Adam reviews “140 Characters or Less” and 20 Penny Circus

The second social media-centric comedy show of my Fringe
Festival experience this year, “140 Characters or Less: A Twitter Comedy
Show” delivered the #funny. Hosted by comedian Dario Josef with a rotating
cast of local stand-ups, the show shares some DNA with Comedy Central’s popular
“@midnight” program — mixing Twitter-based humor with traditional stand-up
comedy. Things started off a bit wobbly, but thankfully got stronger as the
show progressed.

In the first two games, the comedians shared previously
written Tweets they’d directed at D-list celebrities and major businesses,
respectively. The material was only sporadically amusing and, with each comic
admitting that none of their targets ever responded, reflected a little too
closely Twitter’s tendency to occasionally feel like shouting into a void.

Things picked up considerably with the much ballyhooed “Tweet
Off,” in which the comics went head-to-head, pitting what they considered to be
their best, wittiest Tweets against their competitors. It would have been nice
to see what the comics could have done when forced to come up with material on
the spot, but no matter: funny is funny. I should note that, somewhat
mystifyingly, none of the performers gave out their Twitter handles — the
night’s Tweet-Off winner (Kevin Harrington) made me laugh hard enough that I
immediately attempted to follow him, but was spectacularly unsuccessful (sad
trombone).

“140 Characters or Less: A Comedy Show” will be held
again with all-new performers on Saturday, September 27, at RAPA’s East End Theatre. 3 p.m. $10. This
show is recommended for those 18 and older.

In their all-ages-appropriate appearances with Cirque du
Fringe, the edgy clowns of 20 Penny Circus have played Russian roulette with
nail guns and stapled tarot cards to their chests. With that kind of material,
I was curious how much wilder a “mature audiences” solo show would get, and the
answer is (give or take a few f-bombs ) not much — but
that doesn’t make it any less entertaining. 20 Penny’s Tyler Sutter and Carl Skenes give Fringe audiences a night of magic, stunts,
comedy, and “entertainment for those with questionable taste.”

I could recount the pair’s individual acts one by one, but
that would only spoil the fun. I’ll only say that one in particular, featuring
“ritualized mutilation” (I swear, it’s not as graphic as it sounds), made
several audience members in my vicinity recoil in horror. And while I admit to
being a tiny bit disappointed to find that several of the night’s acts were
previously featured in last year’s Cirque du Fringe performance, I can’t fault
the pair too much — the feats are just as captivating as ever. So if you
haven’t seen their act yet, there’s no reason not to grab a seat.

20 Penny Circus will perform again on Friday, September 26,
and Saturday, September 27, in the Spiegeltent. The
show starts at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $15.

20 Penny Circus

This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2014.