Totally Uncalled For
Posted by Skrud at Monday, June 13th 2005 at 9:41am
We weren’t sure what to do last Friday night, then I asked when the Fringe Festival starts. Guess what? It started last Friday night. How convenient!
Harley and I headed down to the plateau to check out A Brief History of Warfare… an interesting look at well, warfare, from a completely skewed point of view; dancing girls included (to the Stalingrad song…). Stopping at their outdoor headquarters to pick up tickets. There’s always live music and beer and plenty of fun stuff going on around there, too. One of the great things about waiting in line at the Fringe Festival box office is that the person in front of you can just turn around – while you’re discussing which shows you want to go to – and hand you fliers for their show. In this case, it was Erin Leahy plugging Freak Out Under The Apple Tree. We decided we’d check that out, too.
(Before the show we went and sat in Cafe Pi, which was nice except for all the smoke – a huge turnoff.)
During the show, host Ivan Penaluna showed slides about war, made fun of Americans, and displayed letters which he sent to the British Ministry of Defence requesting that they name two new Aircraft carriers the “Death Star” and the “Millenium Falcon,” because they are much more intimidating names than the “H.M.S. Splendid”… he also showed the replies he got from the Ministry, because they reply to every letter. All in all, a pretty amusing show.
On Saturday we decided we’d hit the Fringe again, this time meaning to see Freak Out Under The Apple Tree and This is Uncalled For. (Two years ago, we saw Uncalled For at the Fringe with Ed and it was the most hilarious improv show… ever.). We ended up going to Baton Rouge to celebrate Terrel’s birthday instead of going to the first show (thanks for the reminder, Mel!)… and the whole Baton Rouge staff is worthy of entirely unfavourable rant that I probably won’t go into.
Uncalled For was in a totally uncalled for location. Pun intended. The venue was far norther on St-Dominique than we ever thought St-Dominique went – a good 20 minute walk from the rest of the festival. Still, the show was amazing. Somehow four completely improvised scenarios based on audience queues were amalgamated into a final completely improvised scenario. There were tunips (sic), prison gardens, rapidly aging twins and Norwegians. I want to go back and experience it again, when it will be a completely different show. If you only see one Fringe show this year, definitely make it Uncalled For. :)
Ahh… memories of Uncalled For.
Was it “Slashdot geeks rule the world”? Sigh…
I highly advise you to hit up “Patati-Patata”, a small diner next to park where you got your tickets in. It’s on the other corner of the street – just ask any Fringe volunteer where it is. Awesome burgers and fries, but everything else is great too. It’s worth the wait and cramped eating space.