Look upon these fringes

“And it shall be to you as a fringe that you may look upon it.” (Num.15:30 Koren)

By Eric George Tauber

SAN DIEGO — Okay, so the Fringe Festival is not quite the same thing as the Biblical reference. But if you’re a true lover of the performing arts, it can be nice to get away from the big theatres and get a little “out there.” On Thursday, June 21^st, the San Diego Fringe Festival of 2018 got underway. California Assemblyman Todd Gloria cut the ribbon. He’s a big fan of the Fringe and of the power of the arts to bring people together. Melanie Tulagan of Coronado School of the Arts won the video contest creating the promo for this festival: http://sdfringe.org/about/

If you’re not familiar, Fringe Festivals happen all over the world, bringing together performing artists from a multitude of disciplines: actors, dancers, acrobats, magicians, mentalists, musicians, comedians, puppeteers…etc. Shows are no longer than an hour and they generally travel light and must be broken down quickly for the next show beginning just thirty minutes later. Most tickets are just $10 and multi-show passes make the prices even lower.

With 500 shows over 11 days at 12 different venues, one can’t see everything and you have to judge a lot of books by their covers. Hitler in drag? Pass. What not to say during interracial sex? If I need to know, I’ll google it. A cabaret with puppets as aliens: That looks like fun.

Here’s what I’ve seen so far:

Xylem and Phloem: The Circus Collective of San Diego blurs the lines of circus and theater. With live music from a four piece jazz band, they combine acrobatics with comic satire harping on the fickle whims and diminishing attention spans of today’s TV viewer. They took jabs at Jerry Springer, telenovelas, infomercials and the Pollution-Preventing Pirates. Some unsuspecting audience members even became contestants in a game show. Eliciting laughs, gasps and applause, their work is clearly not for the out of shape nor the faint of heart.

The Eulogy: Michael Burgos’ humor is as dark as it gets. With spastic movements rooted in classical mime, an operatic speaking voice and a bit of Black Gospel, he eulogizes his late friend, roasts marshmallows over a burning pyre and woos the widow in a wacky, outrageous show of chutzpah.

Abeyance: Like most artists, Tyler West is a workaday shlub in need of a day job. But his imagination gets the best of him as he rocks out to elevator music, fights a dragon, catches a mermaid and gets trapped inside a vending machine. West uses mime and vocalized sound effects to bring us into his own little world, which has all of the joy and absurdity of a cartoon.  Definitely worthwhile.

Flight: A trio of lithe actor/gymnasts morph into airplanes and animals in gracefully physical storytelling. They called it a sequel to the beloved children’s classic The Little Prince. But a sequel is supposed to take the same characters on a new journey to teach them a new lesson. This is more like a TJ knock-off telling the exact same story with slightly different characters. Not recommended.

Cody Clark: A Different Way of Thinking. I met Cody while we were waiting for another show and he convinced me to come to his. When Cody was first diagnosed with autism, his parents were warned to have very low expectations. But, with bright enthusiasm, boyish charm and sleight of hand, he’s on a mission to educate people and “defeat the stereotypes.” This show needs to go to schools. I doubt he’ll ever make autism “cool,” but just as he was inspired, he can help a lot of other bullied and belittled autistic kids believe in themselves.

Apron Goldswift’s Alien Cabaret: If you read my interview with Jacob Surovsky, then you know about the zany creator. Apron Goldswift is our nebbishy, Charlie Brown everyman in an extraordinary situation, Earth’s representative of the arts in an intergalactic cabaret.  The aliens are very campy. Think “Doctor Who” before CGI. I especially loved the Piston, a furry little creature who scampers on four little feet. Yet it also has a darker, sadder side revealing tender wounds of regret and loss. It has some rough edges, but this kind of wacky risk-taking is what the Fringe Festival is all about.

The 2018 San Diego International Fringe Festival continues through July 1^st. For more information, visit www.sdfringe.org.

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Tauber is a freelance writer specializing in the arts.  He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com