Big Top Fringe Tattler

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From left, Jan Skene, Debbie Maslowsky, Jennifer Lyon and Donna Fletcher perform in Hersteria. (HADAS PARUSH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

GEORGE WENDT AT HERSTERIA! Standing in line for the popular Prairie Theatre Exchange musical Hersteria, my spy spotted a familiar-looking heavy-set guy in denim walking shorts and T-shirt who looked an awful lot like Norm from Cheers. It WAS actor George Wendt, in town rehearsing for Hairspray opening at Rainbow Stage in two weeks. Naturally, the VIP and his blond friend passed right on by the long line and were ushered into the theatre. Wendt seemed to enjoy the show and joined in a standing ovation. Says the star-spotter: "He lumbers around in real life the same as in Cheers, very casually. And he isn't grey yet -- still brown -- same as on Cheers." She adds mischievously, "I saw the director Kayla Gordon flitting around near Wendt after the play."

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And, a little warning for fringers: PTE is under construction, meaning you have to go to IMAX if you need a bathroom.

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THE BIRDMANN: Nostril tea drinking (up one nostril and down the other) is just one of the fine arts you can learn from Australian vaudevillian The Birdmann, who has a cockatoo crest on his head. You'll seen him in Old Market Square chatting with folks. Here's the scoop from Birdmann on his 'do. "I just back-comb it and it stays like that from sweat and heat." The vaudevillian never reveals his real name, but I found out he's Trent Baumann from Surfer's Paradise tourist area in Oz. Birdmann also sticks whole bottles to his body, juggles plastic bags and lectures (gently) about the doomed environment. And here's the hell of it all, you foolish worker bees. Baumann makes a living having a good time going all over the world doing this stuff.

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From left, Amanda Kristjanson, Jean-Marc Lafond, and Mike Dooley perform in The Brain from Planet X. (HADAS PARUSH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

THE SHOW MUST GO ON DEPT.: "One of our principal players in Brain From Planet X got mono just three week ago," says actor Mitch Krohn, who's so busy doing three shows be carries a spreadsheet detailing his schedule down to the half hour. "Fortunately, we found a wonderful girl called Amanda Kristjanson to play the sexy alien," he crows. "But unfortunately, she had trouble getting used to lap-dance choreography in silver space boots and I got kicked in the head a few times -- because I play one of her pieces of man meat in the show." That explains it.

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SCARY STUFF: Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs threatened to wreck one of the fringe shows. While developing the written sketches for Full Screen Ahead, the Gray Area of Comedy troupe started cracking each other up, using the scary voice of Buffalo Bill, and couldn't stop themselves for weeks. They sent an SOS to improv vet Stephen Sim, who exorcised the demon and helped them revamp. Now co-director Tim Gray plays a TV addict who's deeply asleep through the whole play, while the troupe acts out his crazy dreams inspired by the boob tube. Psst! This is serious type-casting! In real life Gray is known for sleeping so deeply, his house could be burning down and he'd snore his way to crispy.

mscurf@shaw.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 18, 2011 D5