The real day one in Bangkok started with a thunderstorm of all things, seriously pounding thunder and lashing rain (at least what could reach my window.) Seemed like a good bet to start things off checking in back home and doing some planning for my days in this wild city. After a while I transfered down to the restaurant and ordered a pineapple pancake with honey, something that became a bit of a tradition (though I did try the stereotypical banana pancake for which the backpacker trail is nicknamed here as well once.)

Sitting in the restaurant overlooking the raindrops falling into the small pool I ate my pancake and tried to plan my day. As I understood it it was rare for rain to last very long as this time of year so I more or less believed the forecast that called for it to clear off within the hour. Much as the birds and flowers seemed to be enjoying it I wanted to take advantage of the slightly cooler weather while I could. For those who haven’t been/don’t know Bangkok is one of the world’s hottest capitals and is rarely less than 32 degrees other than a couple weeks in December apparently.

Truth be told I’d booked this place mostly on the friend recommendation and knowing it was near backpacker central for a cheap start to the trip, but thankfully it was also quite close to some of the sites I was most eager to see. The old city/grand palace area and Wat Pho, the temple with a massive reclining Buddha were all top of my list and I decided to cross them off early not knowing when/if I’d be back at this end of the city in my travels.

First, a world on bangkok traffic: Crazy!

Did you know they drove on the left in Thailand? Somehow I did not until I noticed the cars on the expressway while my plane was landing. Traffic lights? Totally a suggestion. Right turn on red? Sure. Left turn on red? Sure. Barrel straight ahead because you’re on a motorcycle and clearly no laws apply to you? Sure. Oh god the motorcycles. Rare to see anyone in a helmet, people sitting side saddle on the back, infants lightly harnessed to a parent as they swerve in and amongst the traffic in search of a 1 second head start at the next traffic light. Shudder. I’ve been in some crazy traffic cities but Bangkok is definitely the new top of that list.

I was still in the process of discovering that that morning though as I snaked my way through the campus of a technical university on the waterfront knowing vaguely that the old palace was somewhere in that direction and figuring correctly that it would stick out rather obviously. Along the way however I passed the tiniest of alleys filled with tons of old men circulating looking at tables and binders. It wasn’t until later that I realized that this was Bangkok’s “amulet market” a place for people from varying professions to buy talismans to bring them luck or protection. Apparently they can range in price from almost nothing to megabucks for rarer antique ones.

Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace comprise some of the original areas settled when Bangkok was founded. It’s a massive complex of buildings surrounded by a wall and filled with about 8 billion chinese tourists. I’m sure I’m now in the background of thousands of selfie stick taken photos. It’s a pretty expensive admission ($20CAD) by Thailand standards but you get to tour the temple complex as well as the old royal palace (apparently now only slightly used by the King for ceremonial tasks.) The architecture was astounding throughout the temple district with a pretty wide range of styles even to my western eye though the central “Boht” holding the Emerald buddha was probably the highlight.

Almost next door to the complex is another religious complex called Wat Pho. This one most definitely has more of the feeling of a working temple though it also houses a thai massage school due to the cultural protection of the practice. The highlight of the complex is the truly massive reclining golden buddha statue measuring something like 50m long.

Also there were temple kitties everywhere:

In between the two complexes someone asked me for directions (I guess because I looked like I spoke english) thankfully asking me for the one thing I knew how to find.

Once I finished at the temples I still had some energy so I started exploring further east, at first somewhat randomly but then realizing I was close to Bangkok’s chinatown I headed there and began exploring the warren of tunnel like alleys that make up the sizable chunk of town. Stall after stall of textiles, clothes, shoes, aliexpress random stuff mixed in with some pretty incredible street food. In the end I didn’t partake because I had something else in mind for dinner but I may when back in Bangkok. At this point though 85% humidity and 34C were catching up to me so after checking out the train station on the edge of Chinatown for some info on future bookings I hopped a cab back to the guest house for a swim and a shower.

Not going to lie, between the 50 odd degree temp swap in a couple days, lack of sleep and all the walking I gave in an had a brief nap, but I also had the name Hemlock in my head. After stirring and watching some godawful british game show on my flickery tv I found it in my guidebook. A tasty relatively inexpensive thai place with an extensive menu of things you wouldn’t find everywhere, and the reason it was stuck in my head was that it was all of 50 feet down the street. Seemed like an excellent day to end day one.

A different but delicious green curry, some Lahb and some shrimp rolls later I was done from top to bottom.I managed to sit down at a bar nearby and have a Singha as a decent local played some guitar but after about another hour it was all I could do to stagger back to the hotel, grab a couple water bottles for my mini fridge then stumble into bed.

Arriving for an 8:45 departure to a mostly empty Richardson Airport and being able to leisurely go through security at my own pace was one of the last civilized things about the outbound leg of the journey actually that’s probably a bit strong, the first leg (YWG to YVR) wasn’t bad as I had a 2 person side of a row to myself. However, the next leg was the big hop… a twelve hour bounce from Vancouver to Hong Kong that I was happy I’d managed to snag on Cathay Pacific vs. an inferior airline…

…truth be told, it was still better than it could have been. The entertainment options were decent, the legroom adequate by modern airline standards and the plane itself on the newer side and not quite as noisy as the beat up old Air Canada plane I took on my last overseas trip back from rome. Unfortunately I’d been assigned a spot more or less at the back of the plane (only one row between me and the washrooms/kitchen prep area) on the outer aisle with the world’s most annoying seatmate in the middle. I got a bad vibe almost immediately from him as he simply stood next to me wanting to get in without even a gesture, and when I stood to let him in he immediately threw all of his junk on my seat and took roughly five minutes to get settled in as I kept having to dodge the flight attendants. Sadly things didn’t get any better when I sat down.

Now I get that I’m no one’s ideal seat neighbour on a plane. Though most of my ample frame fits in an airline seat well enough my shoulders are definitely too wide for more or less any compact seating arrangement (as anyone that’s sat next to me at GSAC can attest.) As a result I was at first quite happy that a relatively small asian man was next to me. That initial bad vibe was pretty immediately backed up though as my new friend dropped his tray table pre-taxi in order to spread out and read every newspaper he’d been able to grab from the front of the plane. He did not do as most people do on an aircraft and fold the paper so as to be able to read it within the confines of his seat but instead spread it out with his full wingspan so that if it had been in English I could have done the crossword. Eventually the flight attendant managed to get him to settle down a bit for takeoff but that behaviour was only a harbinger of things to come.

I have trouble sleeping on planes to begin with. I have to be very tired to begin with and even then mostly drop off only to wake up quickly again after a minute or two. I’d really prepped for this one though. The flight was late (taking off around 2am home time) and I’d purposely not slept in at all that day in hopes of being just zonked when I got on the plane. Mission accomplished on that, but I didn’t plan for Mr. Middleseat. We’d just finished the dinner they rather bizarrely served on reaching cruising altitude (at everyone’s relative 1:30am or later time?) which I’d eaten mostly for not knowing how long it would be til more food and most people were settling in to try and grab some sleep. We both stood to let the window seat woman out for a pee (and in the end we all went) before settling back in for what I hoped was a few hours of peace. Not so much, he took off the preposterously heavy jacket he was wearing and jammed it down between us rather than putting it under the seat or in the surprisingly empty overhead bin then proceeded to turn up his video system to the brightest possible level and volume and watch a kung fu movie with so many random flashing action scenes it was a good thing we didn’t have epileptics behind us. He snorted about every five minutes until I just knew I was going to get sick(er as I was already recovering from a cold.) I’m not sure where he was from especially as he was a wizened older dude but though he clearly read the cantonese on the menu as he’d point to things but then yelled at the attendants seemingly not understanding them so I’m guessing it was not his first language.

He jammed his elbows into me at every opportunity, had his foot down inside the well of the seat in front of me for a good half hour until I finally “accidentally” kick him hard enough he got the message. I’d recoiled enough from him that unfortunately it just meant that every time a flight attendant or bathroom person came by they’d bump hard into my shoulder and wake me up. Not that it really mattered in any case as he felt absolutely no shame in stretching and just random shoving his shoulder hard into my personal space (or the window lady as he once knocked her glasses clean off.) My only moment of hope came about 4 hours into the flight, his movie had ended and he was scrolling through the options for another before seemingly giving up and was facing enough in the other direction that his spasms were mostly missing me. I managed to fall asleep for about fifteen minutes (based on the songs that had gone on my soft playlist on the noise cancelling headphones) when suddenly I was smacked by a flight attendant yelling NOODLES! Yes folks apparently Cathay Pacific randomly serves hot chicken noodles on the plane, which is cool and all but honest to god it’s the middle of the night, can’t we save the hot food a bit longer and just gently toss people some pretzels or cookies if they have middle of the night munchies? I did not partake being still full from late night dinner but MiddleMan did of course, with as little courtesy as before, his elbows flying out so far that if I’d gotten noodles on my tray they would have been on my lap or the cabin floor.

He decided to up the ante after his snack and pulled out an ipad (full brightness of course) on which he proceeded to watch what I think was the previous movie in the series that he watched on the in flight entertainment system while still leaving the other screen on in full brightness as well. I had a movie on in low brightness mode which was easily the equal of most tvs in picture quality in the darkened cabin so there was no reason for it but alas. Sleep efforts were further hampered about an hour later by a woman bringing her screaming toddler to the back of the plane presumably so she could walk him around and wake up everyone back there rather than her husband in the equally uncramped midplane potty area.

Suffice it to say by the time we finally landed in a rainy/foggy Hong Kong both of us wanted to kill the man. I let him out of the row ahead of me to leave and window seat woman and I shared the weariest expression, but no words. At this point I’d probably managed about an hour’s sleep mostly in five minute increments over the previous 29ish hours and my head was feeling about as foggy as the view outside. Unfortunately of course I was only in Hong Kong and had a layover/flight left to go. Hong Kong International helpfully puts a giant “immigration paper” desk right next to the transfer doorway so there was a giant cloud of us buzzing around for a while before making it through the renewed security checkpoint (I don’t really understand why I need to be metal detected again.) Once into the terminal I was honestly very worried about sleeping through the flight so I plonked myself down right at the gate and didn’t move. As usual in a multiflight itinerary where you have ample layover time built in both the previous flights had arrived slightly early to extend the layover then the final flight departed and arrived late because otherwise it would be convenient.

Bangkok airport arrivals were further confusing though to be fair that might have been sleepybrain talking. You are pointed to “visa on arrival” which requires filling out a form and paying money etc. Now academically I knew Canadians didn’t require a visa for a shorter stay but there was no sign making it clear where to go otherwise. Thankfully while I was standing there trying to find my pen a nice airport official came up and directed me to standard immigration/customs. Thankfully the rest was a breeze, relatively quick customs line, easy baggage retrieval and a quick pick up of a sim card later I was on the freeway in a cab heading for my guest house and getting my first taste of the insanity of Bangkok traffic (much more to come on that.)

The guest house itself was recommended as cheap/clean/quiet by my friend Jodi (and Chris) and was as advertised, thankfully they were ready for me to check in and after a quick shower and a bottle of water I was snug in bed at 2pm for a solid solid nap before waking up for a quickie bite in the restaurant/walk and back to bed for a good twelve hours of sleep. I’ll save the initial impressions of this wild city for the next post.

So last night’s megastorm managed to hit just late enough into my baseball game that we didn’t get to play much but were too far along to fit in another show before our planned late night outings. Oh well, at least I got noodles!

 

Girl’s End: Zombie Apocalypse- Venue #6

It’s unfinished. That much is obvious even without reading about it being a work in progress. The last 1/3 of an already pretty short (~40m) show feels flimsy and the ending is at best tacked on.  Despite this I’ve been recommending it to everyone I know who likes goofy musical theatre because the songs are great and the spunky performance from one woman powerhouse Jenna Warriner makes it totally worth it. Bring it back as a finish product please folks.

3.5/5

 

Fruit Flies Like a Banana – Venue #10

The unclassifiable genre for this one is pretty accurate. Music, Dance, Performance Art? Whatever you want to call it, these three multitalented performers from Boston spend an hour barrelling their way through one heck of a show. As a recovering Bass Trombone player myself I had a soft spot for the day in the life of a bass trombone bit, but most bits were great and everything was at the very least interesting. I thought it was hilarious that they pulled out an old radio free vestibule bit that I was pretty sure only my high school friend and I had ever heard of.

4.5/5 (admittedly probably not to the taste of people not into music)

 

Happiness – Venue #8

This didn’t do as much for me as it seems to for some people. It’s a tale of two self-help product pushers facing the biggest launch of their lives just as their facade of self confidence begins to crumble. The performances were great but something about it didn’t quite grab me, thinking back now though I’m willing to admit I may just not have been in the right headspace for it at that moment.

3/5 (others feel differently)

 

Gossamer Obsessions: Wilt -Venue #2

This one on the other hand I was in perfect headspace for.  Fractured parables for life (and death?) A mysterious (and evil?) apple. Pretty much indescribable but delightfully weird and funny. Not much more can be said without spoiling things. Like “an Iron Maiden made of pillows… the punishment is DECADENCE.” I can get behind that.

4/5

 

In Search of Cruise Control – Venue #1

I was never able to get in to see James Gangl’s previous show ‘Sex, Religion and other Hang-ups’ but I heard pretty great things. His followup is a weird and emotionally charged beast. The story of his transition from guilty catholic teen to giving his nephew the proper sex talk he never got is an entertaining one before a sharp sharp turn into a revelation that shatters (purposefully) the easy ryhtym of the show and suddenly gives new meaning to some of the earlier passages. It’s a testament to Gangl’s skill as a storyteller that he takes the audiences shock and weaves it back into the previous narrative to bring us full circle. It’s one heck of an accomplishment in my opinion and I hope it’s as cathartic a show as it seems to be for him.

5/5

 

DND Improv – Revisit

My cousin has been a fan in previous years and since this was the only night he could hit fringe we checked in for another installment. I stand by my earlier comments about possible staleness (I really do hope they take a year off while the GSAC redev is going on) but this episode was much much better.

 

Dr. Caligari’s Cabaret of Bullshit

For those who have never attended, the cabaret is a fundraiser traditionally held at midnight and involving a swathe of performers from across the fringe. It’s heavy on the out of town performers and (at least as was explained to me years ago by a performer) is meant as a thank you to the city. This year it was organized by Tara Travis/Penny Ashton and other mainstays. Lighting is provided by audience members using flashlights and a good chunk of the audience is performers who may or may not be on stage at some point. Bits are esoteric and numerous. Last night’s show included mashups of shows, a ‘who’s had the worst fringe’ faceoff between accident victim Fraz and review assassinated Jon Bennett in a bunny costume, rants from TJ Dawe and Jem Rolls, Cameryn Moore and Tonya Miller getting into a feminist sex call faceoff and an opera performance! Honestly you never know what you’re going to see.

Thoughtfully always held at a licensed venue too! If you’ve never been make plans for next year (and don’t do as I did and try to go to work the next day)

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Sadly we’re now into the last few days of fringe and the masochist in me  won’t let himself skip tonight’s inevitable blue bomber shellacking by the Stampeders so it’s going to be one lunchtime show for me today. Also sleep because I got home from the cabaret just before 2 and couldn’t fall asleep until 3… then had a staff meeting first thing.

Plans for the weekend include catching up on a few fun sounding shows I’ve missed, checking out a few people who impressed me at the cabaret and attending the final (ever?) performance of the current lineup of Outside Joke and indeed probably the final performance of Outside Joke in their current improvised musical format as it’s Leif who is committing more fully to his new life in Edmonton (boo.)

Hope to see you fringing!

 

 

There has been more concrete rumblings about the sad state of Fringe reviewing in the city this year. Due to recent choices by the freep CBC has become the defacto Review importance champ but they are either not reviewing EVERYTHING or doing what they’re doing extremely slowly, having the Metro as a print partner is a nice choice though. And while the Winnipeg Free Press IS reviewing every show this year, they are maintaining their infuriating pay wall. That said, at least they have mechanisms to sort and filter reviews whereas CBC is one long “press to load more” page of nonsense. The CBC actually used to have a pretty great fringe site but either by lack of budget or non-flexibility of their CMS (most likely both imo) they now have a garbage web experience.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why the Freep feels the need for a paywall as they struggle in this day and age, but they need to make an exception. As our only ‘good’ newspaper it would be really nice to see them make this SPECIAL section a free feature of the website. Not only would this make them relevant again (right now people are only mentioning the WFP reviews if they got a bad CBC one,) it would be better for out of town visitors and might be a good showpiece on why locals (young people in particular) might want to subscribe for their arts coverage.

In terms of general fringe health, attendance was down a fair bit for the first few days but that’s likely at least partly a product of pretty changeable weather for chunks of the weekend. Things definitely won’t be setting a new record but seem healthy at least.

 

Everybody Dies In December – Venue #11

The new show from Nancy Kenny creator of ‘Roller Derby Saved My Soul’ and the documentary ‘On The Fringe.’ It’s a very different show than Roller Derby and I think that might be what made her reviews a bit less than stellar. We join Claire the Mortician as she bares her soul while preparing her clients for their last visit with the living and enjoys a last conversation with them as well. It’s a slower paced, darker comedy and one I quite enjoyed, though I can see why it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

4/5

 

Curious Contagious – Venue #1

My second shadow puppetry extravaganza of the fringe. I’m ashamed to say I dozed off at one point. That’s mostly on me and my somewhat ragged state sleep-wise. That said, as gifted as these two women are at the various techniques they use in their unicorn tale I felt as if certain sequences went on a bit too long. Again that may be on me as this definitely shaded more towards the dance side rather than the story/comedy side of Space Hippo. Still, I really enjoyed it and the music was great too.

4/5

 

Falling Awake – Venue #2

Two gifted performers delighting the packed audience with a show that’s all physical comedy with elements of magic, mime and mystery. What’s more they survived a near catastrophic set collapse with grace and a lot of laughs. I hope we see them again next year.

4.5/5

 

President Bear – Venue #8

Their 2 star review might have been a bit harsh but it was also pretty on the nose. There’s a lot of potential here, particularly amongst the female cast members, but not a lot of polish. Most of the sketches outstayed their welcome to some degree and could have benefited from either more ruthless self editing or a workshop with an outside writer. Three or four more quality sketches and probably around 25% cut from the existing ones and they’d be looking at a 4-5 star review. Their filmed interstitials were great but you can’t rely on those too much. If they take their experience at this festival and learn from it we might have another great sketchcom group on our hands.

2.75/5

 

As for that laundry pile… let’s just say if you don’t hear from me after the Fringe it probably became sentient and ate me.

So we’re on day six of the 2016 Winnipeg Fringe Festival and I haven’t posted any reviews here yet, what gives?

Truth be told I’ve just been too busy at work and combined with a late start (thanks so much to the CFL for scheduling two bomber home games this week) I just haven’t had time other than a few twitter musings. Still, I’m a bunch of shows in at this point so let’s do a rundown with some very very quick reviews.

One Woman Sex and the City – Venue 4

Super energetic performer, non stop energy. As someone who hasn’t seen SATC after season 2 except for the occasional ep I didn’t get as much out of it as a lot of the audience but the script and performance won me over anyway.

4/5

 

Jupiter Rebellion with Zach Zultana – Venue 7

Even four days later this is still the standout of the fringe for me so far. Jeff Leard paints a vivid picture and does his best to create his sci-fi epic right inside your head. The fact that he does this as one man on a tiny spare stage with a minimum of lighting and great physicality makes it a must see.

4.5/5

 

5-Step Guide to being German 2 – Venue 1

I’d heard good things about Paco Erhard’s previous effort and it was indeed an enjoyable time. Nothing too groundbreaking just a pleasant standup routine based on national perceptions. Is either being nice or at least overly generous with his credit on Canadian geography skills though (sadly.)

3.5/5

 

The Beguiling Buffoonery of Jim Chiminey – Venue 26 (the place with the stairs)

God I hate this venue, the stairs are one thing but it’s more the reaching the top and finding yourself standing there on the steps in an area with no a/c or even airflow. It’s a throwback to the bad old days of fringe (die forever Ragpickers upstairs venue) but then you get into the venue proper and the A/C chills you to the bone. Luckily everyone’s favourite Shelby  Bond is there with an adorable physical clown show to lift your spirits to the rafters. There really isn’t any describing it, just go and smile.

4/5

 

One Man Dark Knight – Venue 1

Actually the Dark Knight trilogy. if you’ve seen a Charles Ross show before you know what to expect. Rapid fire, great impressions, great parody and asides. Being as I’m only really a fan of the middle film of this trilogy I enjoyed it less than his previous efforts but he’s still a gifted performer. That said, have to knock off some points for the sound, the combination of a lot of very whispery impressions and the less than stellar acoustics of the 3/4 closed off Mainstage made chunks of the show inaudible. This one would have been better suited for Warehouse I think.

4/5

 

Peter N’ Chris – Here Lies Chris – Venue 16

What at first seems like a departure from their norm into more of a standard sketch show is quickly revealed to have an overall narrative as well.  I more or less stumbled into seeing these guys for the first time during the overnight fringe years back and haven’t missed a show since. This one is probably my favourite since the first. Their incredible physicality and seemingly effortless charisma makes this show just fly by.

4.5/5

 

Papa Squat – Venue 13

The sequel show to the fantastic Ain’t True & Uncle False brings us a touching love story folk tale from the trailer park down by the Pea Punching plant. It’s an indescribable mix of story, song and feelings dragged down by a venue I despise. I get that the fringe is hurting for venues this year with Alloway Hall shut down and Planetarium Auditorium not being used (not sure why? is the construction affecting it as well?) but putting official shows out off this far in an incredibly cold hall with threadbare broken spring seats is just sad (this made worse by the fact I saw three shows in a row there.) This is the kind of venue you use for a BYOV so that they can schedule a few shows to maximum effect not for a main venue. Of course now that I say that I realize I’m just assuming it’s NOT a BYOV.

4.5/5

 

Burn Job – Venue 13

It’s TJ Dawe’s latest, what more do you need?   Ok, well if you need a bit more I’ll just say it’s a bit more of a return to a broader story and less focused on his personal involvement with new age personality stuff (though that comes up a bit as well.)

4/5

 

Best Picture – Venue 13

I’m finding it hard to say anything here. It was perfectly enjoyable and the cast certainly gave it their all but…  I’ve seen Tara Travis and Jon Patterson be so incredibly great in other stuff that I found this somewhat disappointing. It might just be that it seems to have been a last minute replacement for the show that was supposed to be in this slot (The Paladin) and I believe Tara was only filling in for someone else. Between this and Fraz apparently being injured and unable to appear in 2-Hander it’s not a great festival for RibbitRepublic.

3.25/5

 

SiddiqiJones – Venue 11

These guys tried hard it was a weirdly dead audience even by sunday afternoon show and they were getting absolutely no energy back. I’ve heard from multiple people that they’re talented but it just wasn’t working on this occasion. I really don’t think this a great venue for improv either which doesn’t help. Would see them again but this particular performance was solidly meh.

2.5/5

 

Space Hippo – Venue 8

Last year I saw these two present the very weird but very neat show ONI a very very japanese shadow puppetry extravaganza. I thought it was great but needed some work on pacing/production. They’ve put in that work and this show is pretty darned fantastic. In fact I hesitate to even call it shadow puppetry because that doesn’t really do it justice/might scare people off. If that fantastic poster hasn’t convinced you to give it a shot then listen to me and try it out (and if you love the poster they have pristine ones available for a donation.)

4.5/5

 

Outside Joke – Venue 18

Brilliant as always. Jane Testar’s ridiculous expression as she presented then played the maracas made my day. Seriously see them this year as it’s the last time (officially) that Leif will be doing the music.

4.5/5

 

DnDImprov – Venue 18

It pains me to say it, but I really wasn’t feeling it this year, we’ll see if that changes next performance I go to. Part of that is a few of the die hards, one woman in particular yelling out crap pretty constantly like ‘FIGHT’  or commenting on a scene. We didn’t come here to listen to youDefinitely wasn’t helped by multiple people going to the bathroom or leaving via the front of the stage and letting the big door slam either.  Performance wise it wasn’t cutting it for me either as people I consider the strength of the show didn’t seem to be given enough to do. I think they’re really missing Fraz Wiest too as his characters are always great at bringing the anarchy to the show.

I’m sort of torn on whether the multimedia stuff is really great either, the Windows 10 reminder was a pretty good unintentional laugh however.

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Overall it’s been a good fringe so far but it has definitely felt ‘down’ attendance wise (sporadic intense rain can do that) so get out and see some shows! More to come!