Here’s the transcription of my second “vlog.”
Well hello, friends! I’m Queen Mab (not really; I wish I could use my real name. Maybe someday, I will be able to!), and this is my second “VLOG,” and I am going to talk to you about the shows that I have seen at the 2021 Hollywood Fringe.
I just got done doing a run of my show, “Yes, No, Maybe So.” I had three performances. They’re all done, but the festival is still going on, and I saw some great shows, and I would like to tell you about them.
So a warning – I think this might go longer than five minutes. I’m trying to keep myself at five minutes so I don’t burn out everyone’s already maxed out attention spans, but I have a lot to say about these, so it might go on longer…so you can grab some popcorn, or you can “ex” out right now…either way…kay??
All right, so…the very first show that I saw at this year’s Hollywood Fringe was “I Heart Maroc” performed by Azo Safo…also written by Azo Safo…and it’s a one-woman show about her time in Morocco as a peace corps volunteer. I was really moved. I’m an American who has spent time abroad in Ghana, and in Brazil, and also in Haiti, and Azo does a great job of capturing what it is to go into these situations where we have all of this American privilege (which is a thing, by the way – I learned about it from Karen Attiah of the Washington Post. American privilege…look it up!) Anyways, but Azo does a great job of talking about…you know, we go into these situations in these foreign countries, and people hate us, and they have every reason to…right? And she talks about how she learned to live in that society and earn everybody’s trust. And it’s beautiful, and it’s also just beautiful as a piece of solo theater, so I highly recommend it. Check out “I Heart Maroc.” That’s one I know is being streamed, so you should be able to see it anywhere in the world if you’d like to.
Okay! Next one up is “Naturally Tan.” This is another solo show written and performed by Tanya Thomas, and I first saw this one a few months ago, so I was really excited that I got to see it in person, and I love this as a piece of “edutainment,” because she talks about her experience growing up Indian in Singapore…and Singapore is something…well, it’s a place that I really didn’t know much about at all. I learned a little bit from Crazy Rich Asians, which she talks about in her show, but I learned so much more from Tanya’s piece, and she’s got this really great character who is a drag queen named Tanvi who is based on the comedian Kumar (and I looked up Kumar, and he’s really funny – even if I don’t get all the jokes, he’s still really funny), so I just…I love shows that get me to learn something, and Naturally Tan is one, so check that out…I know that one is also streaming live.
Um…okay, “After the Fall.” This is another solo show done by Johnny Ray Nelson, and this is what happened to Johnny Ray: he dropped out of a three story window because a plane crashed into his apartment. So if just that little synopsis doesn’t make you want to see the show, I don’t know what will. Johnny’s very funny. He’s very good at delivering these lines…he does it with like, a very straight face, but they’re just so funny. I think I laughed…I laughed a lot. So anyway, check out “After the Fall.” That’s another one that I know is streaming.
I saw another show called “The Tribe.” This was my first ensemble cast show (all of the other ones that I had seen were solo shows), and “The Tribe” is a fictional story of the first Arab-American improv team. And my favorite part was this really funny joke about Tony Shalhoub. I love Tony Shalhoub, so if you tell a joke about him, you’ve won my heart. So, another great show. I don’t know if that one is streaming or not – I think it is – anyway, go on the Hollywood Fringe website at hollywoodfringe.org, and you can check that out.
Okay, the next show that I saw was a MUSICAL…oh boy…called “No Matter Watt,” and it was all about Twelve Step recovery. Now, this is a subject on which I have some opinions. There were some things about the show I really liked. I really liked the costumes, I loved the…I guess we’ll call it “props” or set design…they had rainbow chairs; that was kind of cool, I liked that. The costumes were very 90’s; they really captured the feel of that era well. I liked the way that it was kind of an impressionistic musical. It didn’t really grab you and tell you and explain to you what was going on. I did get lost a few times, and there was a lot of repetition where I was like, “Okay, I think we said that already.” Um, and then another thing that was a little hard for me was that I thought that the women’s roles in it were a little too simplistic. Like, you know, there’s this whole song about, “Oh, be my superman, let’s watch ‘The Notebook!’” So PSA, I am a woman, and I have NEVER seen ‘The Notebook,” I have no intention whatsoever of EVER seeing ‘The Notebook,’ so dudes, if you think that what we do is just sit around and pine after you and watch ‘The Notebook’ all day, you got another thing coming. Anyways, but the actress who sang that song [Claudia Rosario Olvera], she did it in a very tongue-in-cheek kind of way, and I thought she did an excellent job, and there was another stand out in the cast…the guy who played “Shubop-dubayhad,” the saintly sponsor guy [Jeremy Ebenstein]…he was really funny, too. So, um, there’s that one.
Okay – “Gideon and the Blundersnorp.” Everything a musical should be – right? So cute. So funny. It was so great to be back in a theater watching people sing and dance, and the humor in “Gideon and the Blundersnorp,” it’s like…I teach middle school, so it was like right up my alley, you know…sort of borderline immature but like, also very cerebral. It was great; I loved it. The only thing is in that venue where “Gideon and the Blundersnorp” takes place, the action is like VERY close to the audience, okay. So normally when I go see a play, it’s like I’m here, and the musical’s over here, and like…okay, there’s a little bit of breathing room…but they were like RIGHT HERE IN MY FACE and I was like “OH MY GOD, IT’S A MUSICAL!” But you know what? That’s okay. I kept thinking, “You know what? If I got COVID from ‘Gideon and the Blundersnorp,’ I’m okay with that.” It was worth it. That’s how good the show was.
And then the last one on my list (actually, I saw this earlier – I’ve done them all chronologically except for this one) was “La Divina,” which is a one-woman show about Maria Callas, her last interview, and I really love the way that Shelley Cooper, the actress, brought Maria Callas to life…you know…all parts of her. Um, one of my favorite lines was where she talked about the true meaning of the word “prrrrrrrima donna,” and she says something like, “Being a prrrrima donna means that you spend a lot of time, uh, in a locked room studying your scores.” And I thought, “That’s right, Maria Callas…rock on!” So anyway, I’m not sure if that one is streaming or not, but you can go check on the Hollywood Fringe website – again, that’s hollywoodfringe.org, and if you’re in LA or in Southern California. I’m in San Diego, so I had a little bit of a commute, um, but if you want to go check this out, the shows are still happening for at least another week, and there’s a lot of other really great shows to see. So anyway, I think that’s it. I wish this were like SportsCenter and I could have had, like, images of the shows up as I was talking about them…but it’s not. You just got to look at my plant. So thanks for tuning in. Thanks for listening for eight minutes, if you’re still here, and I’ll see you next time. Bye.