Fringe Festival 2017: "The Wright Stuff, or You'll Believe They Can Fly!"

Day: 7

Show: 27

Title: The Wright Stuff, or You'll Believe They Can Fly!

Category: Comedy

By: Outlandish Productions

Created by: Josh Carson and Andy Kraft

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: A comic and very fictionalized version of the true story of Orville and Wilber Wright who built and flew the world's first airplane.

Highlights: This show is a whole lotta fringey fun. Josh Carson and Andy Kraft are the odd couple brothers, the serious and ambitious Orville and the dimwitted and accident prone Wilbur. Sulia Altenberg is their no nonsense sister who longs to go to college and, you know, vote. Jim Robinson is their widowed Bishop father, just trying to hold the family together. We witness their first attempts at flight, during which Josh and Andy throw their bodies around the theater with abandon and no regard to their own safety, which is great fun for the audience. This cast is fantastic and hilarious (also including Mike Fotis and Tucker Garborg). But perhaps the best part of the show is the Greek chorus singing pop songs (Karissa Lade, Leslie Vincent, and Olivia Hedeman), the songs perfectly chosen (the most obvious being "I Believe I Can Fly").

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Backlash"

Day: 3

Show: 12 

Title: Backlash

Category: Comedy

By: Mainly Me Productions

Written by: Josh Carson

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A high school drama teacher by day and comedian by night becomes jealous when a student gets famous from a YouTube video of and gets an audition for SNL.

Highlights: Josh Carson wrote, directs, and stars in this story of a frustrated comedian named Bill who partners with a student and sometimes neglects his wife Allie (Sara Marsh) in the pursuit of comedy. When young Blair (Tucker Garborg) lands on The Today Show thanks to his video of Law and Order with farts, the three embark on a road trip to NYC to audition for Saturday Night Live. Along the way they meet a quirky young writer (Sulia Altenberg) and SNL's newest star who wants off the show (Andy Kraft). Rounding out the cast is Nels Lennes as the narrator and others, and they all work and play together well. Backlash is funny, a little bit ridiculous (they break into the set of SNL), topical, very fringey, and also has some real moments in the relationship of the couple. The road trip story is kind of silly, but it allows for some funny and real moments, and the closer "Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight" with a guest star from the audience is a winner.