Seeing Your Show at the Hollywood Fringe Festival

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy6 Comments

userpic=fringeThis time of year, I get many request from producers and friends in the theatre industry to see their Fringe shows. I joke that these folks seem to think I’m a critic, when I’m really just a cybersecurity expert and roadgeek who is a professional audience, and who writes up every live performance I go to for my friends. But publicity is publicity, and if they think I’m a critic, oh well….

However, if I’m a critic, I’m not a paid critic. I write up the shows that I choose to see. For Fringe, that means that starting in April or May I start reviewing the shows registered at Fringe, and start building my schedule. About mid-May, I purchase my tickets, always cursing the fact that I can’t afford to see the shows I want to see, and that I can’t fit all the shows I want to see into my schedule. Oh, and about that schedule: I work full time, living in Northridge, commuting to El Segundo. This means that I cannot see shows in Hollywood on weeknights or during the week, and making a Friday evening show is very difficult. I get up for work at 440am, so that also means that I can’t see a show late on Sunday night. Further, I tend to go to shows with my wife, meaning that not only must I find the show and subject matter of interest, but she must as well. As a result, we tend not to see what I would deem “dark” shows — intense subject matter, often triggery. There are occasional times where I might be able to work such shows into my schedule, but it is rare.

So will I see your show, and would I like free tickets to it? Seeing the show depends on whether there is an available slot in my weekend schedule, and whether my wife is interested in seeing it if she is with me. As for free tickets, my real world job imposes ethics rules that limit the ability to provide gifts as they may create the appearance of conflict of interest. So, whereas I might like free tickets, my ethics typically preclude me from accepting them. I will accept what I would pay on Goldstar, that is, half-price or discounted tickets.

So what is my schedule for Fringe. It will be posted and updated in each writeup I do after this one (as I ticketed this week), but for reference:

There were a few shows I thought about working in, but couldn’t due to price, time, or other constraints:

Other shows I thought about seeing, but couldn’t work in due to schedule included: Fort Huachuca at Complex/OMR; Earworm at McCadden Theatre; #METOO at Studio C; A Very Die Hard Christmas at Studio/Stage; Fat Chance at the Hudson; and Rayn: An Electronic Burlesque Experience at Thymele Arts. I was also interested in Doctor Nympho and the Sex Zombies at the Three Clubs because an actress I like is in the cast, but no times worked out (the available weekend times were too late; weeknights didn’t work; and other weekend times had conflicts).

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6 Replies to “Seeing Your Show at the Hollywood Fringe Festival”

  1. Oh you’re making a mistake not seeing Meanwhile, Back at the Super Lair. If you can work it in on one of those Saturday nights, you’ll have a good time. It’s really funny.

    1. Well, I had been thinking about getting tickets for the show about goat testicles on Sat Jun 23, but you talked me into it (just me, my wife is out of town). I’m driving that day, and have a show that ends at 620p over at Actors Company. So it should work (and is better than a 4 hour gap the Saturday before). Let me know if are any discount codes. I’ll ticket sometime Wednesday. You can email to faigin -at cahighways . org

        2. I’ll have to check with my wife to see if she wants to see it — about the only time that potentially works is 6pm Sunday (but I think she was lukewarm on the show); we have a 4pm at the Complex/OMR that ends at 5pm. The only other possibility is Fri the 22nd at 10:30pm, but that’s awfully late for me (it gets me back to Northridge around 1230pm, and then to bed even later). Alas, I’ve already scheduled 6/23 at 8pm.

          I heard about the guy on Reply All earlier this year ( https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/86-man-of-the-people ), but can you provide a better description of the show for my wife?

          Daniel

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