The Winnipeg Fringe Festival 2014

So here we are knee deep in Winnipeg Fringe Festival. The weather is nice, the shows are nicer and the crowds are great. It's that time of year when Winnipeg actually looks like a real live city and people descend on the downtown in droves. It's also the time of year when Winnipeg goes to theatre in as many droves.

Winnipeg does live theatre and improv and comedy and other performance types all year round, but during the Fringe, everyone knows it and lines up to see.

So the clock is ticking on the Fringe and in no time at all the Fringe shows will be just memories... amazing and mind blowing memories. So to ensure that your Fringe memories are filled with mind blowing "show" memories and not mind blowing "I missed all the shows I should have seen" memories.


CRUMBS: Made up Truths

Every night at the King's Head Pub

Mon, July 21 7:00 PM
Tue, July 22 10:45 PM
Wed, July 23 10:45 PM
Thu, July 24 10:45 PM
Fri, July 25 9:00 PM
Sat, July 26 10:45 PM

Buy your tickets online now so you are not disappointed. The shows have been selling out very quickly. Also, did you know you can get into the King's Head 30 minutes before the show starts so you can enjoy your nachos and boozy drinks.

ONLINE TICKET LINK

Some reviews from this year:

Dear CRUMBS,

Another review would be redundant, no? I mean, you already have a five star quote from 2012 on your sandwich board. I stand by it, but we all know you don’t need it to pack the Fringetime King’s Head.

It’s not that I can’t think of new things to say. Check this out: CRUMBS implausibly defy the law of diminishing returns. They get funnier each time I see them; their caricatures more deft and their on-the-fly story structures more satisfying. Bam. Reviewed anew.

But at this point it’s just gushing, isn’t it? Like your program says, you already have a career 69 stars.

Instead I want to thank you here for your contributions to building an improv community in Winnipeg through the Improv Festival and your support for other performers, as well as your own year round shows. It’s important.

Oh alright, here’s another five for the stats.

5 stars CBC website 2014

CRUMBS

If you’re a Winnipegger and a fan of improv, hopefully you’ve already booked your tickets for Crumbs. Grizzled veterans of the festival, Stephen Sim and Lee White are back for their 17th fringe in a row. You don’t sell out fringe shows for that long without being consistently excellent and this year’s show, Made Up Truths, is no exception. They ask brave souls in the audience for a painful or embarrassing secret and then mine it for an hour of comedy gold. Sim and Lee invent a cast of characters and devise stories before your eyes, all with witty musical counterpoint courtesy of DJ Hunnicutt.

All these years together has helped them hone their skills to the point that they seem to be communicating telepathically. As with any improv, there are always moments that will fall flat, but Crumbs shows are exceptionally low on filler.

— Ben Wiebe Winnipeg Free Press 2014

4 stars

Big Stupid Improv Show

At the MTYP Mainstage at the Forks

Mon,   July 21   5:00 PM

Wed,   July 23    7:00 PM

Thu,    July 24    8:30 PM

Sat,     July 26       NooN!

Sun,    July 27    7:45 PM

ONLINE TICKET LINK

Some reviews from this year:

What do the Fringe’s best improv performers do with their between-shows downtime? More improv, obviously!

This show is a much-loved Fringe tradition, and a must-see for improv fans. The rotating cast guarantees that each show is a wild ride – for the performers as much as for the audience. Some of the performers have worked together for years and know each other’s every cue and rhythm. Some are total strangers, and may have met briefly backstage or in the beer tent. It doesn’t really matter because they all have chops. This is playtime for everyone.

The format is simple. Five performers take turns directing the others in five impromptu scenes based on audience suggestions. Survivor-style, the audience votes out the scenarios one by one and the remainders get weirder and wilder. It’s all held together by improvised DJing, and someone in the audience wins a T-shirt. What more could you want?

4 stars CBC radio 2014

Mix some of this fringe’s best improvisers, comedians and artists on stage and greatness is bound to happen. It’s the solid theory that’s brought the BSIS back to the festival for 16 years under the guidance of local improv master Stephen Sim.

It’s hard to review improv, where a play opens and closes each show. It’s harder when a rotating cast of locals (Crumbs, Outside Joke, DnD, etc.) and tourists (Chris Gibbs, Caitlin Curtis, Rumble Pak, etc.) find new dynamics each night.

But this much talent can hardly go wrong and at least one bit is guaranteed to rock your socks. The added fun of seeing different groups merge is there in the performers’ smiles and fans’ laughs.

You’re in for a treat.

— Matt TenBruggencate

4 stars Winnipeg Free Press

FRAZ vs The Future

Venue #5 Son of Warehouse

Tue, July  22nd    3:15pm

Thu, July  24th    7:00pm

Sat, July  26th    2:00pm

Reviews:

Fraz Wiest delivers up a compelling hour of comedy as a somewhat confused time traveller from the future (but not really) who lectures the present (us in the crowd) on the dangers of social media and other coming perils.

From this clever idea comes a patchwork of creative vignettes that vary too much in tone, from melancholy rumination to full tilt stand-up satire. It’s best when it’s funny. The thinky stuff needs more thinking and sharper writing.

The performance is exceptional, the direction strong and one day in the future a new revised and smoother script will emerge, turning this show that’s well worth seeing into a bona fide Fringe classic.

4 stars CBC Website 2014 Al Rae

SPEECHLESS

The improv show with no words! Our friends Felipe and Daniel (from Colombia) team up with our friend Mama Cutsworth and give you this show. Go see it.

Here is a picture of Felipe at the Goldeyes games. He is not only enjoying his first ever baseball game, it's also his first ever hotdog shot into a crowd.

Tue, July 22nd     4:15PM

Wed, July 23rd    8:45PM

Fri, July 25th       1:45PM

Sat, July 26th     5:00PM

And when the Fringe is over and we are all soaking in out memories of how amazing the shows were, we can look forward to the Winnipeg IF... Improv Festival. The magic doesn't have to end.

One last CRUMBS show before the Euro Touro!

 Yes, CRUMBS had a very nice Berlin or Bust show at the Gas Station Theatre. It was our 15th one and we're about to embark on our 15th tour of Europe. Thank you to everyone who showed up to the show and enjoyed the "Monkey-Zoo-Philosophy-Swim-Diving-Olympics-Stripclub-Romantic-Restaurant" show.

But... before we go we do have one last CRUMBS show to do. We weren't really telling you about it because, well, because we wanted you to come to the actual fundraiser show and not this extra FREE show, but now we can tell you.

CRUMBS has a FREE show!

Tue, Feb 19th at 9pm at the King's Head!

This will also be your chance (your last chance before we leave) to make a sweet donation to our tour fund. We have this cool thing where you buy a CRUMBS postcard and fill in your address, and then we write you a postcard message while we're on tour and send it to you from Europe! Cool huh?

When CRUMBS actually gets to Europe and starts touring Europe this spring... soon... we'd love to see you there at the shows. C'mon down and stalk us. We'll even make it easy for you, we'll give you a list of where we're going to be.

March 7th Basel Theater Arlecchino

March 8th Schaffhausen Kammgarn

March 10th Baden Merkker Kulturlokal

March 11th Winterthur Casinotheater

March 15th-24th Berlin IMPRO 2013 Festival 

March 16th Berlin Ballhaus Mitte

March 25th Graz Orpheum

April 11th München Das Schloss

April 14th Mannheim TiG7

April 18th Osnabrück Haus der Jugend 

April 20th Wiesbaden Wartburg

April 22nd Karlsruhe Z10

April 28th Hamburg Polittbüro

May 1st Leipzig nato

May 3rd Oslo Det Andre Teatret

May 4th Oslo Det Andre Teatret

May 15th Würzburg Jugendkulturhaus Cairo

May 17th Istanbul Kadikoy Terminal

May 18th Istanbul Kadikoy Terminal

May 22nd London The Miller, London Bridge 

May 25th London The Nursery, Southwark

May 29th Berlin Ratibor

May 30th Berlin Ratibor

Plus we'll even give you the LINK to our European tour website. We're just the most accommodating stalkees in the world.

Wait, We also want to tell you about a cool show you NEED to see (and a show you WANT to see).

FRAZ:Lonely at Last (The monster Fringe hit last summer!)

and

I Hate Bill Pats (also a Fringe hit last summer!)

So yes, you get to have TWO summer blockbuster shows in the winter on ONE night in ONE place for ONE price.

Thursday, Feb 21st 8pm

Park Theatre

Thanks folks!

CRUMBS keeps keepin' on.

Well it looks like CRUMBS is going to keep doing the CRUMBS things. Which means, we're going to keep doing improv shows. Not that we thought that we wouldn't...

You can look forward to an amazing show coming up on Friday, January 25th. We have our good friends the "National Theatre of the World" visiting Winnipeg from their home in Toronto. We are lucky enough to be doing a show with them.  This is a midnight show (yes, a special late night show). Don't be fooled by the pictures in the poster though. We won't have Dj Hunnicutt playing music, instead, we have the amazing Mama Cutsworth playing the Dj music (as it runs out, is a tradition for Mama Cutsworth to Dj the show when NTOW is in town). Also, the NTOW might even have extra guests included in the show.

This show will be a treat to perform and a treat to watch... wish I could do both.

The show will be at the Gas Station Arts Centre in Osborne Village. Get your tickets by calling 204-284-9477.  

 

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CRUMBS does shows with friends!

Before we start gushing about how amazing our friends are and how we get to do shows with some pretty amazing people, here is the latest CRUMBS video of a live performance we did in Berlin without the help of any of our friends.


Now that that's out of the way... CRUMBS is sometimes lucky enough to do some improv shows with other amazing performers. This helps CRUMBS stay fresh and at the same time steal other people's good ideas (which is really what makes any artist great right?).

We have two of these "We're stealing all your good ideas" shows coming up in January and you should come to both of them and see how great our friends are. You can then also be there to see us actually steal their ideas and be able to tell your friends that you know where we get all our good ideas from.

Tuesday, January 10th
This show is at the King's Head as part of the ongoing Free Laughs Comedy Series, so you know its free. But this "CRUMBS & Friends" show (as we like to call it) we have two special guests joining us. The first is the audience favourite FRAZ. The second is the audience other favourite (or at least she would be if she came out and performed more) TRISH COOPER. Yes, the Trish Cooper from the legendary Winnipeg sketch comedy troupe "The Royal Leichtenstein Theatre Company". Very cool show folks, very cool.

Friday, January 27th
This show will be at the ECC (which is just a way cooler way of saying "The Exchange Community Church, because really, who thinks performing at a church sounds cool?). The venue is at 75 Albert Street and will be a midnight show. Oh, I haven't even told you who the special guests are yet... The NATIONAL THEATRE of the WORLD! Yes, it turns out our friends from TNTOTW (actually they prefer their name to be shortened to N.T.O.W. I think) are in town doing their amazing improv show at the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre and are going to do an extra show with us. These folks are great and you should not only come and see this show but also go and see their other show too.

Here are some videos by the members of this group in a series they did called "Bad Stories":








Time for LINKS!

How to get to the King's Head!

A video of FRAZ

A video of TRISH COOPER

How to get to the ECC

A link to the WJT website




Thanks for reading the internet,