Day 7, Vancouver Fringe Festival

Howdy-hi-ho! Ted Friendly is here, in it to win it. Live reporting from VanCOUGAR-Watch out for that big cat! Just kidding. The only big cats here are the guy and gals in Box of Clowns!

After their day off, these folks dove right back into their Box and reworked the ending of their show. You see, with a clown show, certain things have to be funny. And if you're not funny-YOU'RE OUT! And it was strike three for a certain series of knock-knock jokes that hadn't quite landed with their crowds thus far. After some fresh air and a neighborhood stroll, the Box was able to think of something better. And wouldn't you know---a great response from the audience that night! Even the always-sunny-in-Vancouver tech guy, Neil, applauded the changes. (We think he secretly wants to be a clown, too!)

After the show, we were able to catch CANNIBAL-THE MUSICAL, playing right after MOM? at the Firehall. We wanted more blood! Except Diane. She had to leave after the animated, South-Park-y, beheadingy prologue. But she listened from the lobby to all those catchy tunes!

We dashed into the Batmobile after the show, booking it across town to a little-bitty venue called the Toast Collective to see a Goose talk about her grandfather in France while wearing a corset made of ties, in GOOSEFEATHER. Diane whispered to me halfway through the show to stop honking and throwing bread crumbs at the stage, since it was actually a woman up there and not a goose. WELL, YOU FOOLED ME!

We still had one more show to see that evening, Patty was about to fall asleep in the backseat, but I scooped her up in my arms, and ran with Diane to The Cultch to catch THE SHOW MUST GO ON. We made it just in time! How exhilariting! Diane, Patty and I all have media badges so we dont have to deal with pesky tickets. They just wave us right on in. Sometimes they give us a ticket and then make us hand it back to them...Anyway, the talented Jeff Leard spun us a tale of his exploits performing the title role in Rumplestiltskin as part of a touring Children's Theatre. We've seen so many one-person shows at this festival, and hearing the phrase used to make my skin crawl with memories of bad pantomime, bad voices, and bad storytelling, but OH MAN these artists know how to keep me on the edge of my seat! DIane has told me the actors here like to be called "Artists". She told me people don't need paint to be an artist! Who knew! You learn something new every day! I'm so inspired I'm off to start work on my own One-Man-Show: TED TALKS. Catchy and original, right? TED FRIENDLY OUT.