The Winnipeg Fringe Festival kicks off this Wednesday and a number of local companies will be representing the Southeast.
The 12-day festival includes plenty of theatre, improv, magic shows, and much, much more.
Brett Oddly is an escape artist and stunt performer who lives in Blumenort. His show “This Calls for Danger” is in this year’s Winnipeg Fringe Festival.
“I'm kind of fascinated by the dangerous and the weird side of variety arts. So, escape artist is kind of, I guess the main moniker of what I do. But on top of that, I do elements of sideshow, so I do things like eating light bulbs and stuff again.” He adds "the dangerous variety arts I guess can sum it up well."
To offer another example of his work, Oddly says “This Calls for Danger” ends with an upside down, hanging escape from a straitjacket.
Oddly says his show runs daily at Venue 15, the Royal Albert Arms from the start of the festival on Wednesday, July 19th to the end on Sunday July 30th. Tickets are available online and at the door.
Meanwhile, Following a successful run of comedy-night performances at the Steinbach Arts Council this past year, the Sidetrack Bandits are back with another fringe show as well.
Jeremy Plett notes the troupe is made up of three local couples.
“We've been as a group together for almost 10 years now. We started off doing YouTube videos but we’re all more stage people traditionally. So, we ended up eventually bringing it back to the stage and doing live shows which I really love.”
The troupe includes Jeremy and Michelle Plett, Cameron and Heather Penner, and MIX 96’s own Kenton Dyck. Thalin Dyck keeps the whole thing running from backstage.
Plett they’ve put together another sketch comedy show with all new material.
“Sketch comedy is so much fun to do because you get to do a whole variety of things in one show. I get to play a bunch of crazy characters throughout the show in quite a short amount of time. Our show is only 45 minutes, so it's not a long show but you get to do so much in that amount of time.”
Plett adds “I get to play a self-checkout machine and that's really satisfying. For all the people who've been yelling at your self-checkout machines, I get to play one that is giving someone grief, so that's a lot of fun.”
For those that don’t know what sketch comedy is, Plett points toward Saturday Night Live and This Hour has 22 Minutes.
Sidetrack Bandits Sketch Comedy at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival this year will be filled with physical comedy, songs, and off-the-wall pieces.
They will have seven shows from Thursday July 20th to Saturday July 29th at Venue 20, The Studio at Théâtre Cercle Molière on Provencher. Plett says they love that venue because there is plenty of parking and it is easy to get to from Steinbach.
Once again, tickets are available online and at the door.
Both Jeremy Plett and Brett Oddly says the Winnipeg Fringe Festival is a special time every year.
Oddly notes “I absolutely love fringe fests. I'm really glad that Winnipeg has a strong fringe festival as well. You get to go there and just see new up-and-comers that are just starting out in the industry. But at the same time, there's also world class talent that flies in just for it as well.”
Plett says he doesn’t feel like summer has really begun before the fringe begins.
“It's really built like a culture of its own. It's really fun to meet with returning people.” He adds “There's like the Market Square that's got a whole bunch of food trucks and everything. It's more than just a bunch of theater shows. It does give off like summer festival vibes as well which is it's a lot of fun.”
