Leah reviews 'Careless Whispers'

By Leah Stacy @leahstacy

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Each year, there are many comedy offerings at Fringe -- sketch, improv, stand-up (and yes, there's a difference). Thank You Kiss, which presented its hour-long show, "Careless Whispers," at Blackfriars Theatre, is a Rochester-based sketch comedy troupe. Whereas improv isn't usually scripted and stand-up often addresses the audience directly, sketch relies primarily on scripted scenes with some improvisational elements. Because it's 2016, TYK also integrates video and music.

The show used comedic sketches about everything from raising a family and squirrels running across the road to political satire and serial killers. A few sketches even featured truly funny guest appearances by Democrat and Chronicle reporter David Andreatta and WXXI Connections host Evan Dawson (TYK has an in, since performer Megan Mack is Dawson's producer).

Sketch comedy isn't easy -- but Thank You Kiss makes it look that way. It probably helps that TYK's performers, Marc D'Amico, Mack, John Forrest Thompson, and Beth Winslow, have studied or worked at comedy theaters like iO, The Second City, and The Annoyance. The troupe's hive mind is sharp, and that sharpness results in many hilarious moments.

That's it for TYK's shows during this year's Fringe, but you can find the group performing locally or watch its videos online at facebook.com/thankyoukiss.

In This Guide...

Rochester Fringe Festival

Frank reviews Champagne Brown, Castle Creek, and 'White'

It was a cool, fresh Fringe that assailed my senses as I moved about downtown Saturday night. What a sensational vibe; what a sensational sense of community.

By Frank De Blase Sep 25, 2016

Fringe 2016 Fringe Review Champagne Brown Castle Creek White John Borek
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David reviews 'The Oboe Show'

If you like the luscious sound of the oboe, you'd like "The Oboe Show." And if you can actually play this legendarily tricky woodwind instrument, you'd find a lot to identify with in this engagingly silly mix of comedy (handled mostly by three amusing performers) and music (played by two excellent oboists, one of whom picks up the English horn now and then).

By David Raymond Sep 25, 2016

Fringe 2016 Fringe Review The Oboe Show
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Rebecca reviews 'Central Library Sideshow,' Dangerous Signs, and ROC Bottom Slam Team

Over a couple of hours on Saturday, Central Library hosted a variety of small acts. Members of ROC Bottom Slam Team (who performed later in the evening at TheatreROCS) took turns performing moving poetry about political and social issues in the Teen Center, while a pole dancer wowed a small audience with her strength in the Gleason Auditorium.

By Rebecca Rafferty Sep 25, 2016

Fringe 2016 Fringe Review Central Library Dangerous Signs ROC Bottom Slam Team
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Adam reviews 'Spooky Stories in the Stacks' and 'The Hatchet Man'

With a chill now in the air, fall has officially arrived, putting me in just the right mood for "Spooky Stories in the Stacks" at the Central Library. Starting in the Rundel Memorial Building, our audience was brought downstairs to take our seats in the secluded stacks, a section of the library the public doesn't often get a chance to see.

By Adam Lubitow Sep 25, 2016

Fringe 2016 Fringe Reviews Spooky Stories in the Stacks Central Library The Hatchet Man
Rochester Fringe Festival

Adam reviews 'Grimms' Mad Tales,' 'Ruts!,' and Pandora Boxx

The rainy weather seemed to keep at least a few people from Friday evening's performance of the clever "Grimms' Mad Tales," but hopefully they'll catch the show's second performance, since it's well worth the time. Staged similarly to 2014's "Spoon River Rochester" (and also directed by David Henderson), the show is immersive public theater, or as the Fringe guide calls it, "part flash mob, part performance art."

By Adam Lubitow Sep 24, 2016

Fringe 2016 Fringe Review Grimms' Mad Tales Method Machine Ruts! The Oregon Trail Experience Pandora Boxx Slideshow
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Frank reviews EstroFest and You'll Thank Me Later

EstroFest was a blast, I tell ya. You know, I go to these things hoping with all my might to laugh, to be taken out of the doldrums of my day, and allowed to view the world askew for a few.

By Frank De Blase Sep 24, 2016

Fringe 2016 Fringe Reviews EstroFest You'll Thank Me later What If Everyone in Rochester Wrote The Same Song?
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Rebecca reviews 'Savage Sanctuary' and 'Guerrilla Art'

In his artist statement, Denton Crawford says that his latest multimedia exhibition, "Savage Sanctuary," "investigates the relationship between mysticism and the absurd and how personal experience informs our experience of each." Through a remix of iconic imagery, Crawford pokes at the relationship between religious belief, political affiliation, and individual rights and freedoms.

By Rebecca Rafferty Sep 24, 2016

Fringe 2016 Fringe Reviews Denton Crawford Savage Sanctuary Guerrilla Art Visual arts
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David reviews 'The Eulogy' and Polite Ink

"The Eulogy" has received a string of awards and rave reviews from Fringe Festivals all over, and it's about to receive another one. The word "monologue" is much too staid for Michael Burgos's take on the idea of the funeral eulogy: he tips it on its head, ties it into knots, and sets it spinning in an avalanche of weird verbal wit and a crazy explosion of physical comedy.

By David Raymond Sep 23, 2016

Fringe 2016 Fringe Review The Eulogy Polite Ink Michael Burgos
Rochester Fringe Festival

Rebecca reviews 'Scarred by the Somme'

The Eastman School's gorgeous Kilbourn Hall was again the backdrop of Table Top Opera's Fringe production. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of one of the bloodiest engagements in Europe's Great War, "Scarred by the Somme" echoed the tragic, grim themes of the group's 2015 program, "Kindertotenlieder" (songs on the death of children).

By Rebecca Rafferty Sep 23, 2016

Fringe 2016 Fringe Reviews Table Top Opera Scarred by the Somme Matthew Brown
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Rebecca reviews 'Planchette'

Before heading upstairs to view 'Planchette,' each audience member was given a numbered sticker badge at the Writers & Books ticket desk. My hunch was proven correct -- that these would function as a means of selecting audience participation during the show.

By Rebecca Rafferty Sep 22, 2016

Fringe 2016 Rochester Fringe Planchette Brian M. Kehoe Annelise Montone
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Leah Stacy reviews 'Dracula'

Producing one Rochester Fringe Festival show is ambitious -- but just one show isn't enough for Virginia Monte and WallByrd Theatre Co. In addition to "The Kiss," which plays at SOTA for a last time on Saturday, September 24, at 9 p.m., WallByrd teamed up with Syracuse-based actor and playwright Alec Barbour to mount his adaptation of "Dracula." The majestic Lyric Theatre - formerly a church and a newer Fringe venue - serves as the backdrop for this dark tale.

By Leah Stacy Sep 22, 2016

Fringe 2016 Fringe Reviews Dracula WallByrd Theatre Alec Barbour
Rochester Fringe Festival

David reviews 'Hearing Ophelia' and 'Theater Lieder'

A popular trend nowadays is the vocal recital "plus": adding a visual or theatrical element, or at the very least a theme, to the performance of a selection of songs or a song cycle. Tuesday night, the Lyric Theater presented a number of Eastman School voice students in two different approaches to lyric theater — in a space well suited to them.

By David Raymond Sep 21, 2016

Fringe 2016 Fringe Reviews Hearing Ophelia Theater Lieder Eastman School of Music
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Rebecca reviews "Seven Windows"

"Seven Windows" was not nearly as straightforwardly narrative as it was billed. But no matter -- the brief, seven act dance production is a sweet, effective exploration that cradles the broken heart of our transient nature.

By Rebecca Rafferty Sep 21, 2016

Fringe 2016 Fringe Reviews Seven Windows SHARP Dance Company
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Comedian Jamie Lissow brings it home

The cliché goes something like this: the aspiring comedian hits the road, crisscrossing the country, playing to tough crowds in dingy clubs for very little money. Then, after a particularly hot set in New York or Los Angeles, a network executive wants to discuss a sitcom.

By Ron Netsky Sep 21, 2016

Fringe 2016 Jamie Lissow Comedy Interview Spiegeltent Real Rob Brother Wease