archy and mehitabel 2010 Tour

June 1 - Sept 22

June 1, 2010, London :

With my Phoenix and London shows behind me, I'm gearing up for the big road trip, which begins this Sunday, June 6th, with an 8-hour drive to Montreal. That evening, I will meet up with four actors, and on the morning of the 7th, we will be handed a script that was written overnight, and we will have to get it ready for performance that evening.

Yes, the Montreal Fringe will begin with a 24-hour theatre project, a fun but very intense way to get to know some of the performers. The Fringe shows themselves don't start until the 10th, but this seemed a good way to leap into the festivities.

I have been warned that Montreal Fringers who go on to Ottawa roll into town with their knuckles dragging on the ground and their eyes drooping shut, mainly because of a high-octane nightly event called "The 13th Hour", which showcases Fringe performers from 1 a.m. until the wee hours. I have also been warned that the Montreal Fringe is the most fun Fringe on the circuit.

Time will tell - stay tuned.

June 3, 2010, London :

I got my billet assignment for Montreal with four days to spare. Fringes usually say that they don't guarentee that they can provide free accommodation, but it seems to me that they always come through.

Today, I had my last session with director Jayson McDonald before hitting the road. There were script tweaks to run by him, bits to re-visit, and a couple of new sound cues to talk about. And the new scene: Since last year's tour, I have added more of the poem "mehitabel dances with boreas", in which the homeless Mehitabel has to dance through the winter night to keep herself from freezing to death.

I won't say what I cut out to accommodate the new piece, because someone will chastise me. But if they knew how much Archy gold didn't make it into this show, they would have some pity.

June 6, 2010, London :

Hitting the road. I looked over the Montreal schedule for familiar performers. One of my favourite shows from last year will be there - Rob Gee's Fruitcake: Ten Commandments from the Psych Ward, a very funny and compassionate solo show about his experience working in the mental health field. Chris Gibbs is back with The Further Adventures of Antoine Feval, which is hilarious. Elison Zasko and Jem Rolls have new shows, the comedy troupe Uncalled For will be all over the Fringe, by the look of things, Rick Miller will be doing Bigger Than Jesus, the 7 (X1) Samurai guy, David Gaines, will be there with his one-man version of the Akira Kurosawa film, and Carly Tackett, who performed in very popular versions of Lysistrata and The Importance of Being Earnest last year is back with a solo show based on the James Joyce character Molly Bloom.

Cirque du Soleil will even be there, giving workshops in clowning and generally living a more exciting life.

June 6, 2010, Montreal:

There seems to be more kissing on the street here than there is in London Ontario.

It turns out that this 24-hour project is unusual for the local actors, because it brings people from the English and French theatre communities together. I'm told that the two theatre solitudes hardly even know each other, and even if individuals know each other as friends, as a rule they have never worked together.

There are six playwrights, and in the morning, if all goes according to plan, there will be six new scripts. The French writers outnumber the English, but some of them want to use the opportunity to write bilingual pieces - in the great tradition of the classic Balconville , I suppose. The meeting itself was mostly in French, but I understood almost as much as I pretended to.

After the meeting, I ducked across the road to a sports bar to see how the Black Hawks – Flyers game was unfolding. Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals, with the series tied 2-2, and I'm bounding up the stairs, thinking how fun this will be to catch the last few minutes of a playoff game in a Montreal bar. And yes, the game was playing on a couple of the bar's hyper-plethora of TV screens, but the big screen and the primary focus of the crowd was Game 2 of the basketball finals! Great hockey town, but if the Habs aren't in the running, they're not that interested.

June 9, 2010, Montreal:

For the 24-hour project, I chose one of the short scripts, because long script + little time = loosey-goosey show, and neither Loosy nor Goosy is my middle name. Turned out that it was by Rachelle Fordyce, who won one of the spots in the lottery sponsored by the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals, meaning that she has carte blanche (comme je suis bilangue!) to perform in as many Fringes as she can handle. She is travelling with a solo clown show called unADULTeRATED me .

24-hour theatre pieces tend to take a big, broad approach, and this one was different, starting out as a kind of romantic comedy, but turning into a mini-tragedy with a kick at the end. Actors Patrick Beauchemin and Alice Tran did a great job.

The French writers came up with stuff that was much loopier, and I get the feeling that they like to push their actors and directors and fellow writers into non-linear weirdo territory. Lots of very engaging actors in there, but I did hear some complaints afterwards that they didn't understand the script themselves at times. Actors tend to work through a character's intentions, and if they can't figure out what those intentions are, they're not going to be happy, even if they do look great onstage.

No problems with our tech rehearsal today, and the house tech man Tristan is a composer, so he has the musician's sensibility, which is what you want in a tech operator. (Hear his stuff at www.tcapmusic.info .) He is doing lights and Nancy is doing sound.

The space – Hour Stage – is good, except for one big quirk: a pillar near the front of the audience, right in the middle. If I am standing onstage on the centre line, then everyone can see me, because there is an aisle behind the piller. As soon as I go left or right, there will be sightlines that are obstructed. Do I change my blocking and drift around the stage to keep in contact with everyone, or do I let the sightlines fall where they fall?

June 11, 2010, Montreal:

One minute to promote your show on stage at Juste Pour Rire – What do you do? An excerpt from the show is the obvious choice, and that works great for some performers. But sometimes a one-minute spot to a noisy audience with a few drinks in just doesn't come across all that well. And serious Fringe patrons are there with their programs, penciling in their yays and nays as the acts roll by.

I can think of several shows from earlier Fringes that looked pretty weak in preview, but turned out to be really good when allowed to unfold in their own time. So performers have to be careful with this preview stuff.

Some of the veterans took a different approach. Jem Rolls just came out and explained what his new piece, One Man Riot , was all about, and Chris Gibbs just did a series of handsprings to The William Tell Overture . Nothing whatsoever to do with his show. Sometimes it's just about connecting with the audience, and the content doesn't even matter.

I did an excerpt – an edited version of the lesson of the moth , in which Archy the cockroach criticizes the exciting but suicidal tendencies of moths attracted to flames. It seemed to work well enough.

In spite of my caveats, lots of performers connected with people who will soon be lining up to see their shows because of these previews. Performance poet Dwayne Morgan is now on my list, and I got my first taste of David Gaines' 7 (X 1) Samurai . He is beginning his first Canadian Fringe tour, and he's going to be a star of the 2010 Fringe circuit – no doubt about it.

Lights go up on the first shows of the 2010 Montreal Fringe tonight at 6:00 pm. The horses are at the starting gate …

June 12, 2010, Montreal:

With no show on the opening night of the Fringe, we decided to promote our 2-for-1 Saturday show as much as possible, and we managed to hand out flyers in the line-ups of seven other shows. Results were quite encouraging, with many already planning to go and many others liking the sound of the show. As always, there were a few people who were familiar with the Archy poems, including the classic, “My mother used to read it to me, and I still have her copy”. It's great to see that there is still a wellspring of affection for Archy and Mehitabel out there.

In the midst of the flyering, we managed to get to a great concert: Diane Dufresne opening the Francofolie Festival. She's a brilliant singer, performer and writer that most English Canadians have not heard of, thanks to our Two Solitudes culture. She was new to me, but Nancy is better tuned to Quebecois culture, so she made sure that we went. The best concert that I have seen in years – think Laurie Anderson crossed with Nina Hagen, living in a pure laine Montreal quebecoise chanteuse. www.dianedufresne.com

The Montreal Grand Prix is also in town these days, and by midnight, boul St Laurent was getting a bit crazy. A bit hysterical even. Nancy opined that the cocaine was flowing freely – she has an eye for this sort of things from her days as a bartender in Ottawa. Things were just tipping of the edge as we were leaving – a café table knocked over, a man leaping out of a car, giving it the finger and running off through traffic, followed by his companion, a stretch limo full of screaming wide-eyed fun-seekers from another planet, and a guy getting knocked out cold with a single punch to the face.

The streets were jammed with cars, so it was with some trepidation that I slipped behind the wheel to negotiate our getaway, imagining myself among armies of coked-up drivers who have been watching Formula One racing all day.

But everything went smoothly, and our neighbourhood in Verdun seemed particularly tranquil and drug-free.

This morning, I got up and went for a walk up the St Lawrence riverbank, going over the show in my head. That's my favourite way to run lines: on a nice long walk with no traffic to think about. I did get accosted by two red-winged blackbirds though, but they were just protecting their nests, after all. At least that's what I assume; I'd hate to think that they were coked-up as well.

June 13, 2010, Montreal:

Great opening night for archy and mehitabel . Fun was had by all. Good turnout, too, and almost all people that we had never met before. So THANK YOU, Montrealers who gave it a try.

Jem Rolls told me afterwards that a guy from the Winnipeg Free Press was there to review the show. I thought that this was a case of cosmopolitan Jem getting his Canadian newspapers mixed up, so I said, “You mean La Presse , or The Gazette ?” But no, he assured me, the guy is from Winnipeg.

So that's a pretty big deal, because all of the performers say that Winnipeg audiences tend to take the Gazette's advice when choosing shows, and the size of the audiences reflect that. They're the most influential reviews on the whole circuit, according to Jem. Martin Dockery sold out his whole run last year because of a WFP advance review of his show. Dare to dream.

I wouldn't have chosen my first show in Montreal to be reviewed, if I had had a say, but there we all were, and it turned out pretty well. We all seemed happy after the show. It all comes down to the taste of the reviewer. We'll literally see what kind of man he is.

After the show, Nancy and I ate at out new favourite place, Patati Patata, and then caught Jem's new show One-man Riot . Great stuff in so many ways: political, historical, inspirational, funny and riveting. He's also blogging the Fringe beautifully at www.jemrolls.blogspot.com .

Later that night, the highlight of the 13 th Hour was an all-female sketch comedy team, Dirty Little Spoons, doing an all-out fight scene. Great physicality, great attitudes, lots of fun. And the evening had its share of 11-second dance parties and 30 second dance parties, as commanded by the clacking wheel of destiny.

Sunday morning it was a free pancake breakfast in the Fringe Park. The London Fringe did this last year as well. I love it.

Then I headed up Mount Royal to run my show in my head, and I see that the drumming tradition continues (I hadn't seen them in 15 years). They are no longer right under the big statue, but off to one side in a little alcove. Further up the hill, there were people playing battle games with big padded swords and lances. In a clearing in the forest, no less. This is also a regular thing on Mont Royal, and I once saw people at this spot playing a related game that was a cross between football and basketball and medieval warfare.

It's hard to watch that kind of thing and run your lines properly, so I headed further up into the forest to get my show back into my head.

“Brave, brave Sir Robin”

The second show was a matinee today, and it had a smaller house. Pat Donnelly from the Gazette was there, and she left [these] teaser snippets on her blog tonight: http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/blogs/stageandpage/default.aspx.

Absolutely bagged tonight, and looking forward to a day off tomorrow.

Great new promo video from The Piggyback Fringe

June 15, 2010, Montreal:

My first media review in Montreal! It's from Pat Donnelly of the Gazette. (That would be Pat as in Patricia, but the nominal coincidence with Patrick Donnelly of the fightin' feudin' Donnellys from Biddulph Township, I took as a good omen.) Her coverage started on her blog, where archy and mehitabel was named as one of the shows “reluctantly left off” her top ten preview list. Hey, it's a mention.

Then after she saw the show on Sunday, she blogged a micro-review: “archy and mehitabel is delightful”, and that was followed by a Monday teaser that a&m was one of the “must-sees” that she

be reviewing in the Tuesday paper. That's three mentions, and counting. I'm not sure how many mentions add up to make a buzz, but I like the trend.

And this morning, there it was: “… it's hard to imagine anyone not succumbing to the subtle, laid-back charms of Archy and Mehitabel. This one-man show is performed by London, Ont.,-based actor/director/ playwright Jeff Culbert, who adapted the material from the works of noted humour columnist Don Marquis. Archy, of course, is a poetic cockroach, and Mehitabel, a sultry female feline. If I had the time, I'd go gladly go back to see this show again. Keeping in mind that I was already an Archy fan.”

The full article is here.

Most fringes have online reviews that anyone can write throughout the festival, and a couple of these have come in as well. Click here and scroll to the bottom.

I am back on stage tonight after a day off that I just never stopped appreciating.

It will be interesting to see whether the World Cup makes its presence known. Hour Stage is in a very Portuguese neighbourhood, and I am told that Portugal OR Brazil winning a game means that cacophony is the soundtrack to the performance.

I see that Brazil plays North Korea this afternoon. Go North Korea go.

June 16, 2010 , Montreal:

Bloomsday!

James Joyce's entire novel Ulysses is set on June 16, 1904, and this date has become an annual resurrection of all things Joyce. The main protagonist in the story is Leopold Bloom, but his wife Molly has become an iconic figure in her own right, not only because she ends the novel with a famous long yes long yes yes inner monologue, but because a string of pubs across Souwesto is named after her.

Here at the Montreal Fringe, Carly Tarett, from Manchester UK, has a solo show called Molly , with a 2-for-1 special in honour of Bloomsday. I'll be there. Yes.

Last night, Paul Hutcheson had us laughing all the way through Third Time Lucky . Excellent, charismatic performer who has a great time on stage and knows how to take his audience along with him. Great rubberface mugging with laserbeam twinkle eyes. I knew that Paul had grown up in London Ontario, but I just discovered that his mother was a Young from my own home town of Lucan, and I knew some of his relatives. He used to visit there all the time. But trying to picture Paul growing up in Lucan is a bit of a challenge.

Highlight of The 13 th Hour last night: a guy from the breakdance show sliding across the stage on his head, coming to stop with his feet still up in the air, and giving a kick that sent him spinning in an inverted multiple pirouette. Without using his hands. Jaw-dropping.

June 17, 2010 , Montreal

Last night, Montreal took a break from the utopian weather we've been having for a cool and very wet evening. That wiped out the beer tent activity, but the Fringe shows themselves did quite well, all things considered. After my early performance, we saw three shows in a row, arriving wet and in the nick of time for each. And all well worth the effort.

Poison the Well is a political drama by Andrew Connors, of Cody Rivers Show fame. Two old friends end up as key negotiators in a hostage crisis in the Russia-Chechnya conflict. Nice tight script, and well-performed by Connors and Elison Zasko.

Recess , written and performed by Una Aya Osato from New York City had brilliant character work - a menagerie of seven and eight year olds growing up in the Bronx.

And Carly Tarett's Bloomsday performance of Molly did not disappoint – a solid character and a fine performance.

Into the wee hours, I had a spot on the 13 th Hour, where I gave them a bit of insect prophesy with what the ants are saying , in which an ant gleefully points out that human empires and desertification go hand in hand, and that in the long run, ants and centipedes and scorpions shall inherit the earth. Take that, humans. Apparently, these shows are all posted on Youtube right away, but I couldn't find it.

Lunch on an Old Montreal patio today, as the weather returns to idyllic. Montreal smoked meat for me – had to do it once during the trip – and poutine with mushrooms and onions for Nancy. Not her first and probably not her last.

June 18, 2010 , Montreal:

Well, lookee here. Montreal's Centaur Theatre puts archy and mehitabel on its short list for best English Production at the Montreal Fringe:

Centaur Theatre Company - Best English Production:
- archy and mehitabel by Ausable Theatre (London, ON)
- Blind to Happinesss... by Maple Suroor Productions (Maidan Hawally, Kuwait)
- Miss Sugarpuss Must Die! by Tappyco Inc. (Montréal, QC)
- The Further Adventures of Antoine Feval by Chris Gibbs (London, UK )
- Third Time Lucky by Wog Productions (Toronto, ON)

Full list of nominees for Frankie Awards is here.

http://montrealfringe.ca/en/news/3753

And the Montreal Mirror has reviewed the show:

Archy and Mehitabel

Archy is a bowlegged, bug-eyed, light-fearing cockroach, formerly a great human poet and currently a de facto representative of disenfranchised bugs clamouring for revolution. Mehitabel is a sultry feline with a trail of scratched-up male companions left in her wake and a carefree life motto of “ toujours gai. ” Taken from the famous works by Don Marquis and performed entirely by Jeff Culbert sans props or costume changes, these unlikely pals have vastly different perspectives on life and happiness. Culbert nails the mannerisms of both the jittery pest and the elegant yet streetwise tabby, as well as effortlessly manoeuvring through each linguistic obstacle course of a soliloquy. (Hour Stage, 4247 St-Dominique)

— ERIK LEIJON

The full Mirror article is here.

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2010/061710/theatre.html

June 19, 2010 , Montreal:

Can't leave Montreal without mentioning the Bixi bikes. “Bixi” is short for “bicycle taxi”, and there are fleets of them on the streets of Montreal. It's a good bicycle town to begin with, with cyclists of all ages on the streets, some of them in pretty fancy clothes, too. Last summer, the city made a massive move to the Bixi culture, so now, for $5, you get to use Bixi bikes for 24 hours, as long as each trip is under 30 minutes. (Extra charges for going over that limit.) Pick them up on the street at one of the racks and drop them off at another. And a full year pass is available for $78.00. A leap forward for clean public transportation.

The bikes and the system are made in Quebec, but they are already selling them far and wide. More on the Bixis here. www.bixisystem.com

June 20, 2010 , Ottawa:

A nice finish to the Montreal Fringe. Good audiences on Friday and Saturday, visits with old friends who came to see the show, and more personal Archy stories: “I wrote a song based on an archy poem”, “The first thing my father gave my mother was a picture, and on it, he wrote ‘toujours gai', and I still have it”, “you redeemed Archy for me; I always thought that he was much less interesting than Mehitabel” and so on. I am now under orders from Nancy to make myself available after shows. Otherwise, people come looking for me, and catch me in somewhat inappropriate stages of undress.

And so it ends. Montreal left me wanting more Montreal.

Beautiful drive to Ottawa, where we got set up at Nancy's sister Kelly's, checked in at Fringe headquaters, and then headed out to do some flyering. This Fringe is already 3 days old, so we needed to get the word out for our 2-for-1 opening show, and we did pretty well. Right away, I was struck by the generosity of fellow performers, who gave us tips for getting the word out – a radio station here and a person who does online interviews there. It felt really great. It's a pretty compact Fringe, all in the University of Ottawa area, and Fringe Courtyard has a nice relaxed feel to it. (Regardless of their official names, lots of people use the old stand-by: The Beer Tent.)

Tech rehearsal this afternoon and first performance tonight. It's a small make-shift stage with limited lighting, so the Ottawa version of a&m will be unique, and we have lots of decisions to make today.

June 22, 2010 , 8 km outside of Russell Ontario

We're taking advantage of our only day off from the Ottawa Fringe to visit Nancy's parents in the country, where the only sounds are the birds and the wind. And four Lhasa Apsos who go insane whenever I do something controversial like getting something from the car or crossing my legs.

The trees around here were decimated in the ice storm of 1998, and it's great to see how healthy they are looking now. With a closer look, you can see where they all snapped off at a height of about 15 feet, but 12 years of new growth makes them look fully recovered, especially at this time of year. As Oscar Wilde's Duchess of Berwick puts it, “There's nothing like nature, is there?”

A great response to our first two shows in Ottawa, and a very good review by Patrick Langston in the Ottawa Citizen [ www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment ] today, including a photo and the title “Archy and Mehitabel a delight”. There is also a review on the blog review at www.rysmiel.livejournal.com/964774.html

I hear that back in Montreal, Miss Sugarpuss Must Die! took the Frankie Award for Best English production (Archy was in the top 5). But Pat Donnelly of The Gazette placed Archy at #1 on her final Top Ten list, with another quotable comment, “Everybody loves this show”. (See, it's great to get good feedback on your work, but it's the quotable quotes that you develop an eye for, because they are the ones you can use in future publicity. It's a funny life, scanning the media for nice things that people might be saying about you. It's like being a tediously insecure teenager.)

The Ottawa Fringe seems calm and relaxed after Montreal, and I mean that in a good way. In Montreal, you always seem to be at a show of some kind – a dance party, a band playing, a reading of hilariously bad plays (“Dramaturkey”), a drag queen showcase (“The Drag Races”), and of course The 13 th Hour. But I found myself thinking, do these people never just sit around and CHAT? Montreal is lots of fun, but I wasn't the only one who was relieved to pull into the Ottawa Fringe Courtyard to find conversations breaking out all around me.

On Sunday night, after my first show, I saw Jayson McDonald's The Last Goddamned Performance Piece , and this was the THIRD production I have seen since it premiered less than a year ago. The trick with this piece is to present these performance artists in all sincerity, as they attempt to present their Very Important and Truthful Work, without winking at the audience to make sure that they get it. Nancy Kenny and her couterpart Ben Meuser did a great job onstage, with solid direction from Dave Dawson. And the audience thoroughly got it.

June 25, 2010, Wakefield, Quebec

It has been a year since we have been in beautiful Wakefield in the Gateneaus. We did the Piggyback Fringe here last year, performing in the legendary Black Sheep Inn, and we are back for a single performance on Sunday. This time, we are at the United Church, where the acoustics are LIVE, and should be fun to work with. We are just coming off of a whirlwind tech session, adapting the show to the lighting plot that is available. They do have a red light in the mix, so we can use that for Archy's call for the great insect revolution against humanity. “Give up your little trivial Sunday school picnics; this is war in earnest, and red revolution”. Sometimes it's an amber revolution, and sometimes it's pink, but this one will be red.

The steam train is rolling into town as I type, on a set of tracks squeezed between the river and the road. The tracks double as a sidewalk, so it's a sort of Darwinian intelligence test as well.

Last night in Ottawa, we were full house minus three, so I like how that is going.

We are doing a Bring-Your-Own-Venue at the Ottawa Little Theatre (OLT), in a little space called the Janigan Studio. This company just completed its 97 th season, which makes it the oldest community theatre in Canada, and some say in North America. Their main space has a capacity of somewhere between 400 and 500, and apparently they sell 5500 subscriptions per year. A great atmosphere, and the volunteers obviously love their theatre, and that is why – amo amare amavi amatum – they call them amateurs. (And I spotted a photo of Rich Little on their wall of fame.)

Montreal to Ottawa is a Tale of Two Dressing Rooms. In Ottawa, I am in a dressing room that seems designed to accommodate simultaneous productions of The Mikado and The Pirates of Penzance . Showers, with drinking fountains, washrooms, mirrors, laundry – the works. Luxury. I remember when we had to change in the corridor … In fact, it was last week; in Montreal, I waited after shows behind a little curtain until the audience left, so that I could go the washroom to splash water on myself from the sink.

But as Mehitabel observes, “When I lived on salmon and oysters stewed in cream, I wasn't always happy. And when I dug my scoffins out of frozen garbage heaps, I wasn't always sad…”

June 26, 2010, Ottawa

The archy & mehitabel story that I heard tonight is going to be hard to beat.

After World War II, the army was selling off some Harley-Davidsons, and a young woman named Robin Morey snapped one up. She loved her bike, and she also loved Archy and Mehitabel. Last night, she came to see the show, and afterwards, she showed me an old photo of herself on the Harley, and there on the front fender in bold but feminine letters was Mehitabel's motto “Toujours gai”.

She showed up at the theatre on a scooter that she calls Mehitabel. And all I can say is “There's more than one dance in the old dame yet”.

June 27, 2010, Wakefield

Tricky, doing two shows in one day. You don't want to hold back in the first show, but you don't want to be out of gas for the second show either. The double-header in Ottawa yesterday went fine, and today, it's Wakefield at 3:00 and then back to Ottawa for a 5:30 show. Yikes. Four shows in two days, plus a workshop this morning. Then a rest.

This morning, we did a little script analysis using the first scene from Harold Pinter's Betrayal. It's a fun one, because of all of the subtext. When Emma says, “How are you?”(three times), she is really saying, “Do you still love me?” When Jerry says “How are you?” he is really saying, “how are you”?.

Then smoked salmon on a bagel at Molo's, overlooking the Gatineau River.

Favourite shows in Ottawa: Bob Wiseman's Actionable – live songs with video backup, and stories about lawyers coming after him for his song lyrics. Great stuff in a great location: the Mercury Lounge, in the Byward Market. Other faves were Deliver'd From Nowhere , which had a Bruce Springsteen theme, and Billy Stutter: An Irish Play , which had just the right touch of parody in an otherwise dramatic story.

Nice to see actual PLAYS at the Fringe. They seem to be going our of style.

June 28, 2010, Ottawa

I've come to realize how much I lucked out getting a review AND a photo in the Ottawa Citizen. Most companies don't get print reviews, and until this year, lots of companies would perform at the Ottawa Fringe without getting any reviews whatsoever. This is bad for the companies, but for the Fringe as well, because from the business angle, a travelling company wants to make money, but even if they don't make money, a good review that they can use in advertising for the rest of the circuit can make a Fringe worthwhile, especially if it's early in the Fringe season. But if you get no review and make little money, then you might be tempted to give that Fringe a pass the next year and you might not recommend it to other performers.

That's why the Fully Fringed project at in Ottawa this year is a bit of a breakthrough. They got a team of reviewers together, and they reviewed every single fringe show during the first weekend, so that every single show had its shot at critical immortality. Well, they got a review, is what I'd trying to say. Good on ya, FF.

The website theatreinlondon.ca did the same thing last year, and I got a quote out of it that I still use for my Archy show: “thought-provoking fun”. Now all we need in London is a commitment to review every show by the London Free Press, the Londoner, Beat, Scene and CHRW. Don't laugh; I got five reviews when I did my show in Winnipeg. Once it catches on, all the media want to get in on the act.

June 29, 2010 , Greyhound bus heading for Sudbury

Last day in Ottawa, not enough sleep, voice coming out of me three tones lower than usual, up too late designing my Regina flyers, getting them printed today, getting caught up on Fringe obligations, nice breakfast at Ada's, served by Ada herself. Can't meet all my deadlines; something has to go. It's not going to be my New Orleans Fringe application, because I want to see New Orleans in November.

Holland advances to the quarterfinals, Nancy and Kelly are happy and wearing orange. Nancy decorated Kelly's place with streamers and balloons for her birthday, because Nancy's as sweet as the dickens.

Herb came to town for the Fringe and the jazz festival (surely I don't have to explain who Herb is), and he had a concert that he wanted to see at the national arts centre. 11 fifty-something guys from Europe called the Globe Unity Orchestra. Very free and spontaneous music – I believe the technical term is “kooky jazz”. The show consisted of one piece that was probably just over an hour in length, with each member taking a solo, many of them creating very unusual sounds with their bass clarinets, flugelhorns, slide-valve trumpet hybrids and so on. And then they'd get working in groups and create the most amazing sound textures. Good way to end my stay in Ottawa.

later, bus pulling out of Sault St Marie

I slept, off and on, from Ottawa at midnight almost to Blind River at 9 or 10 this morning. I'm kind of pleased about that, because getting decent sleep on a bus is not a given.

Lake Superior! The big lake they call Gitchee Goomee.

June 30, 2010 , Greyhound bus on the North Shore of Lake Superior

I am remembering my hitch-hiking trips on the Trans-Canada. I'd often get picked up by former hitch-hikers – I thought of it as the Trans-Canada Old Boys' Club. way back then, Trudeau told Canada's youth that a network of cheap youth hostels was being set up, and that they should get out there on the highway and stick out their thumbs and get to know their country.

Why don't Canadians hitch-hike any more? It's a good question, and answering it will say a lot about how we have changed.

Wawa – the most infamous hitch-hiking spot that I know. A good place to get STUCK. One guy I met years ago started getting warnings about Wawa when he was still in California. The old joke is that half of the population is made up of people who gave up trying to get a ride.

The iconic Wawa Canada Goose statue is beautiful, especially in its articulation of the feathers. And especially in comparison with the cheap copies that have sprung up since I last came through town.

Gorgeous country, all the way from the Soo to Thunder Bay. Hills and trees and rocks and islands and shoreline and open water. Stunning.

I got stuck in Wawa once, but only for a few hours. Marathon was a longer wait for me. I remember two older women approaching me on foot after eating at the restaurant at the marathon turnoff. Of course, they were going the other way. One of them said. “Hello, we're just interested in your experience”. I said, “You can have my experience”.

But I loved hitch-hiking, and normally, I was not impatient at all. I loved being out on the road, even if I was just standing there, drinking it all in. It helps NOT to be on a schedule.

There are few towns on this part of the Trans-Canada, and the rides tended to be LONG: 500 km, 700 km or more. I remember riding with a guy for hours, both of us looking ahead at the road and trees going by; rarely at each other, and the last part of the ride was in darkness. He was remembering something from long ago, and talking his way through it. Then he paused for a while. And then he said, “I never told anybody that before”.

June 30, 2010 Greyhound bus heading into Thunder Bay

On the bus, it's a tale of three Thunder Bay musicians. The bus driver used to be a crooner. He's still passionate about music, but he chose the steady job, driving from Thunder Bay to Sault Ste Marie three times a week, and getting set to retire back into music. Don eked out a living playing piano and singing, but he finally hit his stride in his mid-fifties, with a winter house gig in the Bahamas every year, and an actual house to go with it, and the rest of the year touring in Europe, with the odd gig in North America. And their contemporary, who landed a gig with Saturday Night Live and then moved on to lead the band on the David Letterman show. Mind you, Paul Shaeffer was not actually on the bus.

July 2, 2010, Regina

This town is crazy about their football team, and a glorious, come-from-behind overtime win for Saskatchewan in their revenge grudge match over Montreal, who beat them by a point in the Grey Cup final last year has everyone pumped and ready to Fringe! But perhaps I exaggerate. In other sporty news, the Netherlands beat Brazil this morning, so Nancy and Kelly back in Ottawa are even happier and even oranger.

My tech time in Regina was 12-3pm, and my first show is scheduled for 3:45. Atrina is the venue tech person, and the experience reminds me how critical it is to get someone who can do the work quickly and accurately. They work long hours and they have to keep several shows in their heads during the Fringe and they get very little credit. But they are appreciated in a few tiny circles. Yay, Atrina.

Thanks to the people at the Fainting Goat restaurant for getting me a quick and tasty soup and coffee before my show. I'm finding it hard to imagine getting an audience, with no media coverage for my show, no previous shows to flyer and a 3:45 pm opening. But if anyone shows up, we're ready for ‘em.

Regina has pelicans. They are huge and beautiful, and according to ogden nash, their beak can hold more than their belican.

July 4, 2010, Regina

Well this I did not expect. After an opening show played to my smallest audience since Phoenix (Six people at one of my Phoenix shows would have been a minor triumph), my Saturday and Sunday shows have been my biggest houses on the tour to date. Take that, Montreal and Ottawa! Regina is my new best friend.

They have a good thing going here at this Fringe (in their 6 th year). Good venues, well organized, and a good line-up of shows. The main newspaper is not doing reviews, and that is holding the Fringe back a bit, but the bi-weekly independent Prairie Dog Magazine is reviewing 10 of the 16 shows this year. Not including mine, but I appreciate the support for the Fringe. http://www.prairiedogmag.com/

July 8, 2010, Swift Current, Saskatchewan

On the way to Swift Current, I saw a Husky gas pump with three green maple leaves painted on it, and the slogan “Mother Nature's fuel”.

We all know what it means: the gas is not quite as dirty as the fuel in the next pump. It's like the guy who was going to kill ten people, but he kept it to nine so that he could apply for a citizenship award.

The poem “Pollution Control” says it best:

Mother's looking sickly,
Mother's feeling lowly.
Mother's dying quickly.
Let's poison her more slowly.

July 9, 2010, Swift Current

Looking back fondly on Regina for a moment: the tree-lined streets, the comfortable billet, with Jem Rolls, Martin Dockery and I playing the roles of the kids home for the holidays, tai chi in the beautiful back yard, Holland advancing to the World Cup finals, the all-you-can-eat suchi spectacular at Saki's, (‘What do you mean, the kitchen is closing?'), the amazing rice bowls at the 13 th Avenue Coffee House, the big park around the lake next to the legislature and the warm welcome at the Globe (the only theatre in Canada that is permanently in the round). Artistic Director Ruth Smillie even signed me up for an audition for their production of Jake and the Kid next year. (This is the heart of W.O. Mitchell country).

At the candy store, I discovered something called Nihilist Flavourless Mints. Their slogan: “We don't believe in flavour”.

My most memorable show was on Monday night. They were one of my most responsive audiences ever – lots of laughing and murmuring and other vocalizations to work with and around. It was all fun and games until the ant predicted that humankind was on an inevitable course to ecological ruin That sobered everyone up somewhat. They stayed with me, but never quite regained their former levity. Did I lay it on a little heavy? Were they a particularly susceptible bunch? Or did I just lose the focus? I would have liked to have seen an exit poll on that one. (“Why did that little bastard of an ant think that the death of the human race was so amusing?”)

July 11, 2010, Swift Current

In Swift Current, it's not a Fringe, but the Chautauqua Festival: One venue, six shows, a flat rate of pay (instead of the money from ticket sales), a free hotel room, free meals at various eateries, and rides when you need them.

They put us up at a Howard Johnson's that sat empty for a few years, and is now beginning to be restored. I felt as though I was going into a squat at first – the empty parking lot, the rusty air-exchange unit sitting in front of my door, and the bits of tar from the roof sprinkled over the pavement. But comfy inside, with the tell-tale smell of paint and drywall suggesting that Thing 1 and Thing 2 had just made their escape as I was turning the key.

From the hotel to the Lyric Theatre was a beautiful 45-minute walk upstream along Swift Current Creek, which is pretty swift.

Each performance is preceded by a local act of some kind – a Highland dancer, a fiddle duet, poets, a magician, a banjo player, or aboriginal fancy dancers. One woman recited a couple of poems and then sang a capella versions of “Yesterday” and “Let it Be”.

Three people warned me that the Imperial Hotel (The Big I) smelled like urine, and a bodyguard was recommended as an escort, but I wanted to hear a live band on Friday, and I tend to ignore advice. The music was good, but I thought there was a disconnect between the music – “Rocky Mountain Way”, “They Call me the Breeze” - and the dancing style, which was old-fashioned two-step. Endearing. Generally an endearing place, Swift Current. In fact, I am quite taken with Saskatchewan in general.

Saturday night, I was on a double bill with Alice Nelson (“Elephants in Zulu”), scheduled to start at 9 pm. And it did, more or less, but I didn't get on stage until 11:40. The warm-up act was Rachel, the main powerhouse behind the festival giving a slide-show lecture about pickled horse meat. Apparently, after the war, when the area farms went mechanical (and farming went from labour-intensive to energy-and-capital-intensive), there were lots of horses out of work. And there were lots of hungry people in Belgium. You get the picture. And so did the audience on Saturday – lots of old and quite graphic photos of a working horse's nightmare. Then out came a fellow in a bloody apron, sharpening a knife, and he played his own grandfather who worked at the slaughterhouse. Then Rachel re-appeared wearing cardboard horse hooves and ears and sang a song from the perspective of a horse that was pickled – written during the heyday of the plant.

That extravaganza was followed by a guy playing electric guitar and singing original songs, but concluding with a psycho version of Dolly Parton's Jolene .

During the breaks, the MC kept everyone updated on the football game, because they love their Roughriders here. They were winning (“but it's only B.C.”).

The show started at 9 pm, but as it became clear that it would be pushing midnight before I got on, I was worried that people wouldn't stick around for the whole evening, but most of them did; in fact, it was my biggest house of the tour so far. At this point the rule is the smaller the town, the bigger the houses.

Great audience. Again, very sobered by the predictions of the ant, but they bounced back well. When Mehitabel talked about the possibility of dropping her new kittens into the river (because it's “the kinder thing” to do), they weren't sure how to take that.

July 12, 2010, Winnipeg

When I booked my bus ticket out of Swift Current, I didn't know about the warm-up acts, so I had to get the Chautauqua MC to cut out the break before my show. And just like the Music Man, I had it timed to the last wave of the brakeman's hand on the last train out of town. Except it was, you know, a bus.

July 14, 2010, Winnipeg

I'm heading home tomorrow for my niece Julie's wedding, so I have to promote my show in overdrive today and tomorrow. I've gone all systematic, studying the schedule so that I can flyer as many line-ups as possible before I leave town. Severe thunderstorm warnings for my opening show tonight, then a matinee tomorrow and then I'm off to London until Tuesday. The danger there is that in the final stretch of the Fringe, people know which shows they want to see, so flyering becomes less productive.

Great venue – MTC Up the Alley. MTC being the Manitaba Theatre Centre which is not only the biggest pro theatre in Manitoba, but also runs the Fringe, giving this festival a structure and legitimacy that other Fringes can only dream of. The equipment could only be described as ‘spiffy'. The lighting effect that I have some trouble getting is the ant special – a spot on the back wall that I rise into out of the darkness below. Other venues don't have enough lights to assign one for this special, or else it's a waste of valuable tech time to find the light and hang it and focus it. So I have been improvising the effect in the various venues. But at my tech rehearsal yesterday, I described the effect and right away a little Star Wars robot light went boop boop whirr whirr swinging a beam onto me and tightening it to the proper size. “Yes, that'll do nicely”, I said.

July 15, 2010, Winnipeg

Opening night. Around 55 in the house, but QUIET. One of my quietest. But not the kind of quiet in which you can feel that they're with you. More like: Are they getting it? Do they recognize the genre? Jem said it was the same in his show, and he thinks that audiences haven't warmed up yet. They have to remember how to be audiences.

July 16, 2010, Thunder Bay

The Sleeping Giant lies on his back in Lake Superior, and as the bus heads east out of Thunder Bay, the treeline rises into view and keeps on rising to touch the Sleeping Giant, who sinks down into the green and disappears.

Flyering the Fringe line-ups in Winnipeg has been great. People who saw the show last year tell me that they are talking up the show. Bodes well. I even have my eye on the Best in Fest extra performance slots for my venue. Could happen. My second show was on a Thursday afternoon at 2:30, and 90 people showed up.

Sudbury

Other performers were pretty horrified that I was planning to take the bus to London and back for a wedding. On the road, I imagined asking them, “Have you never seen the north shore of Lake Superior? No of course, you haven't.”

But the last word might not be mine. 12 hours into the trip, I started getting some nasty foot pain that had me limping around bus stop parking lots along the Trans Canada. Nasty. It's a nerve thing, I think. The R5, possibly. I may have faked this pain for the Standardized Patient program.

And it could be related to a weird little annoyance that hampered my right knee on the trip out to Regina.

The point is that this bus travel may turn out to be a threat to my show just as I get into the leg of my tour in which I should be galloping instead of limping.

My favourite shows of the fringe so far: One man Riot , by Jem Rolls, Actionable by Bob Wiseman.and Third Time Lucky , by Paul Hutchison.

And forcing myself to pick three from 2009, I came up with Moving Along , by Chris Craddock, Jake's Gift , by Julia Mackey and the outdoor dance piece by the SNAFU Dance Company in Victoria.

July 19, 2010, Sudbury, heading west

Three young nieces from Victoria - Goneril, Regan and Cordelia – came to London to see Jules, my other niece, get married. All my nieces and nephews in one room, dancing and singing and carrying on.

As for my foot, management is only saying at present is that I have a lower body injury that will not affect my game in any way.

So – Sudbury Saturday Night: Greatest Stompin' Tom song ever? Anybody like to second me on that?

The final stretch of the Winnipeg Fringe, and here's where the 5-star Fringe culture kicks in, where patrons run down the list of 5-star shows until a ticket, any ticket, is available. I remember Jonno Katz, at the end of his shows, asking audiences to ignore the star system, and to go with their own interests and instincts. But overall, numbers trump words at the box office (unless those words are ‘sex' or ‘comedy').

In other news, I hear that only something like 1 in 6 people who attend Edmonton Fringe events go to the indoor theatre shows; the others just go to outdoor events. In Winnipeg, it's 1 in 2. Ticket sales for theatre are roughly the same, so which is the better Fringe?

Producers see those non-theatre outdoor patrons as future audiences for indoor shows – that's where ticket sales will grow. But some performers see them as people who don't really want to go to theatre, especially when they can go to free outdoor events that are competing with the indoor shows. They pad the attendance numbers for the fringes, but they don't really help the performers. You be the judge!

July 20, 2010, Winnipeg

For those of you who follow this blog for its sports coverage, let it be known that Spain beat the Netherlands in the football final, a nasty little event that was played out in my hotel TV back in Swift Current. Nancy has declared that the World Cup teams are mostly made up of fakers and cheaters, and she has denounced the entire operation.

Back in Winnipeg for my first full house tonight - 120 people. A very interactive feel; in fact, it felt like a conversation even though I was the one doing all of the talking.

I also saw Commencement , by the Pumpkin Pie Show, out of New York. The solo performance by Hanna Cheek has got to be one of the best on the circuit this year. The first character was a woman whose son had just gone on a killing spree at his high school. She has a lot to say about it, but is inhibited by her state of shock, and the way she moved in and out of lucidity was brilliantly done.

July 22, 2010, Winnipeg

Auditioning is like speed-dating. (I have never actually speed-dated, but I have seen dramatic representations.) You know you're being checked out and you're trying to put your best foot forward and it's totally unnatural and you certainly don't want to appear desperate, not only because it's undignified, but because it screws up your chances of performing well and landing the gig.

Furthermore, when you're on the fringe circuit, auditioning is a strange little detour onto another theatre planet. You leave the world of do-it-yourself theatre, in which you are the Lord High Everything, swinging from one fringe to another like a graceful chimpanzee, freely mixing metaphors, and paying the piper when the cows come home. On Planet Audition, however, you must ask, “Am I the one that you want?” “If I'm not the one that you want, will I do?”

Lots of people will tell you that your actual performance at an audition may never even come into play, because you're the wrong look, wrong age, wrong height. Sometimes – back to speed-dating again – you both know that this is going nowhere, but you let it play out, so as not to be rude. If you're lucky, you escape unscathed. If you're not lucky, then you are joined by invisible people with lots of questions and opinions about what went wrong with your audition, your career choices and your life in general.

But today, none of that happened. Today, I had that rarest of experiences – a pleasant audition. I came out singing a little tune, and whether or not I might be offered a role is beside the point; I had a nice time.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the company I auditioned for was Persephone Theatre, which is based in Saskatoon, which is in Saskatchewan, where everything is golden and beautiful. Except the uranium.

July 23, 2010, Winnipeg

One of the striking features of the Winnipeg landscape: the residential streets are so flat that you can see block after block after block, each punctuated by stop signs that diminish in size, with all of the lines of perspective converging at what appears to be either a wheat field or infinity.

July 26, 2010, Nowhere

Overheard at the Ignace gas station / restaurant / variety store:
Bus passenger: “Where are we?”
Cashier: “Nowhere. This is nowhere, and we're somewhere near the middle of it.”

My favourite sign on the Trans-Canada: “LARGER VEHICLES NEED MORE SPACE”.
More great work from the Department of Roads and Tautologies.

July 27, 2010, Kettle Point

My preference on my birthday has always been to be at the beach, somewhere on Lake Huron, and here I am. I got into London last night, spent one night at Blackfriars-on-the-River, and then hit the beach with Nancy, and since we arrived at Kettle Point this afternoon, I have had one swim and two naps on the beach. Yes.

July 28, 2010, Kettle Point

I just read Chatterer the Red Squirrel, by Thornton W Burgess. Like the archy material, this series of stories takes the animals' perspective on life. Great stuff: life and death chases, saucy animal characters, tentative interactions with humanity, and the practicalities of animal life.

As for the practicalities of my life, Winnipeg went well, and it felt great to be there. When people were turned away from my third show, on a Tuesday, I thought the rest of the run was as good as in the bag. And I did OK, but things dropped off, and I am left with a nagging feeling that I am bobbling the promotional ball. Oh, you promotional ball – leave me alone!

And once again, I go back to the confusing but somehow inspirational words of Chris Gibbs, who said that promotional commitment was all about lifestyle choice. What kind of life do you want to lead as a touring Fringe performer?

You have to make a living, but you don't have to make a killing. (He didn't say that, but maybe that's what he was trying to say.)

The financial committee has just released a memo saying “This is all crap. Chris Gibbs doesn't poster and flyer because he doesn't need to. Just get to work.” (Grumbles.)

Oh, you promotional ball, you.

The Mongragon by day and the King's Head by night – that was my default hangouts in Winnipeg this year. Bob Wiseman and Die Roten Punkte were also regulars at the Mondragon, and lots of performers were dropping by all day long. Very comfortable, welcoming atmosphere, good food, all vegan, high tin ceilings, radical bookstore in one corner, Sacco and Vanzetti organic food section in another, nice people. Chalk writing on the bathroom door informs us of radical events that happened on this day – in 1803, for example, Robert Emmett began an independence rebellion in Dublin. Very comfy to hang out, whether you were eating or not. And co-operatively owned and run since the mid-nineties.

It was great to see Gunpowder , which I hadn't seen since our workshop production upstairs at the Black Shire back in London back in … March? Jayson has done Seattle, Victoria, and London with the show, but I haven't been around for it. Funny fun show to watch.

And I saw 15 other shows in Winnipeg: Commencement , Juliet & Romeo , Die Roten Punkte , Fucking Stephen Harper , Falling People , Spiral Dive Part 3 , Celebrity Cult , Much More Musch , Cabaret Terrarium , Seeking , The Shadowy Waters , The Bike Trip , Reverend Nuge and the Burning Man , Oleanna , Man 1 Bank 0 . Some brilliant, all worth seeing; not a clunker amonk ‘em.

July 29, 2010, London

An observation: In two years at the Winnipeg Fringe I have sold out three shows, and each was the one immediately following a good review in the Winnipeg Free Press.

July 31, 2010, London

My old desk, my old bed, the cats, Nancy, the river, the old becomes new again.

A man knocked on my door today to tell me that these oil spills that are happening are part of a larger cosmic pattern. If a tenant in an apartment is making a mess, he said, then the landlord has to step in. God's the landlord and humanity is making a mess, and we'd better start thinking about the great Eviction.

I'm quite interested in lay people who try to spread their religious opinions, as a rule. However good or bad they are, they are folk philosophers, and they usually have a passion and an urge to do good in the world.

One of the cases that always springs to mind: It was another hitchhiking trip, and I was just one good ride from my friends near Smith's Falls, but it was almost dark, the mosquitoes were out and it was starting to rain. Normally by this time, I would be snug in my tent, but I was making a push to get there that night, and it wasn't working. It was just starting to feel like a bad night unfolding, when a pickup truck pulled over. I hopped in and as he put the truck into gear, he said, “I'd just like to know the role that Jesus Christ plays in your life.”

Tricky. At first I was honest but cautious, because I didn't want to get kicked out of the truck, and these things happen . But pretty soon, we were off on a romp through ethics and religion and history and the Bible, flying down the road, trying to save each other's soul.

August 1, 2010, London

My comrades are fringing away in Saskatoon and Calgary, flyering and acting and bowing and poring over reviews, while I cool my heels in London. Many many months ago I was setting up my tour and chasing down BYOV possibilities for Calgary when a great profound fuzz entered my brain, saying, “Maybe, at that point in the tour, a little break would be just the thing.” And it is just the thing; je ne regret rien.

Besides, there is another family wedding on Saturday, this one on a dock at a cottage just this side of Algonquin Park. Ian and Kim. Now those of you keeping score may notice that my brother Peter's litter ALL got married this summer, and they did it in the order of their births. And we are dazzled, let me tell you.

News is dribbling in from the Indianapolis Fringe about my venue: first time being used as a Fringe venue, not normally a performance space, 7 minute walk from the main Fringe area, 10X12 stage, slightly raised, audience all on one level. … …

And his momma cried.

August 2, 2010, London

Photos from archy and mehitabel , courtesy of Leif Norman in Winnipeg.

www.jeffculbert.ca/photos.htm

August 4, 2010, London

Wrestling with Photoshop to do the flyers and posters for Edmonton; Pondering Dreamweaver to maintain this site, stick-handling through Outlook to get the media releases released. To the media.

I'm part of the big mass movement to spend as much time as we possibly can on our computers.

And it all makes sense, because the computer has taken the essence of two of our biggest obsessions and put them together, combining the hypnotic addictive fascination of TV with the active, self-gratifying power trip of driving.

But let's not kid ourselves. Let's not pretend that it's all about getting things done more efficiently.

August 5, 2010, Kettle Point

Theatre has bounded theatrically onto the political stage in recent days. Remember the “Toronto 18” bomb plot? Well, a playwright visited one of those guys several times in his jail cell, and she is alarmed at how our legal system is functioning these days, so she wrote a play called Homegrown and it premieres at the Summerworks Festival tonight. The Toronto Sun pounced on the media release which described the play as a “sympathetic portrayal” of the man, tied it together with the fact the Summerworks receives public funding from all three levels of government and sounded the alarms of outrage. A FULL PAGE article on page 5, the ENTIRE front page of the Sun, with the title “Sympathy for the Devil” and later, an editorial telling people NOT to go see it. The Prime Minister's Office, some Toronto councilors and several other people who have not seen the play are just as outraged.

And THAT, my friends, is excellent media coverage. I'd go see if I were in town.

August 7, 2010, Algonquin Trails Campground

Camping near Dorset Ontario, about 10 km from Algonquin Park, which evokes a whole new set of memories of canoe trips over the years, through the marshy and moosey north or the rocky and idyllic south. Tom Thompson country.

Last night we had a birchwood fire with my traditional campfire drink: amber run straight from the bottle. Today we hiked the trails through the pine and maple and birch forest and now it's off to Ian and Kim's wedding on Paint Lake.

August 9, 2010, Air Canada, en route to Edmonton

That was novel, watching a wedding ceremony while knee-deep in water. Along with us waders, there were floating guests (in a boat) and dry standing guests (along the shoreline), as the vows were taken at the end of a dock sticking out into Paint Lake. Kim and Ian, the stars of the show, completed the official paperwork to the sound of Stevie Wonder singing “Signed, sealed, delivered – I'm yours”.

Good times. Back to work.

I'll experience the legendary Edmonton Fringe myself very soon; in the meantime, here are rumours that I have heard from others:
Expect to see spreadsheet patrons with their whole fringe planned out in advance.
The beer tent is central and buzzing with buzz,
Edmonton is a theatre town, and the reviewers are very knowledgeable and they review accordingly.
The Journal review is the important one.
Even shows that get crappy reviews can sell out some performances.
Patrons go to the parade looking for pitches and flyers.
By the mid-point of the Fringe, most patrons have decided what they want to see.
Flyering performers who are not on their list might get a nasty snubbing.
Patrons in front of the big performance board are susceptible to timely promotional nudges.

August 10, 2010, Edmonton

Add another Fringe to my tour; I just got word that I'm in the Atlantic Fringe in Halifax, September 2-12. Zowie. This Fringe will not likely be a money-maker, but it's in Halifax!

And here in Edmonton, my Sunday show (12:30 pm) is almost sold out already. I'm not sure what's going on there, as it's well above my other shows. Hope it's not a mistake. Overall, with three days before my first show, I am 27% sold – not bad. Hello, Edmonton.

Apparently, all 200 Double Fringer passes (20 tickets each) and all 200 Frequent Fringer passes (10 tickets each) were sold the day the box office opened. 6,000 tickets, just like that.

August 12, 2010, Edmonton

I was sitting in a Second Cup on Whyte Avenue doing some online work (which I can't do where I'm staying) and in walks Jem. “Do you have posters?” Yes “With you?” Yes. “Then you might want to get out there, because the boards just went up. They'll be full in an hour.” That's one of the quirks of the Edmonton Fringe: they make triangular bulletin boards for posters around the lamp-posts in the fringe area, and nobody knows when they will go up, and it's a mad scramble to get some of that precious advertising real estate as soon as they do. I could have easily plunked away at my keyboard in oblivion all through the critical time. Yay Jem!

And I see from my online sales report that FOUR media comps were given out for my opening show on the 13 th . FRIDAY the 13 th . Hmmm.

August 14, 2010, Edmonton

The streets are blocked off for the main Fringe area in Old Strathcona, near the Farmer's Market, the Trans-Alta Arts Barns and Catalyst Theatre. It feels pretty much like a fairground, complete with cotton candy, expensive food and fortune tellers, but instead of rides and games of chance, there are street performers and theatre spaces (giving the opportunity for another kind of game of chance, you could say).

Street performers have a funny life, first trying to pull people in to watch their show, then performing and then trying to get as much money out of the crowds as they can. Some do it naturally and graciously, but some are just annoying.

When I found out that four media comps had been given out for my first show, I decided to send out some freebies for the volunteers, so that there would be a critical mass of people in the audience. 22 of the 25 tickets I set aside were snapped up, so I had a nice solid house of 73 (full house = 99) for my opening. Good move, good show, good start.

August 16, 2010, Edmonton

Everything is going swimmingly. A great atmosphere, good shows, masses of enthusiastic Fringe patrons, and a good reaction to archy and mehitabel . I had almost 400 tickets booked before any reviews had even come out. Then, boom, 5 stars from the Edmonton Sun and 4 ½ stars from See Magazine. A great line to end the See review: “Insects will inherit the earth and cats will always have the last word.”

This Fringe has people who have literally been volunteering at the Fringe for decades. They are very proud of it; they work their butts off, and it feels as though the whole city is completely behind it.

August 17, 2010, Edmonton

An excellent show today – I was primed to go on, it was a really good audience and the house was full. And this is at 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon - most Fringes wouldn't even book that slot, and if they did, it would be a throw-away show for a small handful of people. But my experience here is that the afternoon shows do better than the evening ones.

And more reviews today. Four stars from the Journal, but … TWO from Vue Magazine. Two stars? That's the worst rating this show has ever received. And it prompted three thoughts:

1) I'm becoming more indifferent to reviews. Yes, I look them up and yes they help to sell tickets, but my tickets are selling well anyhow and I have a nice collection of good reviews for advertising my show already. Feedback on a show is nice, and I appreciate it, but there are usually better ways to gauge the strength of your show. I must say though, that as casual as I felt about looking to see if my reviews were posted, I'd feel a little tingle as I scrolled down the website page to my show.

2) When you get a bad review, the first thing you do is compile evidence that the reviewer is an idiot, the paper is a disgusting rag and your beautiful show is being badly misrepresented.

3) But of course, you must ask yourself whether there is any merit in the criticism. The Vue review said the show was “lackadaisical” and although none of my Edmonton shows felt that way to me, I'm using the review as a reminder that every show is a sprint, and that I have to approach it accordingly. That may, in fact, explain why I was so pumped for the show today. So even though the reviewer called me “Jeff Hulbert” and said that Archy was a “Bolshevik”, I am not going to dismiss his clearly incompetent writing out of hand. Rather, I will use his review, with all of its faults and merits, to make the show better in the long run.

August 20, 2010, Edmonton airport

Oh, what a lovely fringe. Good times, good billet, good houses, good reviews, good money.

This was also the Fringe at which I tested the merchandising waters. I took my Archy drawing from last year and made post card and 8.5x11 posters, and pitched them after my shows, with the following results:

Show #1: forgot to pitch the merch - $0
#2: Pitched them at $1 and $5, left the merch on a chair and left the stage – total income: $1
#3: Same marketing strategy as in #2 - $3
#4: Pitched them for free, left them on the chair and left the stage - $0 but lots scooped up.
#5: Pitched them for $1 and $5 but STAYED ON STAGE - $18, and heard some good Archy stories.
#6: Pitched them as pay-what-you-want with the freebie option and stayed onstage - $41, and met a woman who claimed to have “TG” tattooed on her back, standing for “toujours gai” (I took her word for it.) And met another woman who said that her parents used to hold Toujours Gai parties in the 40s. (That seems to be the phrase that resonated with people. A forerunner for “Don't Worry, Be Happy”.)

So we learned that staying onstage is probably a good idea. I should add that the $41 figure from show #6 is a bit of a guess, since I threw away the piece of paper on which I wrote the numbers down. So we also learned to keep better financial records.

August 21, 2010, Indianapolis

It turns out that it DO rain in Indianapolis in the summertime. A little bit, anyway. Next, they'll be telling me that God made those little green apples after all.

Lack of sleep started catching up to me towards the end of the Edmonton Fringe. O ye nighthawks, beware of the early mornings. Too many of them in a row and you're flirting with danger. Add a three-stage night flight to Indianapolis and a morning tech rehearsal without so much as a whiff of coffee, and I was poopetrated.

There was some kind of family emergency at my intended host's, so I'm sleeping on a fold-out couch at Pauline's, the Indy Fringe Executive Director. And sleep I did, for over three hours this afternoon. And yes, I keep telling myself, I really do have my first show tonight.

August 22, 2010, Indianapolis

Two shows in the bag, and I have just moved out of Pauline's digs and into a house that her friend just moved out of, and I have it all to myself for the rest of the run. No furniture, except a huge double bed in the master bedroom. Three bathrooms – at least that's how many I have found so far. A quirky book selection with a sense of humour to it: Machiavelli's The Prince right next to The Little Prince. Nice original art everywhere. A swimming pool in the backyard. I just took a dip. I think I'll take another one tomorrow.

Audience numbers are pretty dismal so far. Five for my opening and nine tonight. I haven't had numbers this bad since … the last time I came to the States. But apparently THREE of these people were reviewers, so there's hope. My opening was a good show – an unusually good show actually. Tonight was strange. Connections weren't so good, and it felt as though every other person was there because they didn't have the guts to say no to their partners. Not the kind of show you want reviewed.

August 24, 2010, Indianapolis

Today, I strolled around my mansion, took a dip in the pool, did some promotional work for the Atlantic Fringe in Halifax and read a good chunk of Trout Fishing in America . Written in the early 60s and it's supposed to be a kind of American classic, but I'm disappointed.

Not counting the front-of-house people, my shows have had 4 and 8 patrons so far, so I was hoping for another doubling to 16 tonight, but there were 42 in the house. So afterwards, I said that I was going for the doubling model, so I asked people NOT to recommend the show to anyone, because we were way ahead of the game. Because as anyone who is familiar with doubling exponentials can tell you, we are looking at 128 people by closing night, and if I were to continue, there would be over 2,000 people in the house for the 10 th show. Over a million by the 19 th show. So let's just take it easy, people.

An odd show. The woman who made the pre-show announcement thought it necessary to point out that I bear some resemblance to Kurt Vonnegut. So during the show, I imagined people saying to themselves, “Yes, he DOES look like Kurt Vonnegut” and not really listening to what I was saying. And the floor felt particularly spongy tonight – creaky and not really supporting me like it should, making the physicality difficult. A lot of my movements felt vague. And I felt like I needed a haircut.

The revolution felt really good though.

But in spite of my misgivings, the reaction was great, and some performers hung around afterwards to say how much they liked the show. It's like Jem said in one of his blogs: Sometimes the audience is great, even when the show isn't.

August 26, 2010, Indianapolis

I was settling into a coffee shop today, when somebody told me that I had some real Kurt Vonnegut hair going. Wait a minute – two comparisons to KV in two days? Then I remembered that he grew up around here someplace, and sure enough, it was Indianapolis. Maybe I need to write a show around his character and bring it here.

My numbers dropped down into the teens for last night's show, and internet comments seemed to have dubbed my show the one that more people should be seeing. Two more chances.

I went through the downtown today – this city is centred around a huge war memorial with a circular road around it and streets radiating in eight directions. War is the most important thing in this city, it would seem. I'm sure that Kurt Vonnegut would have liked to have planted a small flag on top that said “So it goes”.

There is a nice little jazz club here called the Chatterbox, and I had a drink with a couple of the performers, comparing notes about theatre, street performance and stand-up comedy.

August 27, 2010, Indianapolis

“Twistin' by the pool …” and reading Sylvia Plath. Never read her stuff before, and I love it. Here's a bit from “Years”:

Oh God, I am not like you
In your vacuous black,
Stars stuck all over, bright stupid confetti.
Eternity bores me,
I never wanted it.

What I love is
The piston in motion---
My soul dies before it.
And the hooves of the horses,
Their merciless churn.

Meanwhile, at the Indy Fringe, there are three shows with Jesus in the title and three more about transporting a parent's remains somewhere. My favourites so far have been the Tale of Mephisto , from New Orleans, featuring an amazing physical performance by Natsumi Sugiyama, Phil the Void: Spontaneous Dumbustion , from L.A and a guy who can do speeches from all 37 of Shakespeare's plays plus seven sonnets.

In my opinion, too many people on the Fringe circuit are under the false impression that their own lives have been saturated with golden source material for the stage. Often they succeed in holding my attention, but then at some point during the show, I'm asking them in my head, “Is there any significance to this story, other than the fact that it happened to you?” But as I go to dismiss the genre as a bad idea, I remember that when done well, autobiographical shows can be fantastic – think of Rob Gee, Martin Dockery, Jem Rolls, Phil the Void. Maybe it comes down to a question of whether the show is based on your life or your ego.

August 28, 2010, Indianapolis

My favourite eatery has turned out to be Yats on Connecticut Ave, a cajun-creole place where for $6.50, they hand you a styrofoam plate with a full bed of rice which is smothered in one of several tasty soupy dishes – succotash (which always sounds as though it requires a lisp), bean-based, or meat-based or vegan stew.

Some time during my two days off someone walked away with my costume vest, so I did the show without it tonight. My biggest house for this Fringe – 51, and they liked it just fine. My lower extremity troubles continue though, as my frickin' tendonitis flared up in the past few days, so that I'm hobbling around again. This is NOT one of the ailments that I was suffering from in Winnipeg – it goes back a ways. So I bought some glucosamine sulphate and that should take care of it. But my whole performance tonight was designed to avoid strain on my left achilles. Annoying.

The quality of the shows here is a little sub-standard. I have seen a few clunkers, which I found to be rare on the Canadian circuit. I have also noticed that quite a few solo Fringe shows are by nerds or misfits who don't really get along with people that well. These range in quality from brilliant to bad ideas. August 30, 2010 , Detroit

Layover in Detroit, time for lunch at Reggie's Soul Food Café: fried fish, mashed potatoes, black-eyed peas and corn bread for under 7 bucks.

Good audience for my last show; they clapped in between scenes, and they were with me all the way. Later that night, there was a closing night version of the Screw You Review. They're a clever, hilarious gay couple from Orlando playing an ornery racist 89-year old man and a much younger and more elegant woman. He calls gays “whimsicals” and she sang “Don Juan”. I've only heard that song twice, but it really sticks with me. Great song – Leiber and Stoller.

Good wrap-up party at the Indy Fringe Theatre, with free food and drink. That took me nicely to my bus time, and a guy gave me a ride to the station at around 3:45 a.m.

Fringe director Pauline says that the word built very well for Archy over the Fringe, and that I should bring it back next year. Well, we'll see. If they don't put me in the remote Marian Underground, it might be worth it. Lots of shows in the core area did very well. Great reaction to my show in general though; lots of people went out of their way to let me know how much they liked it. And I think I achieved the Chris gibbs goal for a first Fringe: to be the show that everyone wishes they had seen.

Another Kurt Vonnegut comparison. That makes three.

And we have our billet in Halifax, two days before we arrive. I'm not sure why, but Fringe organizers always leave the billets until the last minute. It must drive the worry-warts crazy, not knowing whether they have a place to stay.

I really liked a show that I saw on Saturday afternoon – Pure Prine , a pro review on the Phoenix main stage. That John Prine. Can you call someone a genius if they just use 3 or 4 chords? He's kind of a treasure, but more like an old bowling trophy being used as an ash tray, but there's real gold in the trophy and … ah forget it.

August 31, 2010, London

24-hour stopover in London includes laundry, home-cooked food, banking and Quiz Night at the Black Shire. I also had a Goodwill stop to buy a new vest, since my last one was lifted from the dressing room some time between my 4 th and 5 th shows in Indy. I also ran into a friend who's interested in making a film version of my archy show, which sounds good to me.

September 1, 2010, Halifax

A strong local presence at this Fringe, with 20 of the 30 listed shows being from Halifax and environs. One theme that emerges is illness, including cancer, diabetes, mental illness, more cancer and whatever internal horror shows took place in miners in Newfoundland in the 60s. I'll bet that cancer was there in the mix.

This place is HOT, and the Haligonians are not used to it, and they don't like it. Me neither. I peeked in on my performance space today, on the 3 rd floor of the Khyber Arts Centre, and it was deadly. Not a place where you would enjoy watching a play, or doing anything else, for that matter. More like “the box” in Cool Hand Luke . The good news is that the weather is supposed to break this weekend, The bad news is that it is breaking because Hurricane Earl is heading this way.

September 3, 2010, Halifax

Nancy and I took a city bus down to Point Pleasant Park for a swim in the ocean with the cormorants and seagulls yesterday and then came back into town for my tech rehearsal. Tech man Mark has been hanging out in this sweat box for days now, and he must be ready to cry out for mercy.

Yesterday's high was 33 degrees, and today it was 32, but the fever has broken, and we are on the way down to the low 20s for the rest of my stay. It's now 28 degrees, but it feels like 37 to the computers. It's supposed to be down to 22 by the time my show opens at 9pm. Inside it will be much hotter, and I really don't see why anyone would want to be in the audience.

Wind, rain, tropical storm and hurricane warnings are all in effect for tomorrow morning, and the question is where we want to be when the storm hits. I say we take a little boat out into the harbour. Get a good look at it, and have ourselves a true Maritime experience.

September 4, 2010, Halifax

10 degree drop in temperature before my show started, but the space itself hadn't caught up. Hot and stale, it was. I was the third of 3 shows in the Khyber tonight, and I was told that the first show had run 45 minutes overtime, and the performer finally had to be escorted off the stage by the festival director. That's unconfirmed, but I'm intrigued.

Not a bad turnout after all – about 20, including a reviewer from the main daily, the Halifax Chronicle Herald. Given the weather, I was quite pleased with that, and they enjoyed the show, even though it felt like digging ditches to me.

My main suspended-reality moment was looking out into the darkened house during one of the Archy spotlights, and seeing a kind of haze filling the room, which started to look like droplets of water suspended in the air, and then breathing in, wishing that I was breathing in less water and more air, and thinking for a moment that I might not make it to the end of this show, because a body needs air.

September 5, 2010, Halifax

As I was saying, it was some hot when we arrived in town. Then it got windy, and it was some windy. Then tonight we were out for some outdoor Shakespeare by the Sea, and wouldn't you know it. It was some cold.

Yesterday, Nancy and I were up early for Hurricane Day, and after missing our bus, we hitch-hiked downtown to look for a good place to watch the weather roll in. We wanted a view of the harbour, but everything was closed except the ferry terminal, where we learned to our surprise that the ferries were running. We talked about heading over to Dartmouth, because it must be safe if the ferry is still running. But I thought of that “Herman” cartoon: a guy is leaning over the rail of a marineland shark pool, looking down the throat of a huge shark that has just jumped out of the water, its jaws about to close around him, but he's all relaxed, saying, “They wouldn't let you stand here if it was dangerous”.

But we went across in spite of this cautionary tale. By noon, it got worse and the ferry did stop running. I have seen lots of blizzard conditions in the winter, but this was the worst warm-weather storm that I've ever seen. Still, there was little major damage, but lots of downed branches and lots of power out. It was all clear by evening, but only the Khyber, where I am performing, had electricity.

We got a ride to the venue from a local guy who saw us trying to figure out the bus routes and schedules, and then another ride home at the end of the night from a guy we met at Durty Nelly's on Argyle Street. Three rides from strangers in one day. These Halifolks, they're some nice.

September 6, 2010, Halifax

Review and photo in the Sept 5 version of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald : Age-old wisdom from a cat and a cockroach (Scroll down to second review.)

And a review in the arts weekly The Coast: http://www.thecoast.ca/ArtAttack/archives/2010/09/05/two-plays-two-winners-on-day-3-of-the-fringe

September 7, 2010, Halifax

I have been doing this show all summer long, but I'm still coming to terms with one question: What do I want from my audiences? Their reactions can be quite collective, or they can tend towards the individual end of the spectrum. Now, collective responses are fun, because the audience is always feeding you back sound and energy that you can play with. But quite often – and this has been the norm so far in Halifax – the vocal response has been subdued, even when the concentration of the audience members has been palpable and obvious. Reactions at the end of these show have been great, and to me, it's a sign that audience members have gone on their own individual journeys.

I have often asked myself whether I should be trying for the collective response, because being in a room full of people laughing and reacting together is fun for everyone. And when that happens during a performance of archy and mehitabel , it's great. But I think that I've been unconsciously going for a more personal and individualistic response. It's more suited to the material, and it has taken me a long time to realize and accept it fully, but that's what kind of show it is.

September 8, 2010, Halifax

The weather smorgasbord continues, with full-on fog this morning. Can't even see the harbour, which is only four doors down the hill.

This is the point in the harbour – the Halifax Shipyards – where the French and the Norwegians got their nautical signals badly mixed up in 1917, resulting in the worst accidental man-made explosion ever. 2000 dead and 9000 injured and the effects were felt as far away as PEI. Then the next day, Halifax got 16 inches of snow and the worst blizzard of the decade. The Hiroshima explosion in 1945 was about five times bigger, so it took over the title as the biggest man-made explosion, but of course that was no accident.

September 9, 2010, Halifax

Nice party at The Bus Stop Theatre on Gottingen tonight, to celebrate the 28 th birthday of Mark, who is teching my show at the Khyber.

The over-hanging question: Why does this Fringe feel like a new Fringe, when it has been around for 20 years? I'm talking about organization, but also audience numbers. When I had an audience of 23 the other day, it was reported to me with big round eyes as if I were an emerging Fringe God. I am perfectly happy to adjust to the scales of the various festivals, but I couldn't understand it. The media coverage is excellent, the programs are everywhere, it's a town famous for its arts … so what's the problem?

In my mind, the root of the problem is represented by a sentence on the Atlantic Fringe website, where it mentions the possibility of performance cancellations: “ Sorry, but they're bound to happen - this is The Fringe after all!!”

Lots of people are enjoying the Fringe, but disgruntlement abounds.

A saw a great trio at the Economy Shoe Shop last night. (That's a bar on Argyle.) Crazy Russian violin (and some vocals) backed up by a flaming ukulele and a stand-up bass. Total commitment, tight with the odd brain-bender. Tremendous. Met the uke player at the party tonight.

September 10, 2010, Halifax

Here is an overdue posting of reviews of archy and mehitabeli from my last few Fringes

http://www.jeffculbert.ca/full%20reviews.htm

September 11, 2010, Halifax

After seven straight days of shows, yesterday was my day off, so I walked across the MacDonald Bridge to Dartmouth to find the house where my parents lived when my brother Mike was born. Found 28 Dustan Road, but nobody was home. But there I was, so I had to take some photos to show my Mom. Before long, the next door neighbour appeared on her front step, hands on hips in the universal body language that says “I disapprove of you, and I want you to know it”. When I skipped over and smiled and stated my case, without naming any names, she said, “Mr and Mrs Kolber?” “Culbert, that's right!”, but her hands stayed firmly on her hips, so I didn't ask if I could take her photo.

Halifax has lots of great pubs, and I discovered a new one, Brussells, when I went to hear the violin-ukelele guys that I mentioned earlier. They are called Krasnagorsk, and they can be found at www.myspace.com/krasnogorsk . Check them out if they ever come your way. Lots of music everywhere, and music stores and groups rehearsing in small apartments with the windows open as you walk by.

I also caught a really good solo show last night: Total Body Washout , by Drew Carnwath (Toronto), performed by Adam Bayne (Halifax). Good writing, good performance – a very solid show.

On the streets, everyone is talking about the flurry of nasty swarmings that have happened over the past week in the north-east of the city – seven violent attacks on individuals and small groups that seem to have no motivation whatsoever, and ganging up ratios of 15:1 and worse. But I'll just walk with my eyes closed and everything will be fine.

One more show and my 2010 tour is over!

September 13, 2010, Halifax

And that's IT. Last show of the tour on Saturday, and it felt good. The 55 th of my 55 performances in 2010. Old friends from high school and then university theatre days came to see it, and we went out afterwards to get caught up after not seeing each other in THIRTY years.

On Sunday, I saw six shows, the best of the bunch being Mikaela Dyke's Dying Hard . The text was entirely based on interviews with ailing Newfoundland miners and their wives – six monologues and every one a winner.

So I'm off tomorrow, and I didn't get to all of the pubs in town by a long shot, but I did see The Old Triangle, Pogue Fado, Bearly's, The Henry House, The Economy Shoe Shop, The Foggy Goggle, Brussels, Durty Nelly's, Stayner's Wharf, the Carlton, Pipa's and Your Father's Moustache. It's a start.

September 14, 2010, Halifax

The perfect way to spend my last night in Halifax. A weekly house party that consists of a 4-hour concert featuring local musicians, who get to play three songs each. Maybe 40 people there. Good songs, good players. Lots of innovation. Lots of heart and fun and honest self-expression.

Jacque the fiddle wizard was there, and he nudged me onto the playing list. It was all original stuff, so I did my Socrates song ( Ballad of a Wise Man ) and my Bob Donnelly song ( After the Trial ), and then I did the revolution speech from archy and mehitabel , with Jacques on violin and Mark my tech guy on drums.

I stuck around until the end, some time after two, because ALL of the performers were good. Bye, Halifax!

September 15, 2010, London

And home. Touchdown. Feels good.

On the plane, I picked my favourite shows from each festival this summer. The First Stars / Les Premieres Etoiles:

Phoenix – Phil the Void, Phil van Hest, Los Angeles
Montreal – One Man Riot , Jem Rolls, Manchester / Edmonton
Ottawa – Actionable , Bob Wiseman, Toronto
Regina – A Day in the Life of Miss Hiccup , Yanomi Shoshinz, Tokyo
Swift Current – Whiskey Bars , ­ Bremner Duthie, Toronto / Paris
Winnipeg – Commencement – Hannah Cheek, The Pumpkin Pie Show, New York
Edmonton – The Squatter Heart , Annie Lefevre, Ottawa
Indianapolis – The Tale of Mephisto , International Theatre Laboratorium, New Orleans
Halifax – Dying Hard , Mikaela Dyke, Newfoundland / Toronto

September 16, 2010, London

Looking over the numbers, my best Fringes for ticket sales this year were:

Edmonton
Winnipeg
Ottawa
Regina
Halifax, Montreal and Indianapolis
and then, way way way down so that you need a magnifying glass:
Phoenix

The Kurt Vonnegut theme that emerged in Indianapolis is still going strong. I had a dream that, like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five , I was unstuck in time. I'm reading the novel Hocus Pocus for the first time, and investigating the hypothesis that I look a bit like KV. You be the judge; the evidence is here. http://www.google.ca/images?hl=en&source=imghp&q=kurt+vonnegut&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2&biw=1016&bih=596

In his preface to Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloos , I came across this poem:

We do
Doodley do, doodley do, doodley do,

What we must,
Muddily must, muddily must, muddily must;

Muddily do,
Muddily do, muddily do, muddily do,

Until we bust,
Bodily bust, bodily bust, bodily bust.

September 18, 2010, London

I picked up four more Kurt Vonnegut books at the library, so I'm definitely on a kick.

On creativity: “If a person with a demonstrably ordinary mind, like mine, will devote himself to giving birth to a work on the imagination, that work will in turn tempt and tease that ordinary mind into cleverness.”

He once said that the salvation of humanity is only possible if large numbers of people learn to exercise their creativity. Northrop Frye had a very similar idea, which he called “the democratization of aesthetic experience”. I've always liked that expression. Frye suggested that it is only in times of widespread grassroots creativity that deep social change is possible.

September 22, 2010, Kettle Point

Beach day. Beautiful. Dip in Lake Huron. Last swim of the year? You never know, in the fall.

And that's it for the 11-stop archy and mehitabel road trip of 2010. I loved everywhere. Now it's time to work on new shows and explore new possibilities for archy. Applications for next year's tour are already coming due, so the cycle begins anew.

So I'll close this chapter of the blog by re-visiting some of my favourite critical reactions to archy and mehitabel . Critics can praise your work, and recommend it to their readers, and that is much appreciated, but for this show, it was most satisfying when it was clear that the ideas were hitting home. Here is some evidence of that; let it stand as a tribute to Don Marquis:

“Archy, the tortured, meditative cockroach and Mehitabel, the smooth, regal cat, are two of the finest philosophers at the Fringe. They are eloquent creatures, concerned with reminding us what it means be a human being.” Edmonton Journal

“I recommend archy & mehitabel to those inclined toward a more thought provoking type of fun. But be warned: afterward you may never be able to look at insects in quite the same way.” Theatre in London

Bugs would have much to tell us about life, death, beauty, love, and hate, if only we would listen. The unlikely couple tell us stories from the places humans rarely go,… archy is funny and wise, and mehitabel is tough and life-loving, and there is a lot to learn from this scrappy duo. Winnipeg Sun

“not only very funny but also makes you think about humanity.” UMFM Winnipeg

“an alternative view of the world from different links on the food chain”.- Winnipeg Free Press

“I left the theatre having had a most thought-provoking experience in a different world.” Jenny Revue

“Archy's dire predictions are balanced by Mehitabel's lesson of making the most of your existence, whether you live in a mansion or a garbage can. Between the two lies a valuable lesson for the ages.” Halifax Chronicle Herald

“a heady philosophical examination of humanity and its place in the cosmos There is much to be learned from Archy and Mehitabel ” – CBC Manitoba

“The heart of Marquis is the freedom his whimsy afforded him to look at the follies of mankind from the insect level …The environmental worries Marquis put in Archy's shiny black head still resonate, as does our habit of waging wars we have no idea how to pay for.” Indianapolis Star

“Considering the tumultuous times and America's fear of socialism, this would have been powerful stuff. It still is, which is what's so great – simultaneously reassuring and terrifying – that things haven't changed that much in the last 100 years.” Edmonton Sun

“These characters debuted during World War One, and yet descriptions of mankind destroying the earth invoke the tarsands. Two historical truths stand out, though: the insects will inherit the earth, and cats will always get the last word.” See Magazine, Edmonton