Jeff Leard’s Gametes and Gonads is at the Vancouver Fringe Festival 2012.

2012 Vancouver Fringe Festival reviews – Gametes and Gonads and Lies!

– by Julia Kalinina

Gametes and Gonads

Doomed love, death, sacrifice, an impossible mission. What more could you want in a story?

Puns.

About sex.

Want no more, this show delivers.

In Jeff Leard’s one-man performance, which has been described as “Star Wars in a scrotum”, Captain Gonad, a scarred survivor of four erectile dysfunctions, leads his army of sperm through one ejaculation. Their mission: to fertilize the egg. The embattled army faces death and destruction at every turn: diaphragms, spermicide, a very hostile environment. All of the odds are stacked against them. Meanwhile, the egg sisters prepare one of their own to be sacrificed to menstruation. Only a dart to the neck sends the chosen one down the phallopian tubes… All of life is at stake.

This 45-minute Gametes and Gonads is so funny that the jokes will keep making you laugh long after the show is over. Some of them may even become aphorisms among the people who have seen Gametes and Gonads. Hilarious plays on words and turns of phrase, great performance.

But I’m still not sure whether to call this show a comedy or a tragedy.

Gametes and Gonads has one more show with the 2012 Vancouver Fringe Festival Sunday Sept 16 at False Creek Gym at 9 p.m. For tickets go here. 

Lies!

Lies! is a new magic show created by Travis Bernhardt that will transform you into a six-year-old, sitting bewildered at the edge of your seat unable to tear your eyes away.

The crowd, however, is an adult audience and Bernhardt plays to it. Cynicism about magic is part of the show – just look at its name. Oh, he’ll play along and take jabs at “magic” right alongside you… right up until he blows your mind clean out of your head!

In “Lies!”, Bernhardt reads minds, makes object appear out of thin air, and lodges your personal belonging in places they could not be except by magic. Witty, disarming performer. Travis Bernhardt, the Amazing!

The content of the show must remain a mystery. It’s all spoiler alerts when it comes to magic shows. No one gets sawed in half. But please, go see this show. There is no justice if it doesn’t make it to the Pick of the Fringe. Highly recommended.