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TheConveyor 2011 Awards of Excellence
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.
CincyFringe Review: You Only Live Forever Once
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.
CincyFringe Review: 101 Dating Rules...
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.
CincyFringe Review: Tooth and 'Nuckle
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.
CincyFringe Review: Miss Magnolia Beaumont Goes to Provincetown
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.
CincyFringe Review: Darker
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.
CincyFringe Review: Curriculum Vitae
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.
CincyFringe Review: I Love You (We're Fucked)
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.
CincyFringe Review: Peyote Business Lunch
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.
CincyFringe Review: The Vindlevoss Family Circus Spectacular!
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?