Vincenzo Ravina Photo by Annie Bee Photography
I couldn’t have picked a better way to begin my 2023 Halifax Fringe Festival than with Vincenzo Ravina’s new magic show Actual Magic at the Neptune Scotiabank Studio Theatre.
It was absolutely spellbinding. I am wary of revealing anything too specific about my experience with the show because I don’t want to ruin it for others, but I absolutely recommend that you grab your tickets soon, because I think this is going to be a Fringe Hit.
Ravina, who is local to Halifax, is an extremely personable performer. His show relies a lot on audience participation, which can make folks uncomfortable, but his easygoing and friendly demeanour really helps to create an ambiance where people feel moved to help out, and you don’t get that second-hand awkward anxiety that someone is going to be embarrassed or lured into doing something outside their comfort zone. This allows the audience to relax and focus instead on marvelling in unison over a mind-blowing series of tricks. He even solves a murder mystery!
Ravina performed impossible feat after impossible feat before our eyes and left the audience absolutely spellbound. The entire show seems to both be rooted entirely on chance and the whims of the choices of his volunteers from the audience, and also carefully crafted beforehand. How can both be true? That is the magic. There is only one explanation that I can see: Vincenzo Ravina is an Actual Wizard.
TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Jump!
Actual Magic plays at Neptune’s Scotiabank Studio Theatre (1589 Argyle Street, Halifax) at the following times:
September 2: 2:30PM
September 5: 6:00PM
You can follow Vincenzo Ravina on Facebook, Instagram, & YouTube.
Off-Kilter Comedy Production’s Is It Getting Hot in Here, written and directed by Jane Rogerson, has a lot of the right ingredients for a political satire sketch comedy show in the style of something like This Hour Has 22 Minutes, but it hasn’t quite found it’s consistent laugh out loud comedy yet.
I really liked the arc of the show, the way that certain characters and storylines recurred and intersected, and it’s obvious that Rogerson has a clear message for us about the absurdity of climate change denialism and the fact that if we keep electing politicians who refuse to take science seriously our future is going to be even more irrational than the Trump Years we have just barely survived. There is some fun accent work by the cast, Kayleigh Rose and Michael Stack especially commit so thoroughly to every one of their characters, and there is some really excellent physical comedy surrounding a sex doll on a desert island that is really great.
There is room to tighten up the pacing of the sketches, which I think might punch up the overall energy for the audience. I think mining the ideas for more comedy rooted in character rather than message might be helpful. For example, in the Greta Thunberg sketch she is largely a mouthpiece who tells us what horrors lie in our Hellscape future if we continue down a Republican/Conservative Road. It might be helpful to focus more on what Greta might be like as a middle aged activist, or what kind of speech she might plausibly give in the 2050s, to the real people of the future who don’t need a historical recap because they have lived the narrative themselves.
My favourite sketch centred on a sudden demand for underwater real estate, which had a family going to explore their prospective neighbourhood in something akin to the Titanic submersible. I think having an audience throughout the Fringe will be really helpful for the Off-Kilter Comedy Troupe to gauge what is working and what can be tightened up a bit.
Is It Getting Hot in Here plays at the Neptune Scotiabank Studio Theatre (1589 Argyle Street, Halifax) at the following times:
September 2: 4:15PM
September 3: 8:30PM
September 5: 7:45PM
September 6: 10:45PM
September 8: 9:15PM
September 9: 4:00PM
September 10: 4:00PM
Hello City Improv has, thankfully, brought their long-form fully improvised serial adventure back to the Halifax Fringe. This year it is called Journey to the Citadel: a Fantasy Adventure. Last night was the first instalment of the tale where we were introduced to a gang of heroic adventurers, Barth Grumble Grumble (Liam Fair), Chuck the Centaur (Shahin Sanjari), Hunny Cut-Throat (Beth Poulsen), Elandria Windroot (Gil Anderson), and Vilarious the Bold (Colin McGuire), and their nemesis, an Evil Wizard (Henricus Gielis), and his two henchmen. Our story explored a lot of the emotional journey of Fair’s conflicted Barth Grumble Grumble, who reunites with his therapist, Linda Soggybottom (Gielis) and sets out on his own dangerous journey of self-discovery. Meanwhile, Chuck the Centaur flirts with the Devil’s Own Music, much to the consternation of Vilarious. Anderson’s human with a Dryad soul, and Poulsen’s Pirate Rabbit work to keep the travellers on track in their mission to find and then defeat the wizard. You will have to catch the next show to find out how well they have succeeded!
The show borrows bits and pieces from Dungeons and Dragons (and includes fantastic costumes!), including the use of a dice the size of a beach ball, which audience members roll, and this helps to determine the outcome of the story. I have been told that Dungeons and Dragons at its very best is communal storytelling, which is apt, because that’s exactly what long-form Improv at its best is as well. I love watching Hello City shows because I love watching the ensemble finding fun ways to tell their story all together, and the ways that they seamlessly find their way out of problematic moments when it seems they have been backed into a corner, how they all help each other, and listen to one another, and how they make the the choices that best serve the characters and the story, and not necessarily those that might best serve themselves as performers. It’s always a ride, and you get to be right there with them in the figurative boat.
The talented ensemble of Hello City is always masterful in the way they bring these deeply imaginative and charming stories to life. I wish I could see every episode of their epic Fringe tale, especially since the stories tend to get more and more wild, zany, and delightful as the Fringe goes on. Get your tickets early; these shows tend to sellout quickly!
TWISI Fringe Rating: Two Thumbs Jump!
Hello City: Journey to the Citadel plays at the Neptune Scotiabank Studio (1589 Argyle Street) at the following times:
September 1: 9:00PM
September 2: 10:00PM
September 3: 7:00PM
September 6: 7:30PM
September 10: 8:15PM
You Can Follow Hello City on Facebook & Instagram.
Halifax Fringe runs from August 31st to September 10th, 2023 in a myriad of venues throughout the Downtown and the North End of Halifax. For more information and to purchase all your tickets please visit this website. Masks are mandatory again this year inside all Halifax Fringe spaces. For more information about accessibility at the various venues please check out the 2023 Program Guide here.
You can follow Halifax Fringe on Facebook. Instagram. TikTok.
A Note On TWISI Fringe Ratings:
I have never liked rating Fringe shows, or any shows, using the 5 Star system as I have done in the past, so this year I’m doing something new. From now on I will just be highlighting what I think are 4 or 5 Star Fringe Shows. A Two Thumbs Up Rating equals roughly to 4 Stars, while A Two Thumbs Jump Rating equals 5 Stars. I have stolen (with permission) “Two Thumbs Jump” from my friend Lenny Clayton, who is awesome, as she has used it in her film reviews in the past.
