merelyplayers.org - IndyFringe: Off to a great start

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IndyFringe: Off to a great start

8/21/09

EastOfIndy.com
by John Belden

From a look at the preview "sampler" last night down on Indy's Mass Ave., it looks like this year's IndyFringe will be a lot of fun.

There were appearances by the only two performers to play in all five Indianapolis Fringe festivals, magician Taylor Martin ("Andrea Merlin") and cerebral stand-up comic Phil Van Hest ("Phil the Void"). Martin had just gotten back from Las Vegas and was promising the best magic show at the Fringe (and not only because it is the only magic show at the Fringe), complete with leprechaun and some mind-freaky looking guy. Van Hest expressed his disapproval of "preview" performances by reading Rumi poetry.

Some shows will be very not-for-children so performers restrained themselves somewhat - though there were some four-letter words uttered and one guy in a giant "rude gesture" costume. On the other hand, we had the all-ages fun of the Blunder Construction guy. For the preview he juggled knives.

New (to IndyFringe) acts that showed great promise included "7x1 Samaurai", which reduces Kurasawa's epic to less than an hour, frantically played by a single man; "Crossing the Bridge", a touching and funny look at dying by a frantic troupe (the three-minute glimpse they gave was amazing); and "Hypothetically Stupid", an Indy-based comic skit duo with chemistry reminiscent of the Smothers Brothers or Abbott and Costello.

And I must note the "The Worst Show in the Fringe" will be really great lest I end up tied to the chair. (Actually, in previous years Merely Players has put on two of the best shows in the Fringe.)

Other shows made interesting promises: "I Do I Do in Dehli" promises to teach audience members Bollywood dance moves, and "murder, hope" seems to feature Batman playing a musical handsaw. (We sang along!)