Showing posts with label Joshua English Scrimshaw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joshua English Scrimshaw. Show all posts

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "The Gentlemen’s Pratfall Club"

Day:
 9

Show: 31


Category: Clowning / Comedy / Physical Theater / Kid friendly

By: Comedy Suitcase

Created by: Joshua English Scrimshaw and Levi Weinhagen

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: An actor tries to learn how to fall down for his audition to be TV's new Captain Clumsy.

Highlights: There's really nothing funnier than watching the Comedy Suitcase guys throw their bodies around the theater (and audience) in the service of comedy. At least not in this Fringe Festival; this is the hardest I've laughed in these ten days. Why is it that people falling down is always so funny?! Somehow even more so when it's on purpose. The plot of the show is that Walter (Levi) is a struggling actor going on one last audition for a show he's not even really that into, he just thinks it'll be a good way into TV. The problem is, he doesn't know how to fall down (and Levi's slow hesitating descent to the ground is hilarious). At the audition he means an excellent faller, a Frenchman named Guy, whom he also encounters when his agent sends him to the Gentleman's Pratfall Club to learn the necessary skills. Joshua plays Guy, and Walter's friend, and an old man who is a king of the pratfall, with the chronic pain to prove it. No speeches of self-discovery allowed in this comedy, but maybe Walter is trying to find the joy and purpose in life again. But mostly, this show is a ton of physical comedy that induces tears of laughter, particularly with Joshua throwing himself down the stairs, rolling over the short wall into the audience, and budging past several rows of audience members. Although Levi pretending to fall but not quite fall down the stairs and around the stage is almost funnier. And then there are the (real) slaps, the trips, the getting tangled up in chairs. It's just good old-fashioned physical comedy that's funny in any era, for all ages.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Saturday, August 9, 2025

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "This"

Day:
 8

Show: 26

Title: This

Category: Comedy / Solo Show / Storytelling

By: Tim Uren

Created by: Tim Uren

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A solo storytelling show about life in the theater and comedy world.

Highlights: I found this show to be surprisingly lovely. It's fun to get insight into the world of an artist (it's not as glamorous as it appears), but even if you're not an artist, the show is full of relevant material about life: anxiety, addiction, relationships, careers, memories vs. experiences, existential dread. Tim has constructed the show as a series of chapters, walking us more or less chronologically through his life, in a very personable and engaging way. From his hit comedy show Look Ma No Pants in the shadow of the Scrimshaw brothers, to being fired from his dream job at Brave New Workshop, to designing board games (which, honestly, I didn't really get, not being a game person of the video or board variety). It's really about his love of theater, and our love of theater, and being present together in the same room in the very special way that theater requires. The title comes from the first word Tim spoke as a child, when he didn't know what he wanted, just "this" or "this" or "this." But he comes around to discovering that this, here, now, is the only thing we have. Tim's final show is this Sunday, and you can also see him with his theater company Ghoulish Delights or as a part of The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society which performs regularly at Crooners, information about both can be found here.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

A Crooners Holiday: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society and Kate and Bradley Beahen

With the brief lull in #TCTheater that comes around the holidays*, I was able to head down the road to Crooners Supper Club in Fridley for a couple of shows. Crooners was a lifesaver for me in 2020, as it was pretty much the only place you could see live performance, in their makeshift parking lot drive-in theater. Now with four different performance spaces (all with food and drink service), there's always something happening at Crooners, much of it theater adjacent. A few days after Christmas I attended The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society's Christmas Post Mortem show, and a few days before New Year's I attended siblings Kate and Bradley Beahen's cabaret show Fresh Starts and Showstoppers. Read on for a brief summary of those shows, both of which will be returning in 2025. And if you don't already have your tickets for next Monday's A Grand UNITE for Civil Rights, a fundraiser for the ACLU hosted by #TCTheater artist Serena Brook and featuring a veritable who's who of local music-theater talent, you better get them right now before they're gone! What's better than a night of good food, great entertainment, and a worthy cause?

Sunday, October 13, 2024

"Afterlife: The Experience" by Sparkle Theatricals at the Wabasha Street Caves

I know Sparkle Theatricals for their dance and movement-based shows, but they also produce more immersive, experiential work. My first experience with the latter is their current production, Afterlife: The Experience, running for one more night only at the Wabasha Street Caves. I'll admit, part of the draw was to see the Caves, built into the sandstone bluffs on the Mississippi River across from St. Paul originally as storage, and later turned into a speakeasy during Prohibition with rumored visits from some of the era's most notorious gangsters. Now it's an event center, and a very cool theater venue. The conceit of Afterlife is that we're all (recently) dead, and our souls have arrived at the Caves on our way to somewhere else. A number of previously departed souls are there to guide us on our way. I found it to be overall a unique, interesting, and fun experience, although parts of it were a little too interactive and participatory for this introvert (I don't want to be part of the storytelling, I want to be a witness to it). A mix of theater, storytelling, party games, food and drinks, and dance, you have one more chance to enter the Afterlife on October 25.

Monday, August 5, 2024

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2024: "Yo-Ho-Hum: A Pirate's Midlife Crisis"

Day:
 4

Show: 11


Category: Physical Theater

By: Hey Rube!

Written by: Marcus Anthony

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A comedic retelling of the life of gentleman-turned-pirate Stede Bonnet.

Highlights: The story is told in flashback by Stede (Joshua English Scrimshaw) and Tristram Shanty (Natalie Rae Wass). Google tells me there is a fictional character named Tristram Shandy, it's unclear if the playwright was inspired by this character, or just the funny name - similar to Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon being unable to say Nabulungi, Stede calls Tristram by any number of words that start with T. From some unknown time and place in the future, Stede tells his story (with constant corrections from Tristram). We watch as Stede hires Tristram and his crew to be pirates, and go about doing piratey things, although Tristram insists they're not pirates. But all Stede wants is to be a pirate. He soon meets the real pirate Blackbeard (Madhu Bangalore), and all Blackbeard wants is to be a gentleman. They both get what they want, in a be-careful-what-you-wish-for kind of way. The play is constructed of many short scenes with blackouts in between, which isn't a bad thing, but when the audience decides it needs to applaud at every blackout, it disrupts the momentum and flow of the storytelling. (Note to audiences: you don't have to applaud every time the lights go out, often it's better for the story if you just hold the silence.) Despite these interruptions, there are some great performances, particularly Joshua as Bonnet, performing with his trademark physicality, literally climbing around the theater. The entire six-person cast, dressed in piratey costumes including tall boots and puffy shirts, is committed to the campy comedy tone of the piece, and there are some great fight scenes with imaginary swords. All in all it's a fun fringey romp.


Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Sunday, August 7, 2022

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2022: "Bob and Reggie Go To Bed"

Day: 3

Show: 10

Category: COMEDY / ORIGINAL MUSIC / PHYSICAL THEATER / KID FRIENDLY / NON-VERBAL

By: Comedy Suitcase

Created by: Joshua English Scrimshaw & Levi Weinhagen

Location: Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: A completely wordless comedy about... well... two nitwits going to bed.

Highlights: I would happily watch Levi Weinhagen and Joshua English Scrimshaw do anything, which is what most of this show is. Just watching them put on pajamas and get into bed is hilarious. It's just good old-fashioned comedy, the kind that works in any era, geography, or age of audience, in the Buster Keaton silent film kind of style. I'm certain these two go home with bruises and abrasions every night the way they heedlessly throw their bodies around the stage, all for the sake of comedy. They're joined for part of the show by Sulia Altenberg as a tough chain-smoking Tooth Fairy. They keep hitting each other in the face to make their teeth fall out to get more money out of her, which does not make her happy, culminating in a ridiculous slow-mo fight scene employing tools of dental hygiene. While without verbal dialogue, this show is far from silent; composer/musician Rhiannon Fiskradatz creates a soundscape for the show on guitar, percussion, and various other instruments, the sounds making the physical comedy even funnier. At one point the boys are "locked" off the stage and find themselves in the audience, running around gleefully and playfully interacting with the audience. Eventually all four performers end up back on stage, along with a few stragglers they've picked up in a conga line through the audience. This show is just pure joy and delight and laughter. If you don't want your face to hurt from laughing too much, you should avoid this show at all costs.

Monday, August 12, 2019

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "Frankenstein: Two Centuries"

Day: 9

Show: 26

Category: HORROR / MYSTERY / SCI-FI / SPOKEN WORD

By: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

Created by: Shanan Custer, Joshua English Scrimshaw, Tim Uren, Eric Webster, and Joe Weismann

Location: Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: Two original radio plays done in the style of two real life radio series, Escape and Sanctum Mysteries.

Highlights: This group has perfected the old timey radio show performance, complete with classic microphones, sound effects, and smooth radio voices. Often they recreate actual historical radio scripts, but here they've written originals, and both are a delight. The first one is creepy cool, and continues after the ending of Mary Shelley's classic novel if Captain Robert Walton's sister Margaret went looking for the creature, whom she sees as wondrous, and instead finds the evil doctor himself reincarnated. The second one is, as the cast described in the informative intro (which they do for both plays), more silly and fun than scary. I honestly can't remember or make sense of the plot, but it involved lots of monsters and horrible/great puns, hosted by a darkly funny man along with the chipper but desperately unhappy Lipton Tea lady (as voiced by the Queen of the Minnesota Fringe, Shanan Custer). Check out their website to find out about future performances and to listen to their podcast.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: "The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society"

Day: 6

Show: 21

Category: Drama / Mystery / Historical Content

By: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

Created by: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

Location: Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: A live reenactment of two radio plays from the '40s and '50s, both involving the good guys defeating the Nazis.

Highlights: If you saw the show last year, it's much of the same, and that's a good thing. This show is best enjoyed with eyes closed so that you can simulate the experience of listening to it gathered around the radio on a day long past. Except that it's hard not to open your eyes and see how the four-person cast is making all those sound effects, standing in front of old timey microphones with odds and ends around them. They're also able to create what sounds like way more than four voices as the play all the characters, good guys and bad. For these stories are from an era when good guys and bad guys were easy to distinguish. Two thirty-minute actual historical radio dramas are read in their entirety, preceded by a bit of context, and it's fun to imagine a time when dramas like this were the only source of entertainment, before TV and video games and the internet. It's good old-fashioned spine-tingling fun!

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Monday, August 6, 2018

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: "Slapdash Panic: Comedy Suitcase ended up in the Fringe Festival with 3 weeks notice and no show!"

Day: 4

Show: 13

Category: Clowning / Comedy / Improv

Created by: Scrimshaw and Weinhagen

Location: Strike Theater

Summary: There's no show, just a couple of guys being goofy.

Highlights: "What's a concise way to say welcome to something happening live in front of your face that may or may not be worth the price of admission?" "Welcome to the Fringe!" Fringe favorites Comedy Suitcase, aka dynamic duo Joshua English Scrimshaw and Levi Weinhagen, said yes when their wait list spot turned into a Fringe show just three weeks before the festival start. The schtick is that they haven't come up with a show and are just winging it, but of course they do have a show planned, although very loosely structured. There's lots of running around panicking at the beginning, and then they settle into doing things to make the audience laugh (a lot). There's a very short improv scene, physical humor, audience participation, drawing stories, a comedy workshop on writing jokes, a brief scene reading (with audience help) from Joshua's other show about old-timey radio, and a dance party. I'd rather watch Scrimshaw and Weinhagen do nothing than many people do something. If you want to laugh, have a good time, and enjoy the silliness for an hour, regardless of age (this show could and should be at Family Fringe, except then we couldn't use our Fringe passes), go see this show that's not a show but really it is a show. And a super fun one.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Fringe Festival 2017: "The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society"

Day: 10

Show: 40

Category: Something Different

By: Goulish Delights

Created by: Joshua English Scrimshaw, Tim Uren, Eric Webster, Shanan Custer, and Joe Weismann

Location: U of M Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: A reenactment of two radio broadcasts from the '40s and '50s, complete with commercials and sound effects.

Highlights: Pairing a 1952 episode of Hall of Fantasy with a 1943 episode of The Shadow, this show is an entertaining and creepy homage to an era gone by, that of the radio drama. The creators of this show have a podcast of the same name (you can find it here, along with future live performances), and their love for and knowledge of the genre is evident. I closed my eyes a few times during the show, not just because I'm super sleep deprived after ten days of Fringing, but also because it's almost more chilling and thrilling to just listen and let your imagination create the picture of what's happening. And what's happening in these two programs is a lot of mysterious creatures and mad scientists and smart sleuths and the like. But it's also fun to watch the performers (see creator list above, plus Marc Doty filling in for Joe Weissman on keyboard when I saw the show), who all have such great retro radio voices (and smart retro wardrobe to match) with inventive sound effect implements. There's a reason these radio horror shows were so popular, and happily they continue to exist in some form today thanks to Goulish Delights.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Fringe Festival 2017: "Intermediate Physical Comedy for Advanced Beginners"

Day: 1

Show: 1


Category: Comedy

By: Comedy Suitcase

Created by: Joshua Scrimshaw and Levi Weinhagen

Location: U of M Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: A series of lessons on physical comedy performed by two masters of the genre, with no words spoken.

Highlights: Family-friendly and funny, this show was a perfect start to my Fringe. Creator/performers Joshua Scrimshaw and Levi Weinhagen go through a series of ten lessons, spelled out on a chalkboard, to demonstrate various facets of physical comedy. Food props, a drone, an over-sized inflatable raft, and the performers' bodies all are used in the service of comedy. Expertly performed, Levi and Joshua make it look easy, and we in the audience get to enjoy the fruits of their pain. The silent action is accompanied by Marc Doty on the keyboard (because otherwise the silence could get awkward, as it does in one lesson), who also gets to be part of the show. I wrote in my must-see list that this show is a no-brainer, and it is. A sure bet at the Fringe that is just pure joy, laughter, silliness, and a bit of awkwardness in the best way.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

"The Averagers: Christmas War" by Comedy Suitcase at Bryant Lake Bowl

Last year's smash hit Fringe Festival show The Averagers returns with a Christmas special, because 'tis the season. Our favorite average people turned superheroes are back, and while the show may not have anything to do with Christmas (other than one scene that takes place in the Target Christmas aisle, a scary place indeed), it is hilariously funny, family friendly, chock full of local references, only an hour long, and a whole lot of fun.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Fringe Festival 2016: "Apple Picking"

Day: 10

Show: 43

Title: Apple Picking

Category: Comedy

By: Ben San Del Presents

Created by: Ben San Del

Location: Ritz Theater Proscenium

Summary: A pleasant afternoon of apple picking turns sinister when the two couples turn out to be on opposite sides of the law

Highlights: In this hilarious dark comedy, mobster's daughter and hitwoman Candy (Mo Perry) brings her boyfriend Johnny (Jason Ballweber) to the family orchard to dispose of him. Red (Natalie Rae Wass) and Robert (Christopher Kehoe) appear to be on a date, but are actually undercover FBI agents. A mad chasee ensues, observed by a pair of trees (Rachel Petrie and Joshua English Scrimshaw, the funniest trees you've ever seen whether silent or speaking in a drug-induced halucination). It's really funny and the cast is fantastic, thoroughly enjoyable start to finish. Which is probably why it won the encore slot at 8:30 pm today.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Fringe Festival 2016: "Celebrity Book Club"

Day: 4

Show: 18


Category: Comedy

By: Outlandish Productions

Written by: Jimmy LeDuc, Dan Hetzel, and Sulia Rose Altenberg

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A mock TV show in which a host, producer, and assistant talk about books written by celebrities, with a different theme and special guest panel (comprised of Fringe favorites) at every performance.

Highlights: Funny people reading ridiculous books that probably only got published because the author is a celebrity. Simple premise, but it works, especially with the creative team of Jimmy LeDuc (the producer keeping the show going), Dan Hetzel (the genial and slightly smarmy host), and Sulia Rose Altenberg (the helpful and sometimes hostile assistant). I attended on "Celebrity Fiction or Poetry" night, so I enjoyed the poems of Jewel read by Avi Aharoni, Ally Sheedy's poems (some of which were written during her stint at Hazeldon) read by Joshua English Scrimshaw, Pamela Anderson's novel Star Struck, read by Jen Scott, and finally, selections from Touch Me: The Poems Suzanne Sommers, read by Eric Webster. It's a fun and informal show, kind of like a late-night talk show recurring skit, with the audience given the vote on each book whether to "shelve it" or "trash it." The thin premise succeeds because of the talent, humor, and charm of the regulars and special guests.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Fringe Festival 2015: "Comedy Suitcase Presents The Averagers"

Day: 9

Show: 40


Category: Comedy

By: Comedy Suitcase

Created by: Schrimshaw and Weinhagen

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A bunch of average people become superheroes that save the day.

Highlights: The Averagers is one of the funniest shows I saw at the Fringe this year. The premise is pretty ridiculous - a ragtag group of superheroes including Captain Average (Eric Webster), the spoiled boy-god Paul Bunyan (Joshua Scrimshaw), the single mom Black Woodtick (Laura Zabel), office supply billionaire Iron Range Man (Levi Weinhagen), and the super sensitive Bulk (Matthew Kessen) travel through time and save the world from Nazis and a blue ox (Amy Schweickhardt, who wins the award for greatest range in the Fringe by also appearing in the excellent and completely different show Getting to Ellen), as told by a guy named Stanley (Daniel Hetzel). There are Minnesota references aplenty (including a "too soon?" joke about the Lindbergh kidnapping), and tons of physical comedy as the group fights and shoots things at each other. The show is incredibly loose and playful (perhaps because I saw the final scheduled performance) - everyone was ad libbing and toying with the audience and having fun, which makes it impossible for the audience not to have fun with them. And this show definitely wins the prize for best interaction with the ASL interpreter, as she (unknowingly but not unwillingly) became part of the show. The Averagers sold out all but their first show, and received the encore, and it lives up to the hype. Moral of the story: if you see "Comedy Suitcase" attached to a Fringe show, reserve tickets early and go see it, and prepare to laugh.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Fringe Festival 2015: "Hope You Guess My Name"

Day: 8

Show: 38


Category: Comedy

By: Ante-Deluvian Productions

Written by: Ari Hoptman

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: Two people sell their souls to the devil and then sue him on a technicality.

Highlights: I had high hopes for this one based on the playwright (Ari Hoptman, see also the excellent The Consolation) and cast (Eric Webster, Shanan Custer, Joshua Scrimshaw), and while there are plenty of funny lines and physical comedy bits, the whole thing didn't quite seem to hang together. Or maybe I was just too fringesausted at the end of a long, hot, stressful day to appreciate it. The good news is Eric makes for a devilishly charming Satan, Ari and Shanan are great as the people who sell their souls in exchange for a better life as a rock star and country hick (respectively), and Joshua is as delightfully goofy as always. So it's fun and amusing, if not great.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Fringe Festival: "Kafka Nuts"

Day: 8

Show: 28

Title: Kafka Nuts

Category: Comedy

By: Comedy Suitcase

Created by: Scrimshaw and Weinhagen

Location: Illusion Theater

Summary: A screwball comedy in the vein of the Marx brothers, incorporating the philosophy of Kafka.

Highlights: This show is a rapid-fire succession of puns and physical comedy. Joshua English Scrimshaw and Levi Weinhagen are a couple of attorneys attempting to help poor pantsless Zeppo (Joe Bozic) when he's arrested for some nameless crime. There's a chase scene, a trial, a metamorphosis (into a mime), musical interludes (by the fabulous Rachel Austin), and lots and lots of puns followed by pointed looks at the audience. What else is there to say? It's great fun, good old-fashioned comedy, well performed by the cast (which also includes Kelvin Hatle as judge, priest, cop, etc.).

Fringe Festival: "From Here to Maternity"

Day: 8

Show: 27


Category: Comedy

By: Shanan Custer and Joshua English Scrimshaw

Created by: Custer and Scrimshaw

Location: Illusion Theater

Summary: A comedy about what it means to become a parent.

Highlights: If you've seen Shanan's Ivey Award winning show 2 Sugars, Room for Cream, this will seem familiar to you - it's a similar concept except the subject is pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood, rather than coffee (and if you haven't see it, you should check it out at Park Square in January). The through-story is series of scenes about Meg and Charlie as they journey through the decision to have children, pregnancy, and childbirth. In between we see related sketches, including a fight between a midwife* and a doctor, a reading of "Curious George Goes to Day Care," a song from Shanan, and an interpretive dance to "Cat's in the Cradle" from Joshua. Individually Shanan and Joshua are hilarious (see also Our American Assassin and Kafka Nuts), and together they're comedy gold. Although they're married to other people, their real-life friendship makes them a very believable married couple. The scenes and situations are real and natural, and it's just plain funny, even if you're not a parent.

*There are several jokes about hairy legged or pitted women, about which I refer you to a Fringe show I saw last week, Natural Novice.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Fringe Festival: "To Mars With Tesla or The Interplanetary Machinations of Evil Thomas Edison"

Day: 8

Show: 23


By: English Scrimshaw Theatrical Novelties

Created by: Adrienne and Joshua English Scrimshaw

Location: Intermedia Arts

Summary: A silent film style play that explores the real and imagined life of scientist Nikola Tesla, and his real and imagined enemy Thomas Edison.

Highlights: A few months ago, nimbus theatre did an original play called Tesla about the fascinating and brilliant scientist (best known for developing the alternating current motor). The first half of this piece tells a similar story about Tesla immigrating to the US and working for Edison, and his OCD-like quirks. The second half diverges into an imagined tale of Tesla and Edison travelling to Mars to... well I'm not quite sure why. I find Tesla's real life more interesting that the made-up parts, but it does provide an excuse for some interesting Martian choreography (they speak only in movement). The silent film aspects of this piece are very well done, with expressive silent acting telling the story along with title cards displayed at the back of the stage. The funniest bits include a static electricity fight and a chalkboard brainstorm session about how to get to Mars. The six-person cast all perform well in this style, especially Joshua Scrimshaw as Tesla and Kelvin Hatle as Edison. It deserved its placement among the top 15 shows in attendance.


Sunday, August 4, 2013

Fringe Festival: "Comedy vs. Calories: FIGHT!"

Day: 2

Show: 3



Created by: Joshua English Scrimshaw, Levi Weinhagen, and Andy Kraft

Location: U of M Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: Three comedians consume one happy meal each, and then work for the rest of the show to burn off the calories they've consumed by exercising and performing comedy skits, often at the same time.

Highlights: In this fight, comedy wins! About a half dozen clever and hilarious comedy sketches are tied together around the theme of food, fitness, and body image, some of which are personal and poignant stories. But mostly it's just good fun; I was laughing so much my face hurt at the end of the show! Sketches include a discussion of plastic surgery, the woes of childhood sports, The Biggest Loser as a teaching tool, and a funny spoof of the Tom Waits song "The Piano Has Been Drinking." The show is interactive but not in a scary way. At one point the guys invite all the kids in the audience on stage to play dodgeball, which is super fun to watch from the relative safety of the audience. Bottom line: funniest show I've seen at the Fringe so far. My favorite line: "This isn't the Guthrie, we just ate a cheeseburger on stage!"