{"id":889,"date":"2014-07-26T10:56:02","date_gmt":"2014-07-26T15:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/?p=889"},"modified":"2014-07-28T11:11:52","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T16:11:52","slug":"day-9-roten-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/?p=889","title":{"rendered":"Day 10: Roten storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Untitled Sam Mullins Project (Venue 7, Cinematheque)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m realizing now that I seem to be talking about storytellers a lot this Fringe. I have always had a soft spot for a really good yarn and Sam Mullins has quickly become a favourite. This year\u2019s effort was every bit as good as last year\u2019s Weaksauce and Mullins seems to be on track to become the new TJ Dawe now that Dawe doesn\u2019t seem to be doing the fringe tour thing any longer. The show itself is centered around the artist identifying four personal truths and the humourous\/affecting stories that explore them. It\u2019s easy to see why he\u2019s been getting a wider audience on The Moth and This American Life.<\/p>\n

I must admit I\u2019m curious why he split from the PTE promoted crew however as he seemed to be filling the playhouse studio venue last year no problem and his tiny cinematheque venue was sold out and near impossible to get into most of his run. Given that other companies that I know have dealt with them in the past aren\u2019t there either I have to wonder if perhaps they raised their fees\/cut this year. It\u2019s also entirely possible that that was his fallback had he not got in on the lottery. Still if Sam comes back next year (and I hope he does) I really hope he ends up in a bigger venue as he could easily have filled Venue 1 or 6 by the sounds of it.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Canterbury Tales (Venue 10, Planetarium Auditorium)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Parts of this were really well done and the conceit was interesting but overall I was disappointed. I\u2019d heard such great things about Erik de Waal and I think the abrupt changes of tone in this show just didn\u2019t hit me right. I wasn\u2019t the only one either as this was the first show I\u2019ve been in this year where people left partway through the show. Still, what I enjoyed I enjoyed enough that I\u2019ll give his effort next year another chance.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Die Roten Punkte: Eurosmash (Venue 25, Pyramid Cabaret)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Otto and Astrid return! It\u2019s been four years since The Red Dots graced a Winnipeg stage but they appear to have not lost a beat. The \u2018German\u2019 duo had the house rocking from the first note even after a late sound tech kept everything from starting on time. As always their level of commitment was hilarious and the back and forth with the audience and each other made the show. That\u2019s not to say that their songs aren\u2019t catchy and hilarious as well though, you\u2019ll likely end up humming one for the next few days.<\/p>\n

Bonus points: being at the Pyramid this was one of those lovely venues where you can have a drink.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Great Battles in History (Venue 11, Red River College)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect from this one man production. Twenty minutes in I still wasn\u2019t sure exactly where things were going.\u00a0 Writer\/Performer Mark Shyzer immediately draws you in to the tale of a Fringe production gone wrong, his character trying to hold everything together as it all falls apart. Yet as the show goes on and more layers reveal themselves you slowly begin to understand that there is a reason for the chaos.<\/p>\n

Shyzer\u2019s faux fumbling use of various media, goofy ukulele song and silly pirate voiced napoleon\/obsessed Wellington are highlights of what turned out to be one of my favourites this year.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Overheard in line (day 10)<\/strong>: \u201cThe sound guy is late\u2026 but when we let you in there will be alcohol\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlight of the Day\/Recommendations:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Way too tough to choose, if you\u2019ve never seen Die Roten Punkte before though it\u2019s a very different kind of show.<\/p>\n

Leaflets\/handbills rec\u2019d:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>84 (I\u2019m being environmentally responsible this year and turning away duplicates when I recognize them)<\/p>\n

Up Next:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Outside Joke and DnD Improv final shows, perhaps something else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Untitled Sam Mullins Project (Venue 7, Cinematheque) I\u2019m realizing now that I seem to be talking about storytellers a lot this Fringe. I have always had a soft spot for a really good yarn and Sam Mullins has quickly become a favourite. This year\u2019s effort was every bit as good as last year\u2019s Weaksauce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,19],"tags":[149],"class_list":["post-889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theatre","category-winnipeg","tag-fringe-2014"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3qtCo-el","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=889"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":895,"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions\/895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}