Tickets sales through the first seven days of the 12-day event stand at 40,696 as compared to 40,708 in 2007. Tuesday, with its 6,697 tickets sold, was the fourth day in a row that attendance this year exceeded the total for the same day last year. There were 18 sell-outs Tuesday.

It's really broad comedy

Cellphone cameras all over the fringe have been snapping photos of the "easy, cheesy, sleazy" divas known as the B-Girlz.

Fringers of all ages have been posing for pix with the three statuesque dames who prance around promoting The B-List, their "fabulous Las Vegas-style revue," in neon-bright wigs that match their pink, blue and green dresses -- as well as their glittery lips and eyelids.

"We're basically the adult Teletubbies," says Barbie-Q, the pink B-Girl.

"We used to work at the Pickering nuclear plant," says Hard Kora, the glamourpuss in green, who adds that it's not easy getting dolled up for fringe duty. "I'm wearing nine pairs of nylons, and you can still see my varicose veins!"

Kora says she complements her signature colour with a distinctive scent: Febreze.

The trio, whose blue girl goes by the single name Ivana, sometimes romps around the fringe in thigh-high Lycra mini-dresses with hula hoops sewn inside the hems. They bought the hoops, they say, at a discount retailer that Winnipeg knows well.

"Their slogan is Giant Tiger, Hidden Bargain," says Barbie-Q.

We're cheap, but not easy

We thought no Winnipegger could resist a bargain. But incredibly, volunteers at Venue 6 said Tuesday they weren't aware of any takers for the impressive $4 discount offered to anyone who shows up in KISS makeup for Lester Gets KISSed.

Similarly, no radio announcers have yet claimed the $2 discount at Venue 1's The Overnight, and no "victims of obsession or infatuation" have saved $1 at Venue 2's Blast!

At Venue 9, where anyone named Harry gets a $1 price break on What about Luv?, volunteers said one Harry has stepped up. They charged him on the honour system. "He seemed pretty sincere about it," said one.

But the Venue 9 slaves said not a single "executive from Pfizer, Merck or GlaxoSmithKline" has saved $1 on How To Fake Clinical Depression, which slams the big pharmaceutical makers of antidepressants. "I'd charge them extra, but that's just me," sniffed one volunteer.

We didn't manage to check Venue 12, where anyone with massive sideburns shaves $2 off The Spy, or Venue 17, where any fringer in a Shakespearean costume gets $2 off on Hamlet: Back in Black.

The best rate of participation we found was at Venue 3, where anyone with a puppet saves $1 on The Aethernomicon, although volunteers have scorned a few lame efforts to present talking fists as puppets. "We went, 'No, that's a hand,'" said one.

A few patrons have made their puppet companions do the asking for the discount. And the volunteers have accepted a few instant sock puppets, even if they're smelly.

"Some (patrons) I saw pulled their sock off, and with a marker drew on it," said the venue team leader. "OK, I can buy that."

All discounts are listed with individual shows' ticket prices in the fringe program.

-- Alison Mayes

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One of the best shows of the fringe ever year is the Secret Midnight Cabaret that is set for Saturday at midnight at the King's Head.

Many prominent fringe performers come together to show off some of their best material or new partnerships at the fundraiser for festival volunteers and the Jenny Review.

You can get some idea of this year's lineup by the show title: Dr. Caligari's Cabaret of Ifs or How Quixotic Pink Fox Teaches Abridged American Follies, Saucy Hothouse Buddhas Scratch Blooming Red Spots and Mannered Spy Sherlocks Figure Boatloads of Crumbly Ladykilling Show Solutions.

Tickets are $10 and go on sale at 10:45 p.m. outside the King's Head.

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The top drawing acts at each of the 11 regular fringe venues were announced yesterday, with each gaining an extra performance slot on Sunday afternoon:

Venue 1: Die Roten Puntke (12:30 p.m.); The Dining Room (2:45 p.m.).

Venue 2: In Other News (Noon); Manners for Men (2:15 p.m.).

Venue 3: Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry (1 p.m.); Circumference (3 p.m.).

Venue 4: Spiral Dive (Noon); pornStar (2:15 p.m.).

Venue 5: A Brief History of Petty Crime (12:15 p.m.); The Road Less Gravelled (2:30 p.m.).

Venue 6: A Midsummer Night's Fever! (12:15 p.m.); Lester Gets KISSed (2:30 p.m.).

Venue 7: Perseus and Medusa (12:45 p.m.); Killing Kevin Spacey (2:30 p.m.).

Venue 8: The Bush Ladies (12:30 p.m.); It's a Gay, Gay, Gay World (2:45 p.m.).

Venue 9: The Official Napoleon Dynamite Dance Class (12:45 p.m.); Ordinary May's Extraordinary Ways (3 p.m.).

Venue 10: Singing at the Edge of the World (12:45 p.m.); Teaching the Fringe (3 p.m.).

Venue 11: The Tricky Part (noon); FemMennonite 2 (2:15 p.m.).

Advance tickets for Best of Fest go on sale today at 10 a.m. All tickets are $9 and are also available at the venue.