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Hey sports arts and culture fans!

The FRINGE WORLD festival is back and it is huger than ever! Hundreds of shows and so many new venues, it can be a bit overwhelming. But sometime overwhelming is good, it mean you’re spoiled for choice. But please, let me help make your life a little easier. The following are my picks for some EFFING OUTSTANDING SHOWS at this year’s Fringe that you should not miss. I’m basing these judgements on A. The fact that I’ve seen a lot of these shows at other festivals and they blew my mind with awesomeness, B. These are artists/companies I’ve seen before and I know they produce only awesomeness and/or C. I have incredible instincts when it come to choosing Fringe Shows, trust me, you’ll thank me later,  this isn’t my first rodeo…

CABARET/BURLESQUE/CIRCUS

Tomas Ford: Electric Cabaret – Tomas is all over Fringe this year, helping run venues and host all kinds of late night action. His solo show will blow your mind, he’s like a one-man electro punk show, but with more style. He will probably take his shirt off.

Oh Crumbs! – Awesome Burlesque, music and general silliness. There is about six billion Burlesque shows in the festival, this will be one of the best.

Sunglasses At Night: Geraldine Quinn – She’s bloody Rock’n’Roll, she’s ginger and boy can she sing, what’s not to love?

Movin’ Melvin Brown: The Ray Charles Experience – Haven’t seen this guy around the traps for a few years, but he’s a true old school showman, he taps, he sings, you will love him. Take your parents to this.

The Wau Wau Sisters – A huge hit over the last few years, a great night out watching to awesome ladies be awesomely entertaining and sometimes quite naked.

Briefs : The Second Coming – All male Burlesque/circus troupe that are DAMN DAMN good at what they do.

COMEDY

Bart Freebairn in The Age of Wonder – This guy is more than your straight stand up, he will take your mind through a journey of self discovery, whimsy and utter confusion and you will be so thankful he did.

David Quirk: Shaking Hands with Danger – In my opinion, one of the best and most underrated Australian comedians. Quirk is a bloody good writer and a damn funny guy.

Dr. Professor Neal Portenza – He’s really great. Go into this show knowing that it’s going to be weird and that you’re going to feel weird, and you’ll be fine. So incredibly fine.

Eric’s Tales Of The Sea – A great one man show about life in the Marines. Funny, heartwarming and extremely entertaining.

Greg Fleet : Sports Illustrated – Fleety is a bloody legend. I love his comedy so much I want to put it in a basket and take it to Grandma’s house.

Jon Bennet: Fire In The Meth Lab – Jon is a terribly funny fellow and one helluva great story teller. His brother is in jail and this show is about that. Quite frankly if you don’t go see this show, you’re a dumb idiot who makes bad choices.

Pat Burtscher’s Overwhelmed – A lot of my favourite comics this festival are the one that steer away from “straight stand up” and are bit more alternative and edgy with their material. This is a prime example of that. Pat brings an incredible energy and deliver to the stage and I love his stuff bigtime.

Michael Workman: Ave Loretta – I have no idea what this show is about but I can guarantee that it will be amazing. Workman is a comedic genius.

Nick Sun – You want edgy, alternative comedy that pushes boundries and divides audiences? Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Nick Sun.

Rob Lloyd: Who, Me – Believe it or not, I really love Doctor Who. Do you love Doctor Who? Go see this show NOW! It’s about Doctor Who. I really like Doctor Who you guys.

Show And Tell – Story telling and Improv featuring a rotating cast (including members of The Big HOO-HAA!) and a number of guest stars. Audiences are gonna LOVE this show.

Impromptunes – They Improvise an entire frickin’ Musical each night. Very funny and very slick, these guy have talent coming out the whazoo. Right out of it.

Xavier Michelides: Bad Accents and Inconsistent Mimes – Xavier is one of the funniest people I know and I’ve never seen a show of his that I didn’t love and walk out of smiling my face off. He’s also performing a show called Thawed that you should also see.

THEATRE

Best – Two very talented ladies present a tale of two friends going on a long over due road trip. They’ve just come off the back of a great run in Melbourne, so excited to see this show.

BRUCE – It’s amazing. It’s sold out. You can’t go unless you already have tickets. I’m truly sorry. You blew it.

Great White – A huge hit at The Blue Room Theatre last year, there’s a lot of great buzz about this encore season.

She Was Probably Not A Robot – The man behind this show (Stuart Bowden) had created some of my favourite solo Fringe shows over the last few years. I cannot wait to see this. He will fill your heart with love and laughter, I don’t know how yet…but he will.

Sound & Fury: Hamlet & Juliet – This trio from L.A. are not only extremely talented and funny, they are also super awesome guys who make great shows that lots of people around the world enjoy. Do yourself a favour and be one of those people. They are also doing a showed called Hitchcocked, which is also extremely silly and very, very good.

Squidboy – Everyone is talking about this show. You probably better go see it, right?

Swamp Juice – 3D shadow puppets. Need I say more?

the boat goes over the mountain – I missed this at The Blue Room last year, but it won a bunch of awards and I’ve heard great things. Can’t wait to check it out

The Pigeons – Three of  the most talented actresses I know have created a brand new show about keeping secrets. It is going to be very, very good.

These Guys – A show about the different men that influence one woman’s life. The audience get to decided how the show runs each night, this will be a great theatrical experience from a great company of performers.

The Polite Gentleman – I have the privilege of work with multi-talented performer Mark Storen on a few of his previous shows and cannot wait to see his latest work after a successful run at The Blue Room last year.

VICIOUS CIRCLES – Yes, this is my show. I am in it. I am producing it. It is very good. Yes, you should go see it. It’s an award winning show from Montreal about the Sex Pistols. Don’t bring your Grandma to this show. Unless she’s punk rock.

Tickets and further info for all these shows can be found on the FRINGE WORLD WEBSITE. I hope you found this somewhat informal guide helpful, if you see any shows during Fringe that blow your mind apart in one way or another, please let me know in the comments below. And all this being said, don’t be afraid to take a chance on a show you’ve heard nothing about, it’s all part of the adventure that is FRINGE!

If you a first-time fringer, you might find either of these other blogs I wrote helpful:

WHAT IS A FRINGE FESTIVAL?

A GUIDE TO BEING A GOOD AUDIENCE MEMBER AT THE FRINGE

Peace, love and happy fringing.

-Shane