Better than Christmas morning!
// July 20th, 2007 // Blog, Kris's Soapbox
Originally written for my CBC Performer Blog:
“I remember you!” said the woman at the dry cleaning counter. “You’re with the Fringe!”
As the afternoon wore on, the atmosphere in the Exchange district grew electric. More and more people started to arrive. Less and less of the MTC’s actual surface was left visible under a shield of multi-colored poster. An orchestra of packing tape noises reverberated through the region. Throngs of eager theatre-goers began lining up at the advance ticket booth. By mid-afternoon, with the commencement of activity on the Market Square stage, the festival had begun.
The opening night of a Fringe is exciting. The artists are just as eager and optimistic as the audiences. Last night was certainly no exception, as several of the 7 PM performances — the first of the festival — sold out. This gave many of the artists an ideal opportunity to begin handing out flyers to theatrical consumers, and since it was opening night, the lineups were thrilled to take them.
I really enjoy talking to people in line-ups. I get to promote The Churchill Protocol, of course, but I also get to meet people, chat about their lives, and talk about what they’ve seen and liked. Last night, I got treated to a few magic tricks, assisted people as they hunted for the door to Venue 3, and made sure that people in line for Maxim & Cosmo knew that the show was 90 minutes long, and that they should pee before going in just to ensure that they wouldn’t pee themselves as a result of the content in the show. I am very helpful.
On the first night, audiences are thrilled about taking flyers. They want to talk to us. They want our pretty colored handbills. They want to know about our show. They want to know where we’re from. Smiles are big, chatter is constant, and it leaves me feeling like Winnipeg is the most awesome place on Earth. I know it won’t last, though: I’ve seen it before. By next week at this time, the heat will have addled people’s brains, and the constant barrage of artists proclaiming that
their show is the best show will drive people batty. There are several strategies that I can recommend to people for dealing with eager artsy-types who are trying to offer you more paper.
The simplest thing to do, of course, is to politely say no thank you. After all, our handbills do cost us money, and if you don’t want one, we’d love to be able to give one to someone else. Second, if you want to hear about the show but don’t want paper given to you, just say so! Finally, you can use any one of a number of ready-made excuses:
- “I’d love to come but I’m getting a full-body bison tattoo and I’m likely to be too tender to sit in those uncomfortable seats while I heal”: artists have no way of verifying the truth of this… and it’s a cool idea, anyway.
- “I’ve already seen it!”: very rewarding for an artist to hear, unless you make the mistake of saying it to someone who hasn’t had their first performance yet
- “It’s on my list”: wonderfully ambiguous, since you don’t have to specify which list you’re talking about. After all, with almost 140 shows to choose from, your “I just can’t get to it” list is going to be lengthy.
- “I’m from Missouri”: I don’t know why this one works, but it was very popular with people in Toronto.
After meeting a bunch of people from Missouri last night, we opened The Churchill Protocol for an enthusiastic crowd that reminded us instantly of why we love the Winnipeg Fringe so much. I celebrated after our opening by going to see Toasting The Snow Bride, which is a nicely-written and performed piece about addiction that you should check out in Venue 2, and finished the evening being feasted upon by mosquitoes on the patio of that place that’s named after a king’s body part. May every day of the festival be just like this.
