Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Sound and Noise and Bodies"

Day: 1

Show: 3

Title: Sound and Noise and Bodies

Category: Clowning / Comedy / Drama / Improv / Original Music / Solo Show / Spoken Word / Storytelling / Audience participation / Historical content

By: Octoberdandy Productions

Created by: Jen Scott

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A very personal solo show by #TCTheater artist and improvisor Jen Scott that covers some big topics with humor and charm.

Highlights: In this quirky genre-bending show (directed by Levi Weinhagen), Jen shares stories from her life and weaves in big themes about humanity and art and community. In between two-minute ukulele songs (she's been writing a song a week for years), she talks about how this music major got into theater and improv, life with her "deaf French husband," giving birth via C-section, living in Paris with a toddler, the tragic death of a child, and the challenges of marriage and life. There's something really sweet and hopeful about this show, despite the darkness of some of the subject matter. That's a credit to Jen's very charming and disarming style, as she occasionally loses her place and has to refer to her notes, which only makes the show more endearing and real. The lights darken with only a spotlight for the songs, and she's constantly surprised by where it pops up. She's frequently searching for her light, but she is the light. This show is raw, funny, deep, silly (the props!), poignant, heart-breaking, and heart-warming. It's one of those personal story solo shows that strikes something bigger, something grander, by expressing both the unbearable pain and exquisite joy of being alive.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

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

Day: 9

Show: 31

Title: The Gentlemen’s Pratfall Club

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. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Clown Funeral"

Day: 9

Show: 28

Title: Clown Funeral

Category: Clowning / Comedy / Improv / Original Music / Physical Theater / Audience participation

By: Octoberdandy Productions

Created by: Jen Scott, Levi Weinhagen, Chris Rodriguez, Mark Benzel

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: Like the title says, it's a funeral for a clown.

Highlights: You've never attended a funeral this fun. These four clowns - Jen Scott as pastor clown Mads, Levi Weinhagen as lawyer clown Affa David, Chris Rodriguez as silent clown Pablo, and Mark Benzel as sweet clown Mo - lead us through the funeral for their friend Bongo J. Sprinkles, and it's a delight. We're given a program, with parts to sing, and the structure includes the usual funereal things like reading of the will, sharing of memories, songs, and readings. There's even a coffin (built before our eyes) and a body. But it's all super silly, very playful, and somewhat improvised. The cast is very playful with each other and with the audience (in a non-threatening way), with lots of (old) pop culture references and double entendres. And if you need your Reverend Matt fix at this year's Fringe, this is the place to get it, as the good Reverend (aka Matthew Kessen) makes a brief appearance in a banana costume to talk about the funeral practices of ancient civilizations. After a lot of goofing around, when sweet sensitive Mo finally gets to pay tribute to his friend with a lovely little song, it's surprisingly poignant. This is a very funny show about a very serious thing - death - that somehow makes it less scary.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2023: "What If We Hugged?"

Day: 3

Show: 9

Title: What If We Hugged?

Category: SOLO SHOW / AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

By: Comedy Suitcase

Created by: Levi Weinhagen

Location: Strike Theater

Summary: A solo show from Fringe favorite Levi Weinhagen about fatherhood, heart disease, and what it means to be a man.

Highlights: You're probably used to seeing Levi, as he says in the show, running around and falling down as part of Comedy Suitcase (with Joshua English Scrimshaw). There's none of that here, instead it's a funny, personal, and relatable storytelling show. Having been raised by TV (in addition to his mother), he sets up the show in that familiar sitcom structure, compete with improvised commercials (I think my love language is TV sitcoms). In the "cold open" he tells us about what to expect in the show, in an informal and personable way, like he's just telling us a story over drinks in a bar, a style he continues throughout the show. Act I of this sitcom is the story of the somewhat traumatic birth of his daughter some 17 years ago, and his habit of passing out in times of great stress (it's a medical condition, and his love language). Act II recounts his experience with heart surgery, despite living a heart-healthy lifestyle for decades (it's in the genes). Even though the show is scripted, the stories don't sound rehearsed, they sound charmingly natural as he responds to audience reaction, speaking directly to us. The show is laugh out loud funny, full of pop culture references, and also speaks to issues of connection, relationships, politics, and the general stresses of being a human. He's vulnerable about his thoughts and fears and insecurities, in a way that makes us feel it's OK to feel those things too. And like at the end of those TV family sitcoms, sometimes a hug makes everything better (but only if it's consensual).

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

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

Day: 3

Show: 10

Title: Bob and Reggie Go To Bed

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.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Maple and Vine" by The BAND Group at Center for Performing Arts

The 2011 play Maple and Vine explores what might happen if we really could return to the "good old days," the era that the Cleavers and Ozzie and Harriet make look so perfectly pleasant and innocent on TV. With all the recent talk of returning to a time when the world, and America, was supposedly greater than now, The BAND Group chose a great time to present this play. With minimal staging in an intimate space, the audience is almost uncomfortably close to this fake '50s world as its true ugliness is slowly revealed. As they always do, The BAND Group is partnering with community organizations, the Citizens League and the League of Women Voters, who both have materials and representatives at the show. Reminding us to use our voting power, as the play reminds us of the things at stake.

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

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

Category: Clowning / Comedy / Improv

By: Comedy Suitcase

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.

Fringe Festival 2017: "Couple Fight 3: Weddings!"

Day: 11

Show: 46

Title: Couple Fight 3: Weddings!

Category: Comedy

By: Weggel-Reed Productions

Created by: Anna Weggel-Reed and Tom Reed

Location: U of M Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: The third is a series of shows in which some of the Twin Cities' funniest people reenact a fight with a loved one, this time around the subject of weddings.

Highlights: I hope the Weggel-Reeds continue to do this show every year. Because nothing is funnier than watching funny people fight with someone they love about something ridiculous. In this hilarious installment, married couples reenact a fight before, during, or after their wedding. Andy Rocco Kraft and Rachael Davies fight about food sampling for the reception caterer. Laura Zabel and Levin Weinhagen fight about the wedding playlist. Nicholas Leeman and Colleen Somerville Leeman fight about getting the wedding invitations done on time. Rita Boersma and Justin Hartke (played by Richie McLarn) fight about her Pinterest project gone wrong. John and Lacey Zeiler fight about the decision to get married at all. And in the one non-couple fight, Heather Meyer explains to her friend Jim Robinson, who is constantly trying to set her up, that she's just fine on her own. I'm sure these fights were traumatic at the moment, but it's the kind of thing you look back on and laugh. And fortunately they do it in front of an audience so we can all laugh with them, and get a little peek into some of our #TCTheater faves' lives and relationships.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

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

Day: 1

Show: 1

Title: Intermediate Physical Comedy for Advanced Beginners

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.

"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.

Fringe Festival 2016: "Broken English, Mother Tongue."

Day: 3

Show: 14

Title: Broken English, Mother Tongue.

Category: Something Different

By: minnerican productions

Written by: Javier Morillo

Location: Bryant-Lake Bowl

Summary: A one-man show about growing up in Puerto Rico and US Army bases around the world.

Highlights: I'll admit it, most of what I know about Puerto Rico is from West Side Story, and more recently that piece that John Oliver did. So this show was interesting and educational for me (but in a fun way, with quiz questions and Ricky Martin videos). But more than that, it's a well-told and very personal story of one person's life experience. Javier Morillo talks about growing up on U.S. Army bases in Puerto Rico and elsewhere, receiving a sort of Americanized education that didn't fully prepare him for moving to America for college. He talks about his mother's illness, his conflicted relationship with his tough soldier father, and the complicated relationship between Puerto Rico and the U.S. They say that the more specific something is, the more universal it is, and this show is a perfect example of this. Javier's very specific details of his life story encompass universal themes of family, childhood, and identity. Broken English, Mother Tongue. is funny, poignant, and entertaining. I'll leave you with this quote: "Puerto Rico wouldn't be Puerto Rico without the United States, but the reverse is also true."

Getting the Word Out: New Media and How to Use It

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel at the first ever Minnesota Theater Alliance Statewide Theater Conference. The three-day conference was held at my alma mater* St. John's University and featured keynote speakers and breakout sessions covering topics as varied as facility safety, revenue, class and equity, sound, mask-making, and the collaborative process (click here for full details on the conference schedule). I did not attend the full conference, just the session in which I participated, but from what I could tell it seemed to be a really wonderful collection of theater people sharing information and working together to make us all better. Check out the Minnesota Theater Alliance website for more information on who they are and what they do, and watch for news of next year's conference. To see some of what happened at this year's conference, search the hashtag #MTASTC on all of the social medias.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Couple Fight"

Day: 9

Show: 43

Title: Couple Fight

Category: Comedy

By: Weggel-Reed Productions

Created by: Anna Weggel-Reed and Tom Reed

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: Six funny real-life couples reenact a funny real-life fight.

Highlights: What happens when two funny people get married, and then they fight? Judging by Couple Fight, it's hilarious, at least it is to those of us watching, and probably also to the couple once they move beyond the moment. Such is the simple premise of this show that features five married couples and one pair of BFFs. John and Lacey Zeiler fight about him faking a stroke in Vegas to help him win at poker, and not telling her about it beforehand so she could play along. On one of their first dates, Maggie and Marissa Sotos argue about whether a book is a hamburger or a hot dog (first of all, it's a book, second of all, it's obviously a hot dog). Emily Schmidt and Maureen Tubbs' disagreement about the rules of Pictionary turn a fun girls' night into a dramatic scene (I'm with Maureen on this one, you gotta have rules). Laura Zabel and Levi Weinhagen fight about whether Laura's suggestion for a sketch is funny (for the record - it is!). Lizzie Gardner gets mad at Bobby when he farts in the middle of a deep conversation. And finally, Anna Weggel-Reed gets upset that husband Tom (played convincingly by Adam Hummel because Tom was too busy directing) doesn't properly celebrate her on her birthday. The rest of us non-comedians only wish we could fight this funny!

Fringe Festival 2015: "Comedy Suitcase Presents The Averagers"

Day: 9

Show: 40

Title: Comedy Suitcase Presents The Averagers

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.

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: "Comedy vs. Calories: FIGHT!"

Day: 2

Show: 3

Title: Comedy vs. Calories: FIGHT!

By: Comedy Suitcase

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!"

Read more of my fringe fest reflections… 

… including my top 5 shows