Cincy Fringe Thoughts
I'm enjoying Cincy Fringe. It's a lot more mellow than Minnesota, just in that there are fewer shows and they're not spaced so closely together. Aside from the weekends, it's pretty hard to hit more than two shows in a night. I kind of like that. I love MN Fringe, but four shows in five and a half hours is a lot to take in...
They have a live nightly news cast at their Fringe Central (they describe the news cast as "Bare and Falanced," which always makes me laugh). Last night they invited two guys from a show called Cinema Fantastique to get onstage and talk about their show, and then casually asked them how many people had been at their Thursday night performance.
They paused uncomfortably, then said:
"Zero."
"Zilch."
"Nada."
"Dry hump."
"Taking your sister to the prom."
One of them then performed a poem called "Nobody came to our Thursday night Fringe show" while the other played saxophone. It was really cute. I like the sense of community here. I'm willing to bet they'll have a decent audience at their next performance.
It helps that it's a juried festival, so presumably there aren't a bunch of shows that are really not worth anyone's time, as there inevitably are at MN Fringe. I saw three shows in the first two nights, and all of them were awesome. The one I saw last night wasn't my style and I was really bored, but the audience (older, literary poetry types) seemed to enjoy it. So at least it was worth someone's time...
I do have one complaint though. My opening night... well, it was not the most fun I've ever had.
I'll put it this way. A guy I met here came up to me at the bar later and told me he'd seen my show.
"I didn't see you," I told him.
"I was the one who was laughing at the jokes," he replied.
I'm trying not to let it bother me, to just think of it as a dress rehearsal with mannequins. I'll pretend the real opening is on Sunday.
They have a live nightly news cast at their Fringe Central (they describe the news cast as "Bare and Falanced," which always makes me laugh). Last night they invited two guys from a show called Cinema Fantastique to get onstage and talk about their show, and then casually asked them how many people had been at their Thursday night performance.
They paused uncomfortably, then said:
"Zero."
"Zilch."
"Nada."
"Dry hump."
"Taking your sister to the prom."
One of them then performed a poem called "Nobody came to our Thursday night Fringe show" while the other played saxophone. It was really cute. I like the sense of community here. I'm willing to bet they'll have a decent audience at their next performance.
It helps that it's a juried festival, so presumably there aren't a bunch of shows that are really not worth anyone's time, as there inevitably are at MN Fringe. I saw three shows in the first two nights, and all of them were awesome. The one I saw last night wasn't my style and I was really bored, but the audience (older, literary poetry types) seemed to enjoy it. So at least it was worth someone's time...
I do have one complaint though. My opening night... well, it was not the most fun I've ever had.
I'll put it this way. A guy I met here came up to me at the bar later and told me he'd seen my show.
"I didn't see you," I told him.
"I was the one who was laughing at the jokes," he replied.
I'm trying not to let it bother me, to just think of it as a dress rehearsal with mannequins. I'll pretend the real opening is on Sunday.