The Conveyor

It is time again for TheConveyor.com to put forth our opinions and bestow the Awards of Excellence for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.  2011 was another top notch year with the quality of productions up again.  This year's difference was that no single show was way ahead of the pack.  Our top shows all were very close in ranking, making it very difficult to pick just one show at the top. We made a choice, but I think this year a case could be made for three or four shows to be the overall best. We had to chose only one.

If you've seen the movie True Lies, Bill Paxton plays a used car salesman who pretends to be a spy.  Now, this has absolutely nothing to do with the Four Humor's newest show, You Only Live Forever Once, but if you imagine the pretend spy world that Bill Paxton's character would be living in, it might be something like this show, including the puppets.

When you are looking for help on how to avoid making mistakes on a topic, say dating, who else is better to turn to than someone you trust and someone who has made far more dating mistakes than you will ever make in a single lifetime? The Venzin-Althaus EXPLOSION's newest production of 101 Rules for Dating (of which you will hear 20 or so...) gives not only one lifetime of bad dating experience, but two: Megan Venzin and Emily Althaus.

Expectations have been a recurring theme for me in my reviews this year.  When I read that Matt Johnson was doing a show this year, I had a set of expectations.  I've seen his work before.  In Tooth and 'Nuckle I got the Matt Johnson I was expecting.  He is on the edge at all times, pushing you, sometimes with a very pointy stick.

I am thrilled when my expectations are exceeded.  The running time of Left Out Productions NYC's Miss Magnolia Beaumont Goes to Provincetown was leaving me a little bit disconcerting for a solo Fringe show, but this is more than a solo show.  This is a multiple character one person play that is a crafted work with two distinct and seamlessly woven roles played by Joe Hutcheson.

When the end comes it is said that the light fades from your eyes and everything goes dark.  That image is the visual put forth from New Edgecliff's Darker written by Catie O'Keefe.  Light and Dark run heavily through this production.  Keeping the characters and the audience 'in the dark' takes on an additional importance.

I don't how anyone could imagine finding a way to 'break the 4th wall' better and with a sense of joy within the improvisation no less.  Jimmy Hogg's Curriculum Vitae will have you laughing at each lightning speed phrase that no American as easily phrase.  Originally from Britain, Hogg has the verbal ability to talk fast common to many of his home county.

Kevin Thornton's I Love You (We're Fucked) filled the sweaty Artworks space with both eager audience members and wonderfully funny stories and songs.  Thornton is an extremely talented performer who has improved on his 2009 CincyFringe show Sex, Dreams & Self-Control with a crisp comedy that was more fast past and improvisational.

Free Bread sticks, special tea, a lizard, Adam Smith, and big dose of introspection make total sense after you see Artemis Exchange's new production Peyote Business Lunch. The show goes deep inside the mind, and I do mean deep, to pull out that wave-particle choking your soul, causing you to wake up screaming in the middle of the night, but then makes you laugh when you think about it years later.

What makes you human?  How do you know?  Could you be a zombie pretending to be human?  In Karim Muasher and Carrie Brown's production of The Vindlevoss Family Circus Spectacular there is no question who the zombie is, but does that mean a zombie can't be human?  Weren't all zombies former humans? Are zombies and humans just part of the same circle of life?

What are you 'supposed' to be? We all ask that question and we all face the mirror we ask.  When we answer ourselves those answers can sound similar, but that "supposed" part of the question is subjective or rather it is 'supposed' to be. If you are a woman and/or if you are not white, that subjectivity has social and cultural constraints that don't match the reflection you are 'supposed' to see in the mirror.

The Anger in Zehra Fazal's Headscarf and the Angry Bitch is reserved not for her religion or her family or her ethnicity, but lies with the actions of all of those entities interacting together and making her life full of contradictions and confusion.

 

Check out the Seedy Seeds latest video filmed while on their national tour supporting their latest album: Verb Noun.

Join Eat Sugar for their record release show is this Saturday, the 28th, @ Mayday in Northside.

For More information check out www.eatsugarmusic.com.  

Grammer's fans take note, part of this video was shot in the beautiful bar.

Rick Pender, Theatre Editor/Critic at CityBeat, has written a blog post discussing the concept of a unified Theatre awards program. The two groups to be unified would be CityBeat's Theatre CEA's and the Enquirer supported Acclaim Awards.

We contain multitudes. Cincinnati is a vibrant city with life bubbling over. If you were to stick with the mainstream channels of information, you wouldn't know how alive Cincinnati is. We are here to change that. We are the Conveyor. We aim to be original, but not obtuse. Our mission is the explore the city and bring our readers experiences and opportunities.

I, Mr. Editor, have started this endeavor to bring the people of Cincinnati closer to their own community. The goal is to open the eyes of the people of Cincinnati and peak their interests. No matter what you like to do, you can fill your mind with it here in the Cincinnati area. In our attempt to meet this goal, here are the principles we will employ:

 

1. Have fun - Yes, this is something we are doing for fun. Fun doesn't mean everything is a joke. Fun means we enjoy what we are writing about. If we get a little irreverent along the way, well, blame the booze. In the case of some of our writers, blame the Nietzsche.
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