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THREE NIGHTS ONLY! Don’t Miss THE SHOW THAT WON BEST COMEDY  AT LAST YEAR’s FRINGE!
Die Roten Punkte KUNST ROCK (Art Rock)

August 18, 19, 20 at 8PM,
Metro Studio
Tickets ON SALE NOW
$20 (student+senior)
$22 (regular)

Order Online at Ticketrocket
(250)590-6291
(10-5, Mon-Fri)

Victoria’s favourite Berlin punk rock duo Astrid and Otto Rot are back for a limited three-night run as part of a world tour (in between Astrid’s visits to rehab). They will not be appearing at the Victoria Fringe this year, so this is your only chance to see them. “Pitch perfect pop parody, if there’s a fan club, I’m joining!” The Scotsman(*****). “Orgasmic rock-und-roll experience.” – Monday Magazine (*****). Save the date – don’t miss out on the pre-fringe fun! dierotenpunkte.com

Visit the Die Roten Punkte You tube channel to see their videos!

To jog your memory, here are some vintage Fringe photos from over the years.

L-R Stuart Nemptin, Randy Smith, and Brian Paisley

Back in the 90′s Market Square was a Fringe venue - Randy Smith founded the Victoria Fringe in 1986, Brian Paisley founded the big daddy Fringe in Edmonton, and Stuart Nemptin has performed in countless Fringes and can be found at FringeKids this year.

The Fringe Club

Ye Olde Fringe Club circa 1990 – Believe it or not, the building that is now Monty’s was not always a strip club. No, much worse, back in the day it was the Fringe Club!

Theatre That Gets Noticed - We’re Fringe and we’re proud! A message some admirers of the Fringe left in Centennial Square after taking in a show in 1988 at the Fringe Club tent there.

Charles Tidler, The Anonymous Reviewer

The Anonymous Reviewer - Charles Tidler plays the role of the nameless fringe reviewer for the Craig, the Fringe audience reviews newspaper which was named in memory of journalist, poet, biker and Fringe fan Craig Piprell.

Wes Borg, Cathleen Rootsaert, Neil Grahn & Joe Bird

Remember Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie? - These Edmonton comedians were the talk of the Fringe tour in the 90′s. Wes Borg, one of the original members, now lives in Victoria – he runs Phillips Comedy Night and is performing in Rerentless at this year Victoria Fringe.

Fringe reviews before iphones

The DIY reviews board - Audience members posted Fringe show reviews on the line to dry. There is one review for Izzy, a performer who now gone on to fame in Las Vegas as part of Cirque du Soleil. We might have to bring this reviews format back this year!

Janet Munsil

Fringe Producer Janet Munsil – the beating heart of the Fringe. This festival truly couldn’t happen without her . She’s been running the Victoria Fringe for 20 years and has fond memories of the early days of the festival. “It really doesn’t seem that long ago that people were lining up around the block to sit in a leaky abandoned storefront to watch Mump & Smoot, The English Suitcase Company, or Foresight Theatre -or TJ Dawe’s first shows, back when he was a pup.” – Janet Munsil.

TJ Dawe

Fringe Legend TJ Dawe – making sure audiences know not crinkle candy wrappers while he makes art. TJ has done more shows at the Victoria Fringe and Uno Fest than any other performer. Haven’t seen a TJ Dawe show yet? Shame on you!

In the lineup: Victoria's Poet Laureat Linda Rogers and Theatre SKAM's Matt Payne

Fringe Lineup outside the Metro -  It wouldn’t be Fringe without the lineups. This linear pre-show party is really where all the action happens – you meet performers, mingle with other audience members and find out what their must-see shows are.

>>Send us your Fringe memories and /or photographs by email or you can pop in to say hi in person – we’d love to reminisce with you!

Fringe Fest legends and Berlin rockers Die Roten Punkte (the Red Dots) are back in Victoria for a three-night run at the Metro in August. This hilarious and truly unique brother-and-sister duo have been described as “a lipstick-smeared, tantrum-loving, sonic collision between B52s, Kraftwerk and early Ramones”. Intrepid Theatre’s Sammie Gough chats to them about rehab, their new album Kunst Rock and their love of all things Victoria, particularly Atomic Vaudeville.

Ingrid Hansen in "Little Orange Man"

Birdmen, Lizardboys and Future Girls. Hidden Jems, SmartArses and Bitts. Improv short and ShLong. Brothels, whiskey bars and bachelor pads. The Universe, the multiverse and beyond. Seventy shows in thirteen venues. August 25-Sept 4, 2011. Pre-Fringe festivities begin August 22! Check out the lineup>>

Throughout the festival, audience members have been posting Three Word Reviews on twitter or text msging them to us. Here is a selection:

All Stories Are Fiction

Miraculous, sublime rant

Unique introspective brilliance

Spontaneous, heartfelt art

Masterful word art

Public Confessions of a Public Servant

Poetry In Motion

Delightful, whimsical, sweet

Touching profound loving

Lucky 9:

TJ Dawe in 'Lucky 9'

Further Adventures of Antoine Feval:

Chris Gibbs

Delirious mysterious deliciousness!

Witty, Funny, captivating

So Canadian, not!

quick, erudite, abundant

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Andrew Bailey: Street cred Jesus

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Raccoonery!: Little Known fact!

Super duper funny

Party on racUNOry!!

Mommy, Mommy Ice-cream!

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Matthew Kowalchuk

The Devil and Billy Markham:

How would you describe The Devil and Billy Markham? When someone asks me that, I like to ask first – do you know Shel Silverstein’s work? He’s famous for a lot of things, but probably most of all for his children’s books. And a part of what’s interesting about The Devil and Billy Markham is that it’s the piece that’s the furthest away from that. It’s rude, it’s crude, it bites you in the ass. It’s the story of a down-and-out Nashville songwriter who takes on the devil – and we all know that story, which is part of its charm, actually — but Shel has a way of reeling you in slowly and next thing you know, you’re in a place that defies all expectation – like, say, a wedding in hell with a guest list that includes Jesus, Judas, Jimi Hendrix, and Hitler.

What is your connection to famous songwriter and author Shel Silverstein and why did you choose this particular work of his? Well, for my part, the connection is that I happened to pick it up one day to read. Every now and then I pick up something, that opens my eyes to something new and inspiring, and The Devil and Billy Markham did that. I’m a writer as well, and I admire the way Shel approached his work, and his life (he died in 1999). He simply did the work, he didn’t explain what or why. Another part of the allure, for me, is that it he didn’t write it specifically to be performed – it was first published as a narrative poem in a 1979 issue of Playboy magazine.

Shel Silverstein

How does music come into play in the show? Who created the music for it? We call it a raunchy rock’n’roll rhapsody. It’s all about music, and filled with music – and a few other odd sounds – all of them performed live. Shel was a songwriter, too – he penned “A Boy Named Sue” for Johnny Cash, wrote most of Dr. Hook’s hits, and recorded a few albums himself. When I first performed the show over 10 years ago, I worked with a musician, Andy Northrup, who set much of Shel’s beautiful poetry to music. In this production, Daniel Deorksen has taken Andy’s music and run with it, adding tunes of his own and mangling the soundscape to his own wacky aesthetic, while channelling a little bit of Shel Silverstein along the way. I’m lucky to have worked with both musicians – who together have added their own bits of genius to make the show what it is today.

Who is Billy Markham? Billy Markham is anyone who’s ever tried to make it as a musician. He’s a songwriter and an outlaw, and a gambler, who thinks he can beat the devil at his own game,

Where else has the show toured to? It’s played in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver, and we actually played our very first gig in the small town of Athabasca. Before we had ever performed it for an audience, we rehearsed in a church there, and on the drive back home we encountered the worst thunderstorm – it was so bad that we had to pull off the highway for a good half hour and wait it out. Clearly, God was not impressed with our performance that day. The lesson, I think, is to watch your language in church.

The Devil and Billy Markham is on at the Intrepid Theatre Club Fri May 20, Sat May 21, + Sun May 21. >>Click here for more info.

1. What can audiences expect when they come to see your show?

I think we should start with what audiences should not expect. For one, there will be no peanuts. So, anyone with nut allergies should feel safe to attend. There will also be no spiders. Not due to allergies but due to a crippling fear on my part. So, fellow arachnophobes, you are also most welcome. Moving on. The show is a collection (a handful? a bushel? a gaggle?) of characters who are all trying to make their way in life without losing their minds or giving in to the pressures of the world. We all have coping strategies, right? Some of us just have more entertaining strategies than others. These characters certainly do and I hope they will make you laugh. But underneath the humour, these characters are all just people, like you and me, trying to make sense of it all. Except Martha. She’s a moth trying to make sense of it all. So, you know, expect that. The show also features catchy comedic songs about important things in life such as cats and chips.

2. How do you come up with the slew of wonderfully bizarre and crazy characters that feature in your show?

There is no one answer to this question. Sometimes they are based on someone I know. Often they are based on exaggerated facets of myself. Sometimes I’ll just hear a sentence somewhere and it sticks in my head for days, begging me to do something with it. For instance, the phrase “Little known fact…” lodged itself in my brain once until I figured out a character who might use it. And once I came across an article called “How to Write a Valedictorian Speech” online (who knows what the heck I was looking for that I found that?) and I knew I had to write one. When my friend told me that her graduating class’s motto was “84 parties more!” I knew those two things had to go together. So, I wrote the valedictorian speech that never was, but could have been at the head-banging high school I attended–Victoria’s very own Colquitz.

3. Describe one of your favourite characters from Raccoonery!

I really do love all of them. They each sort of express my world view that everyone is trying their best and that everyone just wants to belong and to be loved. And ice cream. Everyone wants ice cream. But if I had to pick a current favourite, I’d go with Mabel, former vaudevillian child star with shocking tales of love and lust from days gone by. She goes back and forth between sharing her heartfelt stories of loss to regaling us with ridiculous old vaudeville jokes like “I wasn’t close to my mother. She held me at arms length. Mostly because she was…born without elbows!” and “Yes, I dated Mickey Mouse. He was all hands that kid!” She’s a little bit of what I fear I’ll turn into one day if I’m not more successful and end up descending into insanity. So, please buy a ticket to my show to help me avoid this.

4. Raccoonery! debuted at the Vancouver Fringe Festival last year – how did audiences react to it there?

Every single person who saw it hated it. It was horrible. Are you kidding me? It was a huge hit, of course! What kind of question is that? It also won the Critics’ Choice Award. Critics are audiences too. Just audiences with the ability to ruin your career.

5. You’ve done a lot of TV and film. What is it you love about being on stage with a live audience?

I don’t like it when an audience is on stage with me, I prefer them in seats in front of the stage, watching me. Call me old fashioned if you will but that’s how I like it. The energy of a live performance is my favourite thing in the world. There’s just nothing else that compares to it. (Sorry, honey. Please don’t divorce me.) With film & tv you connect with the other actors and then audiences connect with their screens later. But with live performance, that exchange is instant. The audience contributes to the show by laughing or crying or applauding (hopefully) so it’s like they’re a part of the performance. But not a part that should be on the stage–see above.

6. What was it like being involved in a movie like The Big Year with a big cast of Hollywood funnymen Jack Black, Steve Martin + Owen Wilson?

I only had one day on the movie but what a great day it was. Zoolander (with Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller) is one of my all-time favourite comedies, I’m a huge Tenacious D fan and adore Jack Black, and, of course, I grew up with Steve Martin as a comedic influence and just love him so meeting all three of them in the span of five minutes was amazing. It was great to watch them work, to watch Steve Martin suggest little things that made the scenes even funnier, to have Jack Black sing to me between takes, to watch Owen Wilson hit on the extras.

>> Watch a clip of Morgan’s show.

Raccoonery! is on at Uno Fest at the Metro May 19, 20, 21.

See the official Uno Fest website for full festival line up.

Uno Fest

Visit the festival website!

May 19-29, 2011

Individual tickets ($16) + $65 Five-Show passes on sale now.
Ticket Rocket Hotline: 250 590 6291.

Festival Venues: Intrepid Theatre Club & Metro Studio

In 2011, the 14th annual international solo performance festival organised by Intrepid Theatre returns with a stellar lineup of one-person shows by Fringe Faves, worldwide smash-hits and fresh new work by innovative emerging artists.

The Uno Fest program guide will be out at the beginning of May. We’re also happy to be sponsoring a special screening of And Everything is Going Fine Steven Soderbergh’s new documentary about Spalding Gray, at Cinecenta as part of the Uno Fest program.

Visit the Uno Fest Website >>