funny

Piaf and Brel is a one-woman show performed by internationally acclaimed vocalist Melanie Gall. While being seated behind individual cabaret-like tables, prepare to be taken away by the power and clarity of Melanie Gall’s incredible vocals.

She tells the interesting story of the life of the French singer Edit Piaf and the Belgian singer and songwriter Jacques Brel. Both are iconic musical figures and exceptional singers. Gall mixes the story of the two musicians with facts from her own biography, bringing the audience closer to her and her performance.

You are guaranteed to be taken away by the extreme professionalism and quality...

Melanie Gall

Fantastic! This is definitely worth seeing, as any musical usually is. But there is something about How to Adult that just hits the nail on the head. Set in a co-housing situation in Vancouver, 4 young 20-somethings live together and try to be adults. With a runtime of just under an hour, it will leave you humming the tunes and wanting more.  

Together these four young millennials write out a list of things they think they each need to do in order to become more adult-like. The list includes things like: getting a job, eliminating co-dependent relationships, and...

Surprise – it's all sketches! They sketched before, they sketch now, and if you are smart, you will get a ticket and they will Sketch Ya Later!

It all starts with a video of Elvis and Jesus – are they playing themselves? This improbable pairing, even “In the Guetto” is unexpected.

I couldn't tell you who the leader or star of Huskey Guy Productions is, the performers work together to share the spotlight and laughter. And there is laughter.  Let me cut to the chase: it's all about reversals, perspectives and rewarding surprises. The troupe members work together and bounce off...

Charlatan: a person falsely claiming to have a special knowledge or skill; a fraud.

From the start, Travis Bernhardt claims this may or may not work: an admitted charlatan. But it does work, and well.

He invites us into his cult, asks us to lift our veil and be open to possibilities which is the very premise on which magic is based. If you are willing to play along, you will laugh and gasp and…take deep breaths? Travis Bernhardt, known for his sleight of hand, brings sleight of mind to this year’s Fringe show, where he reaches...

This one woman performance  features Diane Barnes, an African-American from California who was practising as a doctor when, at 38, she suffered a stroke while riding her precious horse.

Barnes is a single mother with two adopted boys. This story takes us through her stroke in 2005 and her journey of recovery and discovery since – as a professional and as mother. She recounts in a personal, emotional and sensitive way how she gets to know and accept her changes. This story is from Barnes' point of view -  taking the audience member through a painful and confusing trip on the...

Great Day For Up was written and performed by Jonathan Young while he was a student at Studio 58 in 1996 and the version presented in the 2016 Vancouver Fringe Festival is an evolution of that student project. Using the lighting, sound and space of theatre, Young presents a homunculus who struggles with angst and self-doubt to finally have an epiphany.

I am so relieved that they provided an afterward in the program to Great Day For Up. After the 30-minute show I left the theatre confused and disoriented. To provide some context, I like shows that have a...

2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick is performed by actor and playwright Tim Motley from Melbourne, Australia.

The lights went on and a rumpled sort of Humphrey Bogart, in the requisite raincoat, appeared. Smoking a cigarette, and talking like someone out of a B detective movie -  in both dialect and dialogue. I think if it had only been this, and our “Dick” had only told a few jokes I would have been satisfied. But there was more – much more.

Tim Motley – ( insert your joke here ________) - the only actor in the play (other than a few...

Musings about being an actor before an audition for “cashier #2”, Vancouver-based film and television actor Morgan Brayton reflects on her adolescent ideas of being a successful actor and all her apparently “golden ticket” opportunities in Give It Up.

The show is filled with moments that make you laugh because they are true. Like the second-hand embarrassment you feel when Morgan shares with the audience how she has failed all her prepubescent dreams of having a spin off series, sharing the cover of Teen Beat with Scott Baio and being invited to late night talk shows.

Never...

Covering all of Leo Tolstoy’s mythically long-winded novel is no task for mere mortals, but Ryan Gladstone is up to the task. War and Peace is a funny, smart, and heartfelt treatment of one of history’s greatest works of literature.

The story is told in many layers: the plot of the novel itself, often played straight but poked fun at when necessary; the echoes of Tolstoy’s own life, including his depression and his youthful habits of gambling and womanizing; the historical context of the Russian setting; and the context of Tolstoy’s own writing of the novel, including the...

Jen Derbyshire, a unique, hilarious, talented monologist and certified insane person, tells a story based on her own experience in the world of mental health. She states that she has been certified as insane eight times! Jen turns the audience into a mental health review board to help determine her current state of sanity.

The audience gets thrown into topics that most people know very little about, fear a lot, and don’t like to talk about. Derbyshire’s delivery is passionate and brave. She shares her personal tragedy with dignity and an intelligent sense of humor: she can make you laugh...

Jennifer Derbyshire

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