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Veritas Tassle and the Lie Detectors
Our Rating: 
Some fringe acts regale audiences with hilarious stories about their lives. Some perform tight tag-team improv based on a quirky theme. A trio of improv artists — Amy Shostak, Kory Mathewson and Kevin Gillese — from Edmonton’s populous Rapid Fire Theatre, take a different tack, combining elements of each comedy style and coming up a bit short on both.
Enthusiastic if not particularly gifted raconteurs, the players take turns telling true stories from their lives and then perform improv pieces based on the tale. Most of their stories are amusing and a few are genuinely funny.
Shostak’s chronically in-denial, gay, Hindi, drug-abusing boyfriend and Mathewson’s death-baiting childhood buddies are winners, as was one opening-night segment in which Gillese and Shostak shared storytelling duties, recalling a bad date she brought to Gillese’s home.
But by the third set of stories, this was starting to feel like a long 60 minutes. And while several improv bits hit pay dirt at some point, too many went astray and never got back on track. And at risk of offending the faithful, improv just for the sake of improv is not all that entertaining.
— Pat St. Germain
From the official Fringe program:
A team of performers from across the country has been forged into an improv machine, one that is programmed to kill. With laughs that is!
Accompanied by a cellist from Berlin, this ragtag crew of misfits will blend true stories from their lives with audience suggestions and improvised scenes to create a margarita of comedy before your thirsty eyes.
www.rapidfiretheatre.com
Warnings: Subject Matter, Language, Nudity, This show will likely blow your mind. You are advised to wear a hat to minimize clean-up.
RECOMMENDED: Mature Audience
60 min.
Venue#13 Ragpickers Theatre 216 McDermot Ave (2nd Floor)
Tickets: $8
Discount Tickets: $6 for those struggling in these hard economic times
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