by Matthew A. Everett • July 20, 2008 • Ah, Fringe season, when the show cards are in full bloom. I had to get in the action myself this year, pimping my own show. But as a Fringe addict myself, I delight in swooping down on the tables full of cards and making sure I have one of everything, so I can peruse them and find details that haven’t made their way online or into the program yet. Another way of narrowing the choices – or presenting myself with still more agonizing ones to choose between. Mostly the latter.
Ben Sandell, of Mittens For Fat Kids fame, this year doing Strawberry Fields Temporarily in the Fringe, shared a joke of Mitch Hedberg’s that always comes to mind when he’s handing out cards.
Single White Fringe Geek (and Mom) is the blog of Matthew A. Everett, one of five bloggers covering the Minnesota Fringe Festival for the Daily Planet.
Hedberg said something along the lines of, “people handing things out to other people as they pass by are basically saying, ‘Here. Throw this away for me.'”
Hopefully Fringe time is an exception, but I know the feeling. Personally, I still have a pile of these things. And an added bonus is that now, it enables me to say, “I already have one of yours, so here’s a card from *my* show for you.”
I have become, in some ways, quite shameless for a shy person.
So, as a reminder to myself, and a handy set of random links for you to peruse, here’s a list of all the shows I picked up cards for, or had thrust upon me, at Fringe-For-All 1…
First card of the night
Bonus points
for managing to get a card in my hands even though I already had picked one up off the table previously (I will be returning the extras to the table tomorrow night at Fringe-For-All 2, so that others can get one, too)…
Suspicious Minds – not one, but two members of the company gave me an additional card – they would not be deflected, and apparently had the cards to spare
10.10.Post.9.11: Laughter in the Aftermath – the additional one with a condom attached with the slogan, Keeping America Safe – reportedly very popular at the Gay Pride booth
Cards of the enormous variety
The Chasm – Two Prevailing Winds of Gabriela Mistral
Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead
Cards of the bookmark variety
Boys Don’t Make Passes At Girls Who Wear Glasses
Cards of the adorable (tiny) variety
All Rights Reserved: A Libertarian Rage
The Nosdrahcir Sisters – actually a Sears portrait studio wallet size photo of the actresses with a hand-written note on the back – hilarious
The rest of the forest, felled for the following shows…
Antigone – A Riff on Sophocles
Ars Longa, Vita Brevis (Art Is Long, Life Is Short)
Dreadful Penny’s Exquisite Horrors
The Fish, The Fruit, and the Pet Coffin Maker
How Does A Drug Deal Become A Decent 3rd Date?
I’ll Marry You For Health Insurance and other shocking revelations
My War – From Bismarck to Britain and Back
Orange – a farce (about terrorism)
Silent Poetry – A Tribute To Marcel Marceau
Phew!
Makes me glad I had plenty of cards for “The Bronze Bitch Flies At Noon” and “Dog Tag” to get in the mix. I would have felt left out if they hadn’t arrived just in time in the mail that very afternoon.
Entering his sixth year of blogging about the Minnesota Fringe Festival (and bringing Mom along for the ride as a guest reviewer), Matthew A. Everett is also a local playwright and three-time recipient of grant support from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Information on Matthew and his plays can be found at matthewaeverett.com.
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