Fringe 2026 - Returning Favorites - Tyler West - Small Minded

Back in 2018, when Tyler West’s traveling mime show “Abeyance” landed on my pre-Fringe Top 20 list at #13, we were only his third Fringe appearance, about which I wrote:

“Tyler West's combination of mime, comedy, self-generated live sound FX, and interaction with audience members on and off stage is a delight - 5 stars”

But that was a whole pandemic and two ancient presidents ago so, it’s been a minute, and I was very happy to see he was returning with a new show, Small Minded.

The Minnesota Fringe website being a living, breathing, evolving organism throughout the month of July, the first time I culled information on the show, its description said this:

“When Tyler was a little boy he wanted to grow up and be a clown. Come to find out it was a lot harder to achieve the former, than the latter. 'Small Minded' features magic, juggling, clowning, and much more!”

When I went back to double check and see if more information had been posted, I found this new description:

“Is being a dwarf clown REALLY half the size, but double the fun? Or is Tyler West just Small Minded? Either way, this show features juggling, magic, Shakespeare, story-telling, and some Ha-Ha's! from the heart.”

Both these descriptions are part of the press packet for the show, so it seems OK to post them both.  More context is always helpful.

Small Minded
Created by Tyler West
Directed by Cleo DeOrio
Venue - Southern Theater
Content Warnings - Adult Language 
Genre and Content - Clowning, Magic, Solo Show, Comedy, Physical Theater, Audience Participation, Storytelling, Shakespearian Elements
Ages 12 to 15 and Up

There’s not a lot else on the show’s Fringe website page, but there is a video trailer:



And Tyler has a YouTube page with other samples of his work to watch.

Also, I noticed that back in the day an anonymous poster actually took the time to post a comment on my pre-Fringe blog post on Tyler’s show “Abeyance” to share:

“Fun fact: Minnesota is only Tyler's third fringe, but at his second, San Diego, Tyler won one of the two cultural exchanges that SD Fringe has with other festivals. As as result, he has been offered a slot at Sydney Fringe. (Full disclosure: I am the logistics coordinator for San Diego and I'm a house manager at MinnFringe.)”

It’s weird to find a post on a blog entry that isn’t spam, and also pretty cool that Tyler’s show inspired someone to share more information.  I shouldn’t be surprised, really.  It was a fun show.

And I expect no less from this one.

So if Tyler’s last show was before your time, or you missed him back in 2018, now’s your chance.  I feel very safe in promising you will be entertained.  Small Minded is on my schedule so perhaps I’ll see you there.  

In fact, if you want to start your Fringe on a fun note, Tyler’s show is the first slot, 5:30pm, on the first day of the festival, Thursday 8/6. Can’t go wrong with that.  Trust me. (And it’s a Bring a Friend to Fringe (BFF) performance, too, so you can buy a ticket and get an extra for free to bring someone with you.) 

 

 

Fringe 2026 - Returning Favorites - Dolly Who - Doozy

An embarrassing pattern has developed.  When I tagged Destiny Davison (aka, Dolly Who) as #7 on my Top 10 list back in 2023 for her show “DollyWho,” my Fringe-going schedule that year jumbled things around so that I ended up catching Destiny’s very last performance, which was also the very last slot in the festival on closing night.  So it was right from there to the closing night party and I never even typed so much as a mini-review online on the fly, like I try to do, even for the last show.  Fell down on the job there.

Last year, when she returned with “Dolly Who’s Holiday Horror Show” I did a little better.  This time it was the next to last day of the festival when I finally caught the show, and at least managed to post the following:

“MN Fringe show #44: Dolly Who’s Holiday Horror Show - Destiny Davison’s cartoons are adorably goofy, and creating a new holiday improv-style as a crowd amidst her established bits was a great communal experience; joy is in short supply so this was a real tonic :) - 5 stars”

So the goal this year is to see her new show “Doozy” sometime opening weekend(?) and actually write a proper review finally.

Description: 
A good friend never forgets. Too bad, Dolly did. But no worries, it's her day off! No agenda, no script, no work...and all the time in the world for a little sweet, sweet revenge.
Venue - Open Eye Theatre
Content Warnings - Flashing Lights, Loud Noises
Genre and Content - Puppetry, Improv, Comedy, Original Music, Physical Theater, Kid Friendly
Ages 12 to 15 and Up

Destiny Davison is both a talented improv comedian (part of the roster at Blackout Improv, among other improviser gigs) and a talented cartoonist, and as Dolly Who she blends the two into delightfully quirky shows with both comedy and cartoons conjured up on the spot with the help of some audience suggestion.

It’s hard to adequately describe the look and feel of a Dolly Who show.

The video trailer for Doozy helps:


As does Destiny/Dolly Who’s website

And Instagram account.

So check out all that art and performance archiving to get a sampling of what’s in store for this year’s Fringe.

And maybe I’ll finally write more than fifty words about it this time :)

Whether I manage to write or not, trust that if Destiny Davison’s Dolly Who is in the Fringe, I will find a way to see it.

We’re woefully low on whimsy these days, so Doozy is much needed.

If you need more convincing, here’s a bit more background from the Fringe show page for Doozy:

“DOLLY WHO? (cartoonist, perpetually exhausted millennial, and part-time, semi-professional “Learner”) is taking the day off! But nobody's resting easy, no siree, Bob. Things are about to get real. Featuring puppets, a giant remote, improvised chaos, and a Best Friend Forever hell-bent on revenge, DOOZY is an equal parts heartwarming and heart-wrenching story of friendship for the whole family, but mostly made for the friend (s) in your life that could use a reminder on how to be better one.

Featuring Britt Johnson as DOOZY, Cody Madison as DOOZY, Destiny Davison as DOOZY, Deanna Pistono as DOOZY, Alsa Bruno as DOOZY, Ross Flores as DOOZY, Jill Bernard as DOOZY, Alexandria Davison as DOOZY, Xylophone as DOOZY, Big Remote as DOOZY, Father Time as DOOZY, and DOOZY as DOOZY.

About DOLLY WHO?
DOLLY WHO? is Destiny Davison (she/they) a Minneapolis-based multi-media artist, cartoonist, and performer. Her work explores the real, the unreal, and the in-between. Right now, she is most concerned with how to stay human in a world of chaos and hurt, being a friend, and snails with fragile, bottomless hearts. Destiny has appeared on stages across Minnesota, including The Ordway, The Jungle Theater, Pangea World Theatre, Strike Theater, the Brave New Workshop, and more. Destiny's first appearance as DOLLY WHO? was at the 2023 Minnesota Fringe Festival. And in 2026, Destiny premiered their first ever puppet show “DOLLY WHO?'S FOR DINNER” at Open Eye Theatre’s Puppet Lab Festival. Destiny's artwork has been commissioned by Apple TV, Planned Parenthood, the Minnesota Star Tribune, TPT Almanac, the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA), and the Minnesota Billboard Project.”

 

 

Fringe 2026 - Returning Favorites - Chris Davis - Road Trip!

Chris Davis was last here (his first Minnesota Fringe) in 2023.  He was #4 on my Top 10 list that year and he lived up to the much deserved hype he got from friend and Minnesota Fringe favorite Sam Landman.  I’m very happy to see he wanted to make a return trip to Minneapolis with more of his comedy.

Some things I said in my 5-star review about his combination stand-up and improv comedy show that year:

“Skewering stereotypes and semantics, banning books improv-style, deconstructing which lives matter and the unfortunate naming of buildings, Davis' comedy may be laid back but it still hits all its targets…

Good stand-up comedy is rare.  Good stand-up comedy that deals with thorny topics like race relations or sexuality is even rarer.  So I’m very glad that comedian Chris Davis made the trip up from Alabama to do a couple of his shows for us...

The two “Chris Davis Does Stuff” shows (Just Black Enough, and Seriously, I’m Not Gay) are sort of a cross between a stand-up routine and a solo show.  Basically a much funnier than usual solo show.  And a much more thoughtful stand-up routine, with a larger, overarching theme behind it.  I appreciate comedy that requires that my brain still be turned on and not off.  Chris Davis delivers the laughs I need, and the insight I wasn’t expecting.  Can’t ask for more than that from a good Fringe show.”

This time around, Chris is bringing his friend Rich Mansfield with him and they’re going full improv comedy this time.  As the poster for their show “Road Trip!” says, “Improv Comedy Goes on the Road.  You Choose the Destinations.  We Take You on the Journey.”

Description: 
Too expensive to go on a road trip? Then join two improv comedians as they take a ROAD TRIP without ever leaving the theater! You don’t need to pitch in for gas, just pitch in suggestions for destinations and leave the “driving” and comedy to them. Where will there journey take them? That’s for you to know and us to find out!
Venue - Bryant Lake Bowl
Content Warnings - None
Genre and Content - Comedy, Musical Theater, Audience Participation
Ages 16 and Up

Whatever Chris has in mind for this return trip, I’m happy to check it out.

If you need more convincing, here are Chris and Rich’s bios:

“Chris Davis started doing improv comedy in 2000 and stand up comedy in 2003. He is a member of Ugly Baby Improv, ETC Improv, and hosts Fresh Ground Comics, Birmingham's longest running local comedy showcase. Chris performs comedy, theater, appears in commercials, corporate videos, print ads and hosts many different events around town, including the Birmingham Moth StorySlam. He’s been fortunate enough to have opened for Janeane Garofalo, Al Madrigal, Michael Ian Black, Hannibal Buress, Brian Posehn, Jen Kirkman and performed comedy sets at two TEDX Birminhgam events in Birminhgam, Alabama.

Raised in the windswept cornfields of Illinois, Rich spent a decade performing standup throughout the MidWest , as well as a five year layover in Minnesota performing on stage in scripted and improvised productions all over the upper Midwest. Rich now performs regularly with two separate improv teams as well as producing and hosting his own comedy stage shows in Birmingham, AL.” 

 

 

Fringe 2026 - Returning Favorites - Small Waves - Cyrano

This is the first of many folks I’ll be posting about returning from my Top 20 list for last year’s festival to the 2026 Fringe.  A lot of artists on my list last year returned again this summer for more fun and entertainment.

Last year, the Small Waves artists were lampooning reality TV dating shows with their all-lesbian (plus one drag queen) extravaganza “Cabin Fever,” for which my 5 start mini-review online included both the phrase “so many lesbians, so little time” and “just as funny as it is bawdy and unexpected”

This year, they’re going in a completely different, but still very queer, direction and adapting the Edmond Rostand romantic classic “Cyrano de Bergerac” which they described for the Fringe’s Instagram account as “a modern, sapphic presentation of a time-honored classic that stays true to the story, even if it lacks any big noses.”

Description: 
A queer heroic comedy in five acts. The story you never knew you already know, like you've never seen it before. An adaptation of Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac."
Venue - Theatre in the Round (TRP)
Content Warnings - Abuse/physical violence, Adult language, Blood, Crude Humor
Genre and Content - LGBTQIA+ Content, Comedy, Drama, Literary Adaptation, Religious Content, Shakespearian Elements
Ages 12 to 15 and Up

In their press packet pitch, Small Waves adds the following:

“Minneapolis-based and queer-owned, theatre production company Small Waves seeks to celebrate theatre for theatre’s sake. This latest celebration - Katie Christ’s adaptation of the 1897 play “Cyrano de Bergerac” by Edmond Rostand - presents a classic story that you never knew you already knew, like you’ve never seen it before. This production brings together a diverse group of Twin Cities artists, swapping swords for boxing, and long noses for queerness. Audiences can expect to laugh, to cry, and to wonder just what might take them to the moon.”

They call it “a queer heroic comedy, in a new ‘old’ adaptation of Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac." We've added sapphic flavor while retaining the period language and emphasizing the poetry of the original play.”

All of which I am very much down for.  After watching Small Wave assemble a great group of improvisers and set them loose on a well-constructed and hilarious satirical concept, I’m extremely interested in watching them take a classic, swoony old love triangle and make it queer.

If you’re looking for a good queer show this Fringe, “Cyrano” should be on your list. 

 

 

Fringe 2026 - Returning Favorites - Gabriel Mata - Latin Papi

It takes a bit of digging sometimes to realize who's actually performing a show (this will be a common theme in a subset of the posts this year).  For instance, I thought I'd already caught all the returning favorite artists from the list of shows, but then I was perusing the Dance category (since Fringe is the one time of year I can catch a lot of dance all concentrated in one place), and in clicking through to the main page on "Latin Papi" I discovered, "Oh, wait a minute, this is a new Gabriel Mata show!  How delightful!"

It just says "CuerpoxCuerpo" in the main listings under the title, but then when you open the show page right under that unfamiliar company name is "Created by Gabriel Mata and Armani Colón"

Description
Latin Papi is a bold, playful, and provocative contemporary dance performance blending sensual movement, voice, humor, and theatrical flair created by Armani Rey Colón and Gabriel Mata of CuerpoxCuerpo.

Venue – Rarig Xperimental
Content Warnings – Crude Humor, Flashing Lights, Short Show (less than 45 minutes)
Genre and Content – Dance (Modern)
Ages 18 and Up Only

Anyone who saw any of his previous Fringe outings here, Out of the Shadows (2017), Dreaming (2018), or Joteria: Our Untold Stories (2022), doesn't need me to tell them they should be getting this one on their Fringe schedule.  But it's been a minute since he was last here in 2022 so for the uninitiated, go see this, you're in for a treat.

I normally go see Gabriel's shows two, even three times in a festival and that is unusual behavior for me.  They're just that good.  Mata creates work that's funny and thoughtful and full of graceful, beautiful movement across whatever space he's in.

This show seems like it's another departure from the shows that came before (a bit more adult - crude humor, 18 and up only? color me curious), but whatever this dancer/choreographer is up to with his new collaborator, I'm excited to see it early on and then come back later for more.  That may be harder this year since the Rarig X space can easily sell out with a popular show.  But I would love to have that problem because that means this show is getting the audiences it deserves.

UPDATE: here’s some additional information on the content of the show from my press packet that I just discovered:

“Latin Papi is a contemporary dance performance with movement and surprise from the Latinx body.

Latin Papi is a bold, playful, and provocative contemporary dance performance created by Armani Rey Colón and Gabriel Mata of CuerpoxCuerpo. Blending sensual movement, voice, humor, and theatrical flair, the work reclaims the Latinx body from stereotype and spectacle while inviting audiences into a 40-minute whirlwind of charm, vulnerability, and unexpected twists. Infused with contemporary Latin sabor, Latin Papi explores how bodies of color are desired, consumed, fetishized, and misunderstood, while also honoring their tenderness, complexity, and power.

Through a series of vibrant and intimate vignettes, Colón and Mata navigate ideas of masculinity, jotería, and performance itself. Seduction and comedy intertwine with moments of raw physicality and reflection, revealing the tension between visibility and objectification. The performers shift between fantasy and authenticity, humor and intimacy, asking audiences to reconsider what it means to look at, desire, and define the Latinx body.

Rooted in collaboration and contemporary performance practice, Latin Papi seeks to create an experience that is immersive, disarming, and deeply human, opening space for connection, recognition, and dialogue with audiences.” 

There's not a lot of information posted about his collaborator Armani Colón as yet, but if you need more convincing, here's Gabriel's bio:

"Gabriel Mata (pronounced: gah-bryehl mah-tah) is a Mexican American dance choreographer, educator, and performer based in Washington DC. Brown Baby is his project based performance company and he is the director of the Latinx Movement Festival in Washington DC. Growing up as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who assimilated to a white and Eurocentric notion of the US for a goal of citizenship, he has cultivated his own choreographic form and movement language as an act of de-centering his concert dance training. He has cultivated dance performance work under the name motion memoirs and teaching of contemporary sabor. Mata’s research is on jotería, Meximalismo, immigration, Latinidad / brownness, and community based movement forms. Mata's dance works have been performed in California, New York, Minnesota, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Jersey, Washington DC, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. His work has been presented at Stanford University, San José State University, Georgian Court University, Howard Community College, Salisbury University, Howard Community College, Santa Ana College, and American University. His dances have been commissioned by David Herrera Performance Company, Jane Franklin Dance, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Dance Loft on 14, sjDANCEco, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers - SF, Moveius Contemporary Ballet, Dance Place, Silicon Valley Pride, the Hispanic National Bar Association, Latino/a/x Contemporary Dance Festival, and Corazón Folklórico DC. He is part of the Artists Advisory Council at Dance Place - Thresholds, the Latinx Hispanic Dancers United, and the Latinx Dance Educators Association. Mata is the inaugural Social Justice Commissioned Dance Artist at Dance Loft on 14th as well as the inaugural Arts Lab Fellow at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. He has received the S&R Evermay Washington Award and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Research Grant. Additionally, he has been a current recipient of DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities Grants for cultural production."

If that's not enough for you, check out any one of my 5-star reviews of his previous Fringe shows: Out of the Shadows, Dreaming, and Joteria.  I'm a big fan of this artist and will recommend their shows to anyone who will listen so, let the recommendations begin, sight unseen.

It's in the 10pm slot on the first day of the festival, so I may already know how I'm ending my Thursday night on August 6th. 

 

 

Fringe 2026 - Vacation Prep Underway

Yesterday my Fringe buttons arrived in the physical mail.

And a handy spreadsheet full of press information arrived in my email inbox.

Even though I had a few extra days prior to the Minnesota Fringe Festival website going live to the public yesterday (Fringe With Benefits folks get a sneak peek into the website, though it's still evolving, which is its own entertainment), the homework on this year's festival continues.

Just when I think I've caught all the returning favorites from past years, another former Fringe favorite under a new banner pops up in my research.  I do love finding old friends resurfacing again with new material.  As well as brand new artists I've never seen before.

Obviously, I want to be sure to give the queer content a look so I don't miss anything intriguing.

And I have a soft spot for all the traveling artists, particularly the solo acts who have their work cut out for them in a festival this crowded with familiar faces.

It will, as always, be hard to put together a schedule where I'm not missing something.  But that's the fun of the puzzle of an eleven day festival with way too many good options.

As I try to piece together a whole new Top 20 roster, I've got plenty of returning favorites to spotlight.

And since I finally have a day off work tomorrow, kicking all that into gear, and finishing the homework phase of perusing the show listings, shall be my first assignments.

Nice to know my Fringe vacation is just a little over a month away now.

 

 

Review - Blithe Spirit - TRP - Refuses to Give Up the Ghost - 3 stars

It’s fine.  I know that sounds like I’m damning with faint praise but the production isn’t really the problem.  If you’re in the mood for a production of Noel Coward’s comedy Blithe Spirit then Theatre in the Round Players (TRP) is offering one.

“You won’t die.  You’re not the dying sort.”

The plot of Blithe Spirit does have a lot of twists and turns which it’s best not to spoil but here’s the basic premise: Charles Condomine (James Lane) and his (second) wife Ruth (Megan Blakeley) have the local doctor George Bradman (David Rinzema) and his wife Violet (Lori Constable) over for dinner along with a special guest, the town eccentric Madame Arcati (Janice Stone), who gathers them after dinner as requested for a seance to contact spirits in the afterlife.  Charles doesn’t believe in any of this, he’s just doing research for a new book project.  So imagine his surprise when the seance works and Madame Arcati conjures up the spirit of Charles’ late first wife Elvira (Dani Pazurek) - who only he can see and converse with.  Elvira now has no intention of leaving, and in fact begins scheming different ways to snatch Charles back from his new wife Ruth. Circling around the edges of all this action is the Condomines’ bumbling maid Edith (Hailey Zeissler), who’s always a bit on edge and easily traumatized by the supernatural goings on, and ends up being a bit more key to the resolution of things than one might expect.

“Next time we must really put our backs into it!”

The play has Noel Coward’s signature wit and comedy stylings, and the whole cast under Dann Peterson’s direction does a good job of keeping all the shenanigans moving right along.  In his director’s note, Peterson harkens back the play’s origins in 1941, during World War II, written as a comic trifle to allow folks to have a laugh and take their mind off the concerning world events around them in those days, if only for the run time of the play.  Certainly we can also use such distractions today as well.

“We have no guarantee that the afterlife will be any less exasperating than this one.”

I recall being similarly unengaged by a production of Blithe Spirit at the Guthrie Theater back in 2018 though it was hard to put my finger on the reason why.  Seeing the play more up close in Theatre in the Round’s intimate arena made my issues with the play come into sharper focus.  The short answer is that I don’t much like the characters.  As the play continues, nearly everyone on stage reveals themselves to be quite unpleasant, mostly in the way they treat the other people (or ghosts) around them.  So it may still be easy to laugh, but it’s hard for me to care.  The play starts with four of the characters chuckling behind Madama Arcati’s back, thinking she’s a loon and a fraud.  And when Arcati turns out to be right, characters then turn to her for help with their spooky problems but continue to berate her if she can’t instantly solve them in a way that’s most convenient for them.

“I threw off the sponge instead of throwing down the gauntlet.”

There is a nod to the notion of grief, and holding on to the memory of a loved one who is gone.  But the play doesn’t really dwell on it, particularly when the dead keep popping back up again.  Because it’s a comedy, the play doesn’t take anything seriously, which is both its strength and its weakness, since it clearly does want us to care about certain things, even as it undercuts them.  And speaking of undercutting, there’s a string of revelations of infidelity by both Charles and Elvira late in the action that makes it challenging to find any rooting value in either character, particularly Charles.  It feels like the play wants the audience to take it all as lighthearted fun but… I didn’t.

“You don’t even allow me to have a hallucination when I want to.”

The production looks and sounds great.  Thomas L. Valach’s set design makes great use of the TRP space and gives the cast an environment with a lot of character in which to play out the story, and prop designer Rick Polenek populates the space with great details and throwback items like the couple’s tea and liquor service and non-mobile phone.  John A. Woskoff’s costumes on all the characters give us an immediate sense of period.  Mark Kieffer’s lighting accents the ghostly goings on and sets the mood.  The sound design by Warren Sampson (assisted by Tatum Evans) incorporates many of Noel Coward’s own songs during and between scenes in fun ways (I was particularly amused by the way songs would get cut off by the clock chiming to kick us into the next scene.). And it must be fun for stage manager Matthew Wilhelm and assistant Grace Watkins to set off all the special effects in the second half of the evening when the spirits get down to business moving the furniture and shaking different parts of the house until they start coming apart.

“I do wish you wouldn’t be facetious with the servants, Charles.  It confuses them and undermines morale.”

It’s a well-executed production of Blithe Spirit so I’m fully prepared to admit that maybe this play just isn’t for me.  After all, I did quite enjoy another Noel Coward offering at the Guthrie of Kneehigh Theatre’s production of Brief Encounter - though that whimsical multimedia meditation was based on a much more serious exploration of two strangers embarking on an extramarital affair, so I think that made it easier for me to engage.  Even though that happened back in 2010, I still think about it and can recall specific moments, so a production of Noel Coward can stick with me if it hits just right, and that has as much to do with the underlying material as the production.

“They’re only ghost tears.  They don’t mean anything really.  But they’re painful.”

Blithe Spirit runs through July 12, 2026 at Theatre in the Round Players (245 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis).  Tickets are available on their website.  If you need a laugh and want to get out of the house, TRP has a show for you.

3 stars - Recommended