Verbal Diarrhea, Actual Diarrhea - Delightful to Hang Out With

Fringe Description: Funny · Intellectual · Intimate

From meeting Gerard Harris in lineups, I liked him. He seemed genuinely pleased when I told him he was on my list. And in a Woody Allenish way said, “You’re not just blowing me off, are you?” Whereupon I showed him my list and he seemed almost ecstatic. This is my favorite kind of line-up performance: a bit of improv and vulnerability thrown into the regular schtick. 

The friend I went to Jem Rolls with deserted me at the Fringe Bar, but I headed back to Studio 1398 saying, “I think he might be the next Jem Rolls.” Quote from my friend: “I just don’t like the title. Write in your review that it’s a terrible title.”

The physicality, way with words, speed of said words (9000 words in 60 minutes) are all similar to Rolls, as is the commitment and facility at taking awkward human moments and turning them into compelling stories.  No surprise to find then through a Google search that Harris first decided to do this after seeing Jem Rolls perform and that they are now friends.

The differences however are also indisputable. Harris is his own person. Rolls shouts. Harris lisps, and comments that his handwriting lisps as well. 

I found this quotation in After the House Lights, a blog from Edmonton, “If by any chance I overrun, I will be happy to continue the show in the lobby or, if need be, their individual homes and gardens.”

And that is exactly the sense I got from him and that it would be delightful to hang out at the Fringe Bar or wherever together.

He apologized for losing his voice and told me (us) to tell our friends the next show would be better. If you like the white guy telling stories on himself genre (and I do) go see Gerard Harris and if he wants to continue chatting in the lobby, I think you’d enjoy that too.

Good luck (or rather serendipity) for me to see Jem Rolls and Gerard Harris right after each other, so I could “compare and contrast” as my Grade 8 teacher, Miss Connibear, would have put it. But I wouldn’t recommend It for you. Mix it up a bit. Throw in a clown show (like Box of clowns), a musical (like Beverley Elliott or Junk)  or comedy (like Roller Derby) between the two. That’s more the Fringe way to do it.

By Mary Bennett