More Fringe reviews.

Barry Smith’s Baby Book (***)
Barry Smith is funny – so funny he can make a slide show of baby pictures and scanned pages from his baby book amusing. After seeing American Squatter last year (his slide show of pictures from his college years), the format seemed a bit stale though.

Totem Figures (***)
This was my first introduction to TJ Dawe – a local fringe mainstay. His monologue about fictional and real characters that shaped his life (Frodo Baggins, Luke Skywalker, George Carlin, and more) seemed more like a psychology paper then a play. However, it was amusing and at times thought provoking. There was also a lot of interesting insight into the life of a Fringe performer and how gruelling the summer circuit can be.

Mr. Fox (****)
A hilarious play starring Greg Landucci (from last year’s hit DishPig, which I regrettably never saw) and directed by the aforementioned TJ Dawe. The story is about Greg’s job as the mascot for a Vancouver radio station. The show had everything – ridiculous stories, some local humour, and high energy that kept you entertained throughout.

The Spy (****)
The only non-auto-biographical play I’ve seen this year – unless of course Jonno Katz really was an orphan who became a spy with MI6. The show was directed by Mark Chavez from the Pajama Men, and his style was evident. There was a lot physical mimery that allowed a single man without any props tell a complicated story. Katz also interacted a lot with the audience, which is always fun to see. Some of the funniest moments were the unscripted ones where he prompted the audience to help him with pieces of the story.