history there. Yeah.

Which I could probably speak to. The whole reason why the BYOB got caught into the festival, which a number of other festivals did, and we did for the longest time, was because of the staircase. It was, without a doubt, in the first years of the fringe, which I was not around for just to volunteer, they desperately wanted to be a fringe venue, and because our main funding was coming from the downtown BIA, and we’re well outside of the downtown cap core, they were told, no, you can’t be a fringe venue, and they were, let’s see, they responded, that’s the word I was seeking for, by having a Fridge Fest.

Mm-hmm. Aye. And even the year that there was no Hamilton Fridge Fest, or Fringe Festival, there still was a Fridge Festival, which was kind of that energy, to put on a festival by itself, yeah, there’s some of that, right? So I thought, again, this is stupid.

Like anybody that wants to be part of the fringe on a certain level, should be able to be part of the fringe. Yeah, yeah. So you’d have to create those opportunities for that.

As long as you don’t stress your audience too thin, if you added 14 more venues, you’d drow this with six shows, and across the entire city. Then the, yeah. You’re going to try to be expanding show numbers, and basically what you’re going to wind up with, is instead of having, you know, a hundred shows with solo houses across the city, you’re going to wind up with a hundred shows, with 10 people in every audience.

I heard that London’s cutting out a whole venue, for next year, because they’ve been having. Precisely, Kathy and I have directly had this conversation, three or four times, that if a BYOV supports the other shows, in the festival, Then they’re fine with it, but at the point that they feel that the BYOVs, harming the other shows in the festival, they basically said no. That’s, I mean that, interestingly that is, I think what happened with Brennan Circus, in Toronto years ago, that made Toronto switch from having a BYOV model.

Yeah. Where it’s a two, you can only do site-specific, and so you don’t have a curated space, the way that you do with every other fringe, you only have the site-specific stuff. The only other time it had happened before, was Patrick at the Lyric, attempted to do a little mini-series, three years ago, which ultimately fell apart, because of problems with the building, specifically the roof leaking, during all of this.

A big deluge that night. I heard about that. I’d been in the Lyric, previous to that, I wasn’t at the Lyric at that fringe, but I’d been at the Lyric with another show, earlier not mine, somebody else’s, but I was performing it, and there was a light mist, kind of a rain, and the next day, there was like a swimming pool, that day.

Like a leak is an understatement. Yeah. Poured rain, Noah would have been impressed.

Yeah, yeah. So I can only imagine, the catastrophe must have hit, it must have been. Patrick did something extraordinary, in the middle of the fringe, he found other venues, for most of the shows, the one that really suffered, though again, they look back at it, as one of the best things, that happened to them, was the aerial dance troupe, right, who needed the grid.

Yes, yes, yes. And they ended up, doing a pickup performance, in a lot. Sure enough, one of the most amazing shows, the festival, simply because of their circumstance.

Right, right. Pam was in my show, she’s talked about exactly that, and yeah, she does not remember that, with distaste, or hate, in fact, that is being almost a blessing, that they got booted, into this parking lot. Yeah, but logistically, to bring her.

Of course, you’re a festivist. Yes, absolutely. The Players Guild, which we’re at, is now a regular fringe venue, but the first time it was ever used, in the fringe, was because of Patrick’s madly, having to move three shows, into an end space, that he could find, right? We always looked as the guild, as too far out of the core again, although you see now, this therapy is even further, it’s pulling stuff towards, and again, I can’t judge, because I’ve been out of the loop, for a couple of years, but it doesn’t feel like, the guild is under attended, doesn’t feel like it.

is only like a 15 minute walk, from HTI, or Mills, because I did a bunch of those. But still remember the joy, when we had the bomb, and the acclimation space, and two spaces, of the downtown art centers, they’re all within a block, of each other. So the ability, to do your multi-clicks thing, I definitely, it only takes four and a half minutes, to get from venue to venue.

Yeah, even Aquarius, was an eight minute walk, from that little corner. Yeah, it’s close enough, but it’s you got there. But Aquarius, I love that venue.

It’s so good, to have that. And particularly, I mean, you mentioned the Daffodil Art Center, now the Citadel. Citadel, yeah.

And the upstairs theatre, is huge for a fringe venue. Yeah. If you get a decent sized, fringe audience of 30 to 35, in there, which is decent at the fringe, it feels like a giant vacuum.

Oh my God. I performed in a, I think they have like 400 seats, in Calgary. And in a house, where in any other venue, you had like 50 people, and you’re like, this is a great house, and 50 people, is like, is like nothing in there.

It feels like a vacuum. Is it comedy? Yeah, oh my God, that’s death. Because laughter is contagious, and if you can’t, if you can’t do that.

That’s the contagion. Yeah, absolutely. But as I mentioned that, you know, that venue, 300 seats, was the one that Nailing the Hammer, nailed it in, in 2007, selling 280 people a performance, and still has these, as they had the maximum potential.

Of course, yeah. So it’s one of those rare things, you know, if you can somehow put a show in, that will clear those kind of numbers, it’d just be wonderful, not to be in a 100 seater, right? But typically. Typically, or I would not want to be, I would not want to be in that, yeah.

And particularly, again, I never like to talk about the bad, but there is that awful thing, I call the death spiral. If nobody comes to see the first shows, and nobody’s coming to the last shows, and the worst nightmare, that I’m pretty sure only happened a few times, is the show that nobody attends at all. Yeah, that’s awful.

Yeah. And often it’s from people from out of town. I love that as fringe artists, we’re quieter about this, than we were talking about the murders.

No, it’s, you know, you know why? You know why? Cause it’s like, it’s like, that’s the nightmare, that’s the, I’ve just torn my heart, I’ve thrown it off the ground. It’s like, we were talking about the bathtub girls earlier, and the murders that happened. These two girls killed their mother, we’re like, yeah, that was an interesting circumstance, what a green flay.

As soon as Brian says, boy, it would suck if nobody showed up to your fringe show, like, there’s this moment of silence, and we’re all practically crossing each other. Yeah, it’s because, because you know what? We can all picture that. Let’s just knock on wood right now.

Exactly. That’s what has happened, none of this we learned. Back in 2007, there was this massive hit show, by Rob Salerno called Falls.

Yeah. And in those days, the person that put the schedule together, used to basically put four shows, in the same block, and would move the block around. And so the other three shows, that were playing opposite Rob’s shows, had a suicidally bad time.

Oh yeah. And in my venue, I was a venue technician that year, and I remember the eight o’clock on a Saturday night show, nobody showed up to that. And they were having kittens, justifiably having kittens, because there was nothing wrong with their show.

Everybody in the fricking building was in it’s show. And so we learned from that, and never, ever, ever put people against the same show all the time. You might lose one performance, but you’ll never lose every show, because of that.

You were mentioning that one of the, that often when somebody faces a performance, where nobody’s coming, that they’re from out of town. And I do, I think that there’s, you can, with the proximity to Toronto, if you are a Toronto artist, coming to Hamilton, I think there’s a temptation, to just think to yourself, oh I’ll just, I’ll just come in every day for my show, and then I’ll, I’ll go back. But then, you’re just, you’re not promoting your show, and you’re not a part of the fringe.

It’s so important to. You’ll disappear. Yeah exactly.

If you’re not out there being seen, nobody sees you. That was my struggle, when we did my show in 2010 in London. I made a point, that even on the nights that we weren’t on, that we were commuting back and forth, so it was a 90 minute drive each way.

My cast, who were all stuck into J jobs and stuff, and as a result. But I would make a point, that on the nights that we weren’t on, I would drive in just to see shows, and to flyer, and to hang out at the fringe club, and all the rest of it. But, I think one of the reasons why the show, didn’t necessarily click in London, was precisely that reason.

Because we weren’t resident. Yeah, we weren’t seen to be part of, we kind of showed up at our shows. I think that you don’t have to be resident.

You just have to be seen. You could still do it, by still staying in Toronto and coming in, as long as you made yourself seen. As long as you went out flyering, as long as you made the connections with other artists, and all that stuff.

I think that that’s a big part of it. But I want to get back to, some of the good shows that you’ve seen. Are there any real highlights for you? I had never seen it before, but Taller, which was only for four days, was fricking brilliant.

Oh my God. Again, I always say, I love Sky Gilbert’s work. So, those people that like this kind of thing, will like this kind of thing.

But the performance was so strong, it’s basically a one person show, but it’s not. And that was kind of a reversion. In the middle, 45 minutes into this, one person show, suddenly another character runs on stage, and there’s this little scene, which then colors everything you’ve seen, and turns it all on its head.

And then so, again, Modus. Stuff I liked. I really liked Free Sword, again.

I’m Scottish, so I kind of got a Scottish. Yeah, you’re yours, man. Gaelic jokes appeal to me.

The shows which we talked about last week, Psychosis and Faith. Did you see Love Spell? Love Spell. Yeah, I like Love Spell.

Love Spell, is from London, Ontario. They’re mainly Brock University alumni. So that’s, again, they have that longstanding relationship, that always really adds.

One of the things I liked about it, one of the themes that’s in your show as well, it’s in your show, is a lot of this kind of millennial relationship stuff. But what kind of got me, was that there were much more kind of punchy, little joke, one-liner things. And so there’s a lot of lack out loud humor, and then it slowly starts to get serious, right? I thought, one of the things that Love Spell does really well, it gets that balance right between, you know, there’s a story here I’m trying to tell, and at the same time, the best way to interrupt him is to make it loud.

And, again, as I just saw, and I think, you know, Ryan’s show, has that balance in spades too. And I actually, but the quote that’s around in my head, is that, you know, of all the plays I’ve seen, all the scripts, his is by far the best. He’s so carefully constructed, and kind of manages.

And I also get that you kind of created this persona, this altered ego. Again, I’ve only seen about three of your shows, but it feels like, even though it’s not the same character, and they all have different names, but essentially, this altered ego, again, I picture you in modern more frequently, right? And so that kind of riffs back and forth, right? And they’re populous, that’s for sure. Olivia, what have you seen that you really enjoyed? Well, I spent a whole day at the Players Guild, just binge watching all the shows.

I’ve seen about 10 shows, but I’ve seen them twice, because what happens is that, all of my cast and crew are like, yeah, you go see the show. And then when I come back, I’m like, it’s awesome. They’re like, okay, we have to go see it.

So I’ve seen your show twice. And I noticed that you were there a second time, so thank you for coming back. I saw your show twice.

I did. I’ve seen Unoriginal Sin twice, which I can’t say enough good things about. It’s very, very good.

I mean, yeah, millennial, for sure. It’s literally like, what the selling point is, is that it’s millennial. But you’ll get the joke.

Yeah, they had a, I know Richard was going to see that show yesterday, but they were postponed due to some technical issues. Yesterday was a rough day. Were they just overwhelmed with the AC in the building or something? Okay, what happened was, basically what happened is, we’re not supposed to have the AC running when the stage lights are on.

From what I understand, someone added the stage lights on, and the AC, like the first or second day of fringing was like, nothing’s happening, so we’ll just keep doing it. So, but what happened yesterday, and probably, oh, you can see. I already know where this is going.

I know what’s happening. What happened was that, yeah, everything went down, and the AC, and the stage lights weren’t working. And actually, one of my cast members is the direct, one of the directors of Unoriginal Sin, and her show is like one or two shows before mine.

So she had to come meet up with us. And she’s like, the lights are down. We’re being, yeah, it’s a, also, it’s, you know, it’s technically busy.

It’s a very technically busy. Lighting the show. Oh my God.

Yeah. So, yeah, at a certain point, it was like, do we do it with just normal lights, and the house lights up? To which, you cannot. Yeah.

Anyways, they got the lights back up, but the, literally, the cast and crew, and also all the people in the audience were drenched, in sweat. But I mean, they still had, they had probably, she said probably one of her best shows in terms of like hitting with the audience and humor and stuff. So it like, it didn’t affect that, but they were, they were postponed by like 15 minutes.

And then the venue tech, he was like, he’s a really great guy. He just, he just didn’t have a lunch, so it didn’t affect. Poor guy.

Poor guy. Honestly. And Jacob.

Yeah. I’m supposed to mention my name, Jacob. Jacob is honestly the best.

I love him. Yeah. I mean, I’m really fortunate, because Mill’s hardware, they’ll like blast the AC in between shows, then they’ll turn it off.

And that building holds the AC longer than most buildings. Oh no. Well, that’s what I’m trying to go for is because that, I’ve tried it with, and I’ve seen shows with the AC on.

And after a while, that hum just becomes distracting. What was weird to me was that somewhere there’s some plumbing, and every once in a while, the toilet goes. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.

And considering. And considering that my show begins by talking about being on the toilet. It’s like, my worst thing is when I get to the end, and there’s a moment of silence.

I’m waiting. I’m afraid that one night at that moment of silence, it’s going to be like a flush. It’s just going to be a little bit distracting.

Have you guys seen Indecision? No, no. I missed it last night. It’s heartbroken.

It’s, it was so deservedly a critic’s pick. And just such a great way to bring the audience in right off the top. I mean, it’s, it’s out there in the presence in, in, in all of the, the, the synopsis.

So she’s just been asked to marry her boyfriend. And so the audience becomes all of the facets of her brain, and we’re all going to decide together what her answer is going to be. So immediately she brings everybody into the world and makes a connection with the audience that she uses throughout the show.

So brilliantly done. So just so entertaining. Yeah.

So I highly recommend that if you get a chance to see it, I don’t know if they have another, another show I would hold, but you precise it. Yeah. Anything, anything else that, that folks saw that.

What did, what did everyone think of Dirty Girl? I haven’t had a chance to get out to the staircase at all. It was like, it’s, it’s hard because you know, there’s shows that here that I need to see. There’s, you know, so timing is, is super important and I’m on foot the whole time.

So getting up to staircase can be a bit of a, a bit of a pain. Has anybody seen, seen Dirty Girl? I, although to be fair, as I, as I said, when I wrote about it, I saw the little preview thing he did a week before the festival, which was his dress rehearsal was set. Right.

So I always have to couch because I don’t know in performance, what might’ve changed between that dress rehearsal and the actual show. But again, what I just so impressed about it was that, I’ll stick since my art is never finished, merely a band of fight. And so this was originally a one act play he wrote last year, which did not get a normal response.

And, and if he was very sincere about it and without giving too much away, it’s basically about an inappropriate image being shared. Well, actually the image is inappropriate. The fact that it gets shared.

That’s what it’s. I myself think it’s perfectly permissible to share those things. Much love.

Sure. Yeah. And, but it gets out there and where it kind of gets interesting is it kind of takes this techno sci-fi twist that there’s this demon within the internet kind of waiting to come.

Some people do post such things. And then immediately the social media Twitter verse goes ape shit. Yeah.

And, and, and his play title is actually a hashtag, which are very clever because it’s how you mentioned the damn play title. You essentially, you’re essentially a hashtag. You’re, you’re helping them to trend on Twitter, which is a brilliant, you were an evil, whoever you are.

I don’t know you, Michael, you, you evil, brilliant man. Yes. So what was interesting about it was, you know, it didn’t quite work last year, but he didn’t give up on it.

He simply took the advice and essentially rewrote the show. Yeah. Crashed.

And again, it’s basically a three-hander, two women and a guy. And I, myself found the two women were so strong. It’s nuts to put the guy down, but it’s just, it’s now a play about two women and their friendship or lack thereof.

Yeah. And what happens over the jealousy and, you know, competing sexuality and ultimately, and there’s this huge irony, which whams home because the whole reason the picture gets taken in the first place is because she doesn’t actually want to sleep with it. And so she says, I’ll take some selfie and.

Right. Yeah. So fantasies and all this good, but because she’s created something permanent, it then comes back to fiery and nasty.

But the idea is if she just slept with the guy, none of this would. That’s okay, because there’s no record and no evidence. And so again, I thought, again, a very much a young person’s play, all are, all of this.

Yeah. He, one of the things he shared yesterday on social media with some comments from probably 18 year old girls. Yeah.

Just to start on stage, right? This is one of the things, one of the lessons that I think people can take from a lot of friends is that, and you know, I found an article yesterday about how to, how to get millennials to go to the theatre. And one of the ways actually, literally the thing is don’t give them what they can get anywhere else. Teeny tiny music show.

Yeah. You can’t get that experience anywhere else. And, you know, talking about things that, that, you know, instead of like throwing just another Shakespeare, Othello Moore, on the other hand, different than just like doing Othello, but.

Ryan’s had a reputation for doing classical theatre too, but he never does them straight. They’re always adaptations. No, we did real straight about nothing last year.

And it was true. It was mostly good. It’s like a Roman and Julia didn’t escape his comedy.

Yeah. That, that was not Romeo and Juliet at all. That was me messing around and doing my own thing.

But yeah, I did much to do about nothing last year. And, and we’ve done justice before. And I, I think that, I think that those plays have their place.

Yeah. They absolutely do have their place, but for the most part, we have a glut of, of, of Shakespeare. And we have a glut of a lot of classical stuff.

We have a glut of old people theatre, which not, there’s nothing to be wrong with, nothing wrong with old people theatre. Cause they buy subscriptions. Yeah.

So, you know, people who do subscriptions, you know, that’s great. But I mean, theatre that you can’t, like, you can’t get anywhere else. Something that you can’t see anywhere else.

That’s, that’s, I think some of the, so Dirty Girl, for example, and people who are of the age that is depicted in the play are getting something out of it. Realizing that theatre can, is not what they think. Similar with, with Teeny Tiny Music Show.

You know, Crystal had a funny, has a funny line in her show about her, like, auditioning and then like doing like a summer theatre. Auditioning for the Norman Foster show. Yes, exactly.

The Norman Foster show. And that got a huge laugh, but it was a sophisticated laugh cause the, the fringe crowd knew. Of course, yeah.

It was like the laugh that is able to distinguish, like, I get it. And, and you need that commercial theatre. Yeah.

But also like, it’s a famous show. Yeah. It’s, it’s, it was like a weird.

Yeah. Awesome. Norman Foster lives in Ancaster though.

So he’s technically a local. Yeah. He’s the most produced Canadian playwright.

He’s technically a local playwright. And I have seen the fringe just buying tickets. That’s all right.

It’s cool. He’s just been, you know, buying tickets for his show or whatever. That’s great.

I haven’t actually seen him produce a show for the fringe. That would be underrated. That would be cool.

But you know, the thing is that, I mean, while that’s, while that’s definitely possible, then I think that you start to get into something that I, I see at Toronto’s Summer Works, where Judith Thompson will throw a show in. And that, at that point, I’m like, this is not, no longer experimental. This is like, you know, Judith fucking Thompson could take this play to Terragon.

Right? She’s doing a work that Terragon will touch with a 50 foot bow. She did one project, which was a power of teenage girls. Right? Yeah.

Yeah. Probably that’s less likely to end up. Maybe.

But I often, I often find like, so Judith Thompson could like, usually for most things, like take her play and say, Terragon do this play. And they’ll say, Judith Thompson, come on in. But Summer Works is just sort of one of those things, but you get, and Summer Works granted is a curated.

Yes. Yes. Thing.

So it doesn’t have the beautiful anarchy that, that fringe can have. So as we wrap up, we’ve got about 10 minutes to go. We’re on, basically fringing is about to start.

I have to edit this in like 30 minutes and get over to my venue, by the way, at 11 o’clock. So, cause this is going to be super, super rushed morning. But as the last two days go, what are your plans? What do you plan to see? How are you going to deal with the post fringe, whatever, funk? What’s, what’s, what’s on the horizon for the next couple of days, guys? The next thing for me, I want to go, I want to try to go see, once I lived in the box, which is, Leary’s neighborhood.

Yep. And that’s at the art bar, right? At the art bar. I just didn’t get any really great reviews.

And Leary’s a friend of mine, and the art guys are friends of mine. But besides that, it’s getting really great reviews. And I would love to be able to see that.

I’ve got a couple of other things that I’m going to try and go see as well. I cannot remember the name of the wife for me. It’s the one about a guy, his set doesn’t show up and he has to put on.

Oh, on a limb and a prayer. Limb and a prayer. That’s on my, my last, now, on two.

No, these are only two shows that I mentioned. Will I be able to get to see them in the last? Well, I mean, that is, that is, that is the, I’m actually getting, I’m going to be able to see, El Diablo of the cards. Yeah.

Today, after my show, first time we’ve actually been, for most of our shows opposite each other. So we joke that we’re competing with each other. So I’m going to go and see that today.

And then I’m going to see the teeny tiny music show again at seven, because why not? And then I don’t know. I mean, I have that nine 30. Hey, there we go.

Yeah. Yeah. And like, congrats on the, the view.

Yeah. That’s pretty good. How the hell do you eat that? Well, the answer is you provide them with a decent, professional image.

You don’t pull it off of Facebook at 72 PPI and expect they’re actually going to use it. Right. So, you know, that $200 to get a professional photographer to spend half an hour with us at Gage Park, ultimately turns into massive picture.

I love it. You can see the actor with his name, Greg, Greg. I love me.

You can see his fillings and I love that. I’m like, I picked that up and it was like, that’s a great shot. What do I always tell people every single time we, we take these photographs? I say, I want a picture that looks like a band on the cover of the magazine.

Yeah. That’s literally the description. Yeah.

It’s not going to represent the show other than these are the actors putting on the show. And then at the tech rehearsal is the only time we ever do production stills, which this year we took them, but didn’t have more use in it. Yeah.

Those promo images though, or goal and every show has to create it. Nobody is going to come by and do it for you. I started doing that a couple of years ago.

Don, they actually deliberate production photographs. Yeah. Just, just as a question, have you, since Thursday, I mean, it’s, it’s just, you’ve only had two days inside.

Have you seen a bump at all in anything? No, especially to the final weekend. Again, we’ve been playing to half full houses. Our best performance actually was our first one.

We were on a 60 and then it’s kind of petered off at midweek. So I’m hoping the final two performances, we’re in the very fortunate situation that we have now officially broken even. Yeah.

So the live performances are what is hopefully going to make some money that we can then distribute. Yeah. I’m a little concerned about the heat this weekend.

I noticed yesterday my show was fewer people than like the fewest number that have come out. I’m sort of seeing generally fewer people on the street and I’m hoping that this heat wave does not keep people away from cringe. I think that while it might have a small deterioration, in fact, I think that for the most part it shouldn’t.

Yeah. Because the buzz is good. And so people have got people to come see our opening weekend and month throughout the week, they come to see our shows and they’re going home and they’re emailing their friends and saying, you go and see the show.

I think that that will keep us, we might not see as robust numbers as we would have otherwise, but without the heat. But, but I think that it’s, I think that we’re broken. The fourth show I got a Brian show yesterday was completely full.

Okay. None of that was probably artists, but still the fact that general audience made an effort before their work day was over. Yeah.

Knock off work and get it. That’s good. That’s, that’s really hard.

And they wonder, yeah. Yes. If you could, if you could bottle buzz and sell it to other fringe artists, wouldn’t that be amazing? You’d always break even.

You would always break even. Olivia, how, what do you, what do you got going for the next couple of days? Well, I’m going to see Bathtub Girls. Like to see Awoken.

Teeny tiny music show. Everyone’s talking about it. You have to see it.

You have to see it. Yeah. And just hope for a strong end to a good run, you know? Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. It’s, it’s, yeah, it’s, I mean, I’m pretty tired. I don’t know about you guys, but I think, I think once I get home on Monday, I’m just going to be, I think it will be sleeping hard.

Yeah. There’s going to be a definitely, definitely some, some separation anxieties of this. Just definitely not going to be, be like that.

Dave, what are you? Oh yeah, I figured out the show night and then we, I guess it’s kind of nice to, we’re at two o’clock on Sunday and then we’re just, we’re going to have like a barbecue. Yeah. Awesome.

But I’ve heard the, the award show doesn’t start till quite late. Cause it’s 10 o’clock. Yeah.

They have to wait for everyone to finish. Well, I mean, technically. So should I take a nap? I would.

I am. The thing is that at 10 o’clock, there’s still shows that are going to be going on. Cause Sour doesn’t, doesn’t start until 9 30.

What? So when you’re trying to tally ticket sales and, and numbers to say the best of venue, you can’t do that until that show. Do they, do they look at it overall or do they only look at the first few days? Wait, what is best of venue based? No, that’s for audience choice. That’s audience choice.

That’s audience choice. But there’s a best of venue and best of range. Best of venue.

Best of venue is numbers. Yeah. Numbers.

And then critics choice and I have no idea how that works. Yeah. It’s kind of, yeah.

But is it based on like numbers with also your standby seat? I believe so. I believe, I believe it. I believe it is based on audience numbers.

So if you comped every single show and sold out every single audience and like it’s filled every single seat that way. Yeah. I think you win.

I just think you don’t make it. You don’t make any money. I guess I sort of figured that it might be the first few days instead of just the whole frame.

I’m pretty sure it’s all over. Okay. You’d have to ask the, the, I was assumed we have full visual.

I assumed for assumptions. Of course. Yeah.

These are not facts. You know, I’m going to, I’m actually going to try to find that out just to, to figure out exactly how it’s determined. If it isn’t the first few days or, yeah.

Yeah. They’ll probably be at the, at the finale. Oh, they’re going to be a mill.

I know that Amanda Allison, one of them is going to be at the, is going to be a mill. So I’ll just ask her when I get there. I had a funny time when I was early for your show, but the, I saw your, I saw your picture.

The gals were all in the back and we just got this funny idea of like, it’s, you know, we’re halfway through the fringe. I tweeted something like, take a break girls. He does all the girls like we’re pretending to be asleep.

And it was funny. It’s like the hub of the fringe. It is exhausting.

I can tell you, it can be involved with fringe organization, particularly the marathon weakness, which for the fringe staff means it starts at 10 in the morning. It goes till 10 in the morning. And if you can grab a nap or something for the office, that was not uncommon.

So I figure like the awards, the closing party and awards starts at 10. I imagine that it’s not going to like the awards won’t start until like 1030, like late morning. When does the dancing start? As soon as you want to Dave.

You, you know, somebody has to start the dancing. So if you start the dancing, I’m sure that everybody will follow. I started the whole dance party at the, the kickoff at the Baltimore.

I went to the owner. I’m like, where’s the, where’s the tunes, man? And he’s like, Oh, my iPod. I’m like, your iPod.

20 minutes later, they’ve got to get his groove on. Me in the bathroom. Right on.

Rocking that stage. Right on. Well, this has been great.

You guys. Thanks. Thanks so much for, for coming out.

This has been, this fringe has been a lot of fun. The roundup has been a lot of fun and have a great last couple of days for, for your fringe guys. Yeah.

You see I’m the dance floor.