My
first night at the 2013 Rochester Fringe Festival started in the Spiegeltent (in a word: fabulous) for the premiere of
Cirque du Fringe. I won’t go into detail since Adam Lubitow
did a great job reviewing it for us (insider knowledge: I’m the one who didn’t
care for the emo clowns). All I will say is, I kept
thinking, “This is something I would not otherwise be able to see in Rochester.”
And that, to me, is what Fringe is all about.

Cirque
du Fringe ran long, so I ended up missing the first 20 minutes of The Big Vaudeville Hook Comedy Hour Thursday
night at the TheatreROCS Stage at Xerox Auditorium.
As I entered a very attractive young man from the audience was getting
sunscreen squirted on to his hand by the duo Shaddup
Zeke, and I wished I had a better understanding of that journey.

From
what I saw, the name of the show is slightly misleading. When I hear “vaudeville”
I expect something old-timey (although that might be my own unfair
assumptions), and when I see “hook” I’m expecting some “Gong Show”-style
foolery. This was a more straightforward sampler of local/regional comedy
talents, emceed by the likable Anna Hall.

What
I caught of the show was a mix of stand-up comedians and improv
comedy. The two stand-up comics, Mikey Heller and
Jamie Bono, had some decent jokes, but both need to work on their confidence
and sharpen their punchlines. There’s obvious
potential there, but neither one seemed comfortable on the stage. Bono, a
college professor from the Buffalo area, got some laughs for his bit on his
father’s struggles with a smart phone (what did comedians do before technology
and old people were invented?) and I personally guffawed at his recounting of a
borderline illiterate email from a complaining student. Mine that vein, sir.
The children are our future, and they are awful. Let’s mock them together.

Heller
seemed unsure of his jokes, although his delivery felt more professional.
Again, the potential and talent was evident. The closing mom-wife gag was good,
as was the bit about his father quitting smoking, and his first experience texting a girl. It’s
just about refining the material — and then selling it to the
audience. Because if you have less than 10 minutes on stage, you really should
not need to consult a paper set list.

The
clear star of the show (what I saw of it, at least) was Rochester sketch troupe
Canary In A Coal Mine. The trio — BJ Scanlon, Jeff Andrews, and Angela Prodrick — took inspiration from
Stephen Hawking, those awful Sarah McLachlan SPCA ads, school bullying, and
oral sex to deliver a set that was by turns clever and crass, but always funny.
Canary In A Coal Mine will be performing three of its
own shows during Fringe at The Space on East Main Street. I strongly recommend
that you check them out.

The Big Vaudeville Hook
Comedy Hour also takes place Friday, September 27, 11 p.m. at the TheatreROCS Stage at Xerox Auditorium. Tickets cost $10.

This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2013.