From the Winnipeg Fringe Festival
MAXIM & COSMO
A
Maxim & Cosmo
Big Sandwich Productions
Venue 1
TJ Dawe's determined to take the standard out of double standard. In
this one man show, the funny, fast talking Fringe vet tackles the studs
vs. sluts debate, as well as any other gender generalizations, stereotypes
and inequalities he runs into along the way. Severely likable, this
90-minute monologue never tires. Dawe's lively delivery and incredible
sense of humour is thoroughly engaging, even if he can be quite the
rambler - inserting the 'c-word' into a popular Sharon, Lois and Bram
song, explaining how a cool dude like Jesus could never have been celibate,
or announcing that he'd stop the show immediately for a blowjob. Such
topics don't seem to fit the point, he's making but they're funny nonetheless,
so ramble on, man. - JS - Uptown Magazine
Fringe circuit star TJ Dawe gets down and dirty
in his latest sell-out monologue about the seeming unbridgeable divide
between the sexes that is characterized by the magazines Maxim and
Cosmopolitan. His observation is that women get a raw deal and for
90 minutes pokes fun at how badly the playing field is tilted against
them.
Sitting relaxed on a stool, the fast-talking Dawe doesn't spare himself
in relating how he read books by Carol Shields and Margaret Atwood
in the hopes of sleeping with the women he saw reading them. Sex is
the show's main preoccupation and anyone who is quick to blush at the
F-word, C-word or a whole bunch of other words not usually uttered
in mixed company might want to sit this one out. Don't make that decision
rashly as Maxim & Cosmo is a hell of a good time.
Winnipeggers will be especially interested as he tells about his first
visit to the Canadian murder capital in 1994. Dawe, who now lives here,
remembers how afraid he was walking home late through a part of town
that had been the scene of several gay-bashings. He was never attacked
but he was told that his fears is what women live with every day. He
speculated that if that was the case for men, laws would have been
enacted and steps taken to stop it.
The truth hurts but its very funny.
-- Kevin Prokosh - 5 stars - Winnipeg Free Press
A Canadian Bartender
at Butlin's
July 23
TJ Dawe doesn’t tell a story - TJ Dawe becomes a story. In this
case, it’s the story of his time spent as a bartender at Butlin’s,
a British holiday resort. But really, the subject matter is almost
inconsequential - Dawe could tell you what he had for breakfast and
be fascinating. It’d take him an hour and a half to do it, but
you’d be rapt. I’d be hard pressed to remember the last
time I so completely forgot I was watching an actor on stage. Armed
with nothing more than a bench, Dawe uses his flawless delivery, impeccable
timing, and graceful physicality to draw his audience so completely
into the world of his story that we feel fully transported. It’s
magical theatre by a master storyteller - absolutely not to be missed.
5 Flower Power - CBC Reviewer: Joff Schmidt
A CANADIAN BARTENDER AT BUTLIN'S
Big Sandwich Productions
PTE-Mainstage (Venue 16), to July 30
Recalling his crappy job in an English holiday resort chain is the
main subject of Vancouver-based fringe regular T.J. Dawe's latest torrent
of words and free associations.
But anyone who has witnessed Dawe's previous comic monologues, such
as The Slip-Knot and Curse of the Trickster, knows that this is only
the lip of the beer mug.
With his only prop a simple piano bench, Dawe spins anecdotes on everything
from being locked out of his parents' cabin in December to the difference
between Canadian and British swear words.
This solo show, new to our fringe, dates from 2003 or earlier. At
85 minutes, it remains a tad exhausting. But despite his endless digressions,
Dawe ties up most of his loose ends. How does he manage to memorize
so many words?
-- Morley Walker - The Winnipeg Free Press - 4 stars
The Curse of the Trickster - The Vancouver Courier
TJ Dawe has a lot of funny things to say about the things you never
hear anybody say. Like "I love the government. I trust them. They're
worth every penny I send them." You're going to Mexico? "Be
sure to drink the water." And it probably was the water in San
Miguel de Allende that gave him a mucho case of Montezuma's Revenge,
a thematic thread running-at a trot -through The Curse of the Trickster.
Dawe's own trickster is daring him to take his fans where he's never
taken them before: Dawe with dysentery so bad he doesn't know whether
to sit down or bend over. You could say it's a shitty show because,
in the end, he says we're all "shit machines"-food for maggots
that, yep, take us in one end and out the other. But along the way to
this conclusion, Dawe weaves a web of symphonic intricacy that includes
his insights on e-mail, government, cell phones, broadcasters, video
rental, time saving devices, wisdom tooth extraction and Siamese cats
in heat. Miraculously it all hangs together thanks to Dawe's fresh kid
charm (that endures despite having participated in 58 fringe festivals),
his circuitous but compelling way of telling a story and the self-deprecating
inclusion of himself in everything he mocks. -JL
Reviews from The Edmonton Fringe Festival
The Curse of the Trickster - With past smash successes like The Slip-Knot
and A Canadian Bartender at Butlins under his belt, T.J. Dawe has become
the comic king of Fringe festivals across Canada. With his latest, Dawe
shows that he can still rant and rave with the best of them—he
is this country’s answer to the late, great Bill Hicks. The Curse
of the Trickster has Dawe making wry observations about society—from
our obsession with cell phones to how we like to solve a problem by
simply “hoping it goes away”—while struggling with
a case of Montezuma’s Revenge. While Curse is still drop-dead
funny at points, it doesn’t have the tight plotting of Dawe’s
past one-man shows; it actually comes off more as a stand-up set than
an actual play at times. Considering that Dawe is as good a storyteller
as he is a funny man, the lack of plotting gets him docked a star from
the usual five-star review. SSSS - VUE Weekly
THE CURSE OF THE TRICKSTER *4 stars of 5*
How entertaining and compelling is monologuist TJ Dawe? Let's put
is this way, what other Fringe performer not only has the guts to start
a show with a protracted and GRAPHIC description of his experience with
Montezuma's Revenge during a Mexican holiday, but manages to use the
grotesque memory for a larger thematic end. In "The Curse of Trickster",
Dawe, a master of observational comedy who delivers his deadpan lines
mostly sitting on his backless stool, aims his sights at all the petty
irritants that painfully plague us in the course of our lives. Some
of these daily mental grinds including those irritants that are imposed
upon us (folks who talk too loudly on cell phones in public or loudly
say banal things during movies) and those things that we impose upon
ourselves (buying expensive DVDs we never watch because we've become
too lazy to rent/return/rewind videos). Why, Dawe questions, should
it REALLY bother us that it takes a couple of minutes for a video to
rewind? Would any of us ever put this time to better use writing a timeless
novel or penning an opera? My only complaint about this show is that
this deftly literate and surprisingly interconnected work was a tad
too stand-up for my tastes. - Gilbert Bouchard CBC Radio Edmonton
Reviews from The Saskatoon Fringe Festival
Cruse of the Trickster
TJ Dawe can make anything funny: Montezuma's Revenge, taxes, cellphones.
Perched on a stool at the Broadway Theatre Friday night, Dawe opened
his act by noting things you never hear people say -- "When you
travel to Mexico, be sure to drink the water."
Then he was off, providing incisive, and sometimes simply goofy, observations
on bodily functions, owning movies, and the miseries of various afflictions.
Bouncing between sweet sarcasm and agitated outbursts, Dawe tied together
his comedy act with allusions to the Trickster, that nebulous entity
who gave us wisdom teeth and decrees that steroids make a man look more
masculine while shrinking his valiant parts.
He skewers those who spew banalities in movie theatres and on cellphones,
interspersing such mini-rants with sarcastic anti-truths.
"The taxes I pay are entirely fair," he says with an innocent
expression on his mobile face. Or, "the transit system in my city
couldn't possibly be improved."
Part of Dawe's appeal is his engaging, almost endearing, body language
and delivery. He's also a master at bringing a joke back later in the
routine, generating even bigger laughs on the second, third, or even
fourth reference. He is not only funny but very clever, judging by his
use of language and keen, sometimes off-beat, observations.
Dawe is a perennial Fringe favourite and the size of his audience on
opening night, about 175 at a guess, showed his drawing power. He had
them -- especially one rather loud fellow -- guffawing through most
of the evening. The show could, however, have been slightly shorter,
or varied, to maintain momentum.
The program says Trickster is a drama for mature audiences with violence.
It should have read uproarious sit-down comedy, mixed with snarkiness
and some very salty language. - 4 stars - Cam Fuller, Paul Sinkewicz,
Joanne Paulson Saskatoon StarPhoenix August 3, 2004
Reviews from The Winnipeg Fringe Festival 2004
Fringe player T.J. Dawe challenges crowds with aggressive and clever
monologues
Mike Warkentin - Uptown Magazine
“I am a shit machine,” T.J. Dawe affirms during his hit
one-man Fringe play The Curse of the Trickster.
But body functions aside, The Curse of the Trickster is also one of
those rare pieces that takes everyday observations and turns them into
a profoundly funny commentary that is intellectual, thought-provoking
and clever — and it’s all delivered in a mile-a-minute stream
of consciousness that never fails to amaze.
And Dawe has been amazing crowds at the Fringe for some time now. In
fact, he’s been at the Winnipeg Fringe every year since 2001 (you
may remember such hits as Toothpaste & Cigars and The Slip-Knot).
As such, Dawe has become one of those Fringe All-stars whose shows are
eagerly anticipated and often sold out.
Just try to get a ticket to see The Curse..., which has filled the 300-seat
PTE Mainstage and forced Fringe volunteers to turn away dozens of theatre-goers.
Or stand in the line that reaches almost to the I-Max Theatre and feel
the buzz as people gush about how funny Dawe is and how brilliant his
shows are.
Dawe himself believes his success comes from his approach to creating
fringe plays.
“I think I top myself every year. Not only do I come back every
year — which few people do — but I’m always working
hard to do better than year before,” says the 29-year-old writer/performer.
“Winnipeg audiences are probably the best in Canada for remembering.
They really study their Fringe programs and they remember who was good
last year.”
Dawe continues his tradition of excellence this year, delivering a George
Carlin-esque performance that uses a questioning mind and sharp wit
to point out the many foibles of a self-important society.
Can’t be away from your cell phone for even one minute? Have to
have that new director’s cut DVD with all those ‘amazing’
extras? Ever pretend to listen to a friend on the phone while watching
TV on mute?
Then T.J. Dawe has a few thoughts you might find interesting.
“These are just things that are on my mind and I just want to
get them across,” Dawe says. “When people are laughing,
they open up in a way they never do otherwise.
“With this show especially, I’m pushing (the audience) further.
I’m saying a lot of things in this show that are challenging.
I’m criticizing the way we all act — including myself.
“I don’t think there’s anyone in the audience that
does everything I talk about, but I don’t think there’s
anyone that does nothing I talk about.”
Dawe certainly talks a lot during The Curse... Jumping around from topic
to topic and instantly changing his tack, the performer is faced with
a huge script that is completely devoid of any clues or associations
that might help him remember it all.
And it’s not like he can hide behind the stool that is the only
prop onstage.
It turns out that Dawe has a secret method of rehearsing a script and
keeping it all straight in his head: He’s one of those crazy guys
who wanders around muttering to himself.
“I go for about an hour and a half or two-hour walk every day
and mumble (the script) to myself. Yeah, I’m one of those crazy
people you see on the streets talking to themselves. Usually when someone
comes down the street I’ll keep quiet or I’ll whisper, but
after a certain point I wouldn’t.
“And I did it in Amsterdam and I did it in London and people totally
ignored me,” he says.
In fact, because of his engaging nature and honest and thoughtful delivery,
Dawe seems to be able to get away with quite a lot.
“I really thought this was going to be a show that people would
walk out of and I’m surprised at the delight in people’s
faces — from women, from old people — as I’m telling
them their bodies are full of undigested feces.
“It’s part of what I’m talking about, so lets just
put all these things in and not censor all these things inside of me
that want to come out — kind of like taking a huge shit. That’s
one of the themes of this show; it’s me shitting out all these
undigested thoughts that have been festering in there.”
“Once the voices inside realize someone’s listening, they
start giving you more.”
Which is good, because more is exactly what Fringers want of T.J. Dawe.
Hunter S. Thompson once said “When the going gets weird, the weird
turn pro.”
And so welcome to Uptown’s reviews of the 2004 Winnipeg Fringe
Festival.
As usual, this year’s Fringe plays fall into a host of categories,
with some even inventing genres of their own. Some are good, some bad,
some ugly — and some plays are so ugly they’re back to being
good. Whatever they are, Winnipeg Fringers are loving them all.
Welcome to the outer limits of theatre.
Rating A - The Curse of the Trickster
T.J. Dawe has been compared to both George Carlin and Jerry Seinfeld,
and in The Curse of the Trickster he shows exactly why. With a quick,
precise delivery Dawe easily alternates between scatological jokes and
more intellectual fare. Relying on a host of hilarious “statements
you never hear,” Dawe jumps around from topic to topic, skewering
DVDs, e-mail, cell phones, people who talk during movies and everything
in between. Even if a few slow bits could be dropped, Dawe’s comedy
is successful, remaining obscenely funny rather than stupidly filthy.
The B.C. resident simply reveals himself as a thinking man who makes
funny observations about life — check out his take on North Americans
aspiring to be Jabba the Hutt, for example. Unrepentant and uncensored,
T.J. Dawe is one of the hits of this year’s Fringe. Reserve tickets
because people are lining up to see this guy. — MW - Uptown Magazine
The Curse of the Trickster
PTE Mainstage (Venue 16), to July 25
It should come as no surprise that The Curse of the Trickster is thematically
all over the place given that it was written in Mexico and Honduras,
revised in Vancouver and rehearsed in Amsterdam and London.
TJ Dawe, the fringe circuit's reigning king of monologues, journeys
far and wide in his laugh-filled 80-minute rant, riffing about everything
including the traveller's worse affliction, Montezuma's Revenge. He
unleashes a torrent of words about all that pains him, whether it be
diarrhea or ringing cellphones in movies.
Sprinkled throughout the fast-paced, Seinfeldian diatribe are statements
you don't hear uttered very often, like, "I sure wish I had more
hair growing out of my back," "I get too many paid vacation
days," and "That summer movie was great." His long segment
about being lost in the dark of his billet's basement is a bit of a
dud but his portrayal of a cat in heat is hilariously accurate.
The bespectacled Vancouver story-teller sits coolly on a stool completely
at ease with his witty words and confident about their effect on the
sensibilities of his listeners. Ironically, words can't express just
how funny Dawe is on stage.
Kevin Prokosh - Winnipeg Free Press - 5 stars
Reviews from The Toronto Fringe Festival
The Curse of the Trickster by TJ Dawe (Big Sandwich )
In an elliptical narrative style that’s become his trademark,
storyteller T.J. Dawe spins a tale of battling Montezuma’s Revenge
in Mexico that makes him flash back to earlier confrontations with pain,
including mononucleosis and having his wisdom teeth extracted. Dawe
always makes it look easy. (GS) Robert Gill - Now Toronto
eye's review:
Fringe regular TJ Dawe sits and talks shit for 60 minutes -- literally.
In this unspectacular but amusing one-man show, Dawe combines stand-up
and movement work to relate a bout of Monty's Revenge down Mexico way.
The Curse of the Trickster doesn't match up to Dawe's previous shows,
although the audience were tumbling in the aisles for most of its runtime.
Dawe's comic targets are predictable -- cellphones, email spam, doctors'
handwriting -- but he's a masterful storyteller, and one suspects the
show lost a little after being cut to fit the one-hour Fringe format
(it originally ran at 85 minutes). Slight but sweet. PI
Reviews for The Curse of the Trickster from The Orlando Fringe Festival
2004
T.J. Dawe is mad. He's mad at the people who talk at movies. He's
mad at the people who think you want to hear their cell-phone conversations.
He's mad at the people who punctuate their e-mail with smiley faces,
and at dentists, and at the folks who market DVDs.
In The Curse of the Trickster, the Canadian performer's fourth solo
show at the Fringe, Dawe weaves his rants and musings into the stories
of the worst nights of his life. All of it, he says, you can blame on
the Trickster, the unnamed force that makes everything go wrong.
Dawe is irascible, but he's also a marvel - a master at re-creating
the agony of being stuck in a stranger's basement in the dark when all
you want is a glass of water from the kitchen upstairs, a whiz at putting
words together so that they wind around each other into a tightly knit
thread. He makes all of this seem artless, but there's plenty of art
involved, and he knows exactly how each word will fall.
The Curse of the Trickster is an experiment, Dawe says, and its scatological
humor doesn't have the disarming charm or the substance of some of his
previous work. But even the seeming non sequiturs add up to something:
With Trickster, Dawe makes gold of dross.
--Elizabeth Maupin - Orlando Sentinel May 17, 2004
The One Man Lord of the Rings, and The Curse of the Trickster
By kathleen oliver
Publish Date: 13-May-2004, The Georgia Straight
Both these shows will be back for the Vancouver Fringe Festival, and
they're both likely to be hot tickets.
Charlie Ross had a huge hit last year with The One Man Star Wars Trilogy
and now he brings the same delightful combination of faithfulness and
irreverence to the Lord of the Rings movie franchise. On a bare stage,
dressed in black and wearing knee and elbow pads, Ross enacts stripped-down
scenelets from all three movies, with an uncanny knack for impersonation
and for conjuring mammoth special effects by using merely his voice
and body. But he's not afraid of mocking his source material: "It
began with the exposition that would have been filled in if any of you
had bothered to read the books," he intones near the beginning,
and he makes a meal of the are-they-gay? relationship between Frodo
and Sam in the final film. The result is both a loving tribute and a
hilarious send-up, and--like watching a very talented kid at play in
his bedroom--always entertaining.
Over the past few years, TJ Dawe's observational monologues have become
reliable Fringe fare. His latest, The Curse of the Trickster,
is preoccupied with discomfort. Dawe defines the Trickster as a force
that revels in irritation: "The Trickster finds a song you hate
and plants it in your head." Dawe begins by recounting one of the
most miserable nights of his life, spent on a toilet in Mexico while
suffering from a serious bout of turista. From there he alternates between
other stories of misery and rants about various lesser annoyances: Why
do people buy DVDs instead of just renting them? Why do they bring cellphones
to movies? Why do people insist on forwarding chain letters via e-mail?
Although Dawe infuses all his observations with warmth and quirky humour
("You always rent two videos. Renting one would be like ordering
one French fry"), the stories are ultimately more engaging than
the rants, which wear thin after a while. Dawe isn't afraid to take
risks--there's a terrific sequence in which he mimes a desperate middle-of-the-night
search at a stranger's house for a glass of water to soothe a sore throat--but
this show doesn't quite reach the magical coherence of some of his earlier
monologues.
These shows share a stripped-down aesthetic and a love of taking you
to the more ticklish parts of your imagination--and that's no small
achievement.
Reviews from the Winnipeg Fringe Festival 2003
Tracks
Big Sandwich Productions
Venue 16 - PTE Mainstage (seats 300) I'm sitting on the edge of my chair,
holding my breath, straining to hear the next words as my heart beats
furiously…. I could be a child listening to the best radio dramas
of the 1930's and 40's or a Winnipeg 2003 Fringer watching, spell-bound,
as TJ Dawe, as a young Jack London, takes us on an unbelievable tale
of adventure, riding the rails across North America.
The program tells us that Jack London remains the most widely read American
author, and this play amply demonstrates why. The material is still
fresh, and captivating in its romantic look at a life few of us encounter
outside of our imaginations. In addition to telling us about the mechanics
of hoboing - including one particularly hair-raising sequence about
his near-suicidal ride between two cars on a fast-moving freight - the
story tells us about people on both sides of the hobo fence, and those
on its periphery. London's encounter with the gypsies will stay with
me for a long time.
While this show is a departure from Dawe's previous style of work, he
proves himself to be as capable of drama as of comedy. Accompanied by
a skillful percussionist playing a myriad of unusual instruments to
reinforce the mood, and using only a metal trolley as a prop, Dawe makes
the 75 minutes disappear. And just like a great adventure story should,
it left me wanting more. Heck, by the end of the show, I was ready to
hop on a boxcar myself…
Linda Harlos - CBC
Thursday, July 24, 2003
Tracks
by TJ Dawe
adapted from Jack London
Venue 16
Rating: 4 stars
I think I can, I think I can, I thought I could.... that was me at the
Fringe last year at this time. I was well into my Robert Service show,
and the siren voices of my audience were saying, "Why don't you
do Jack London next year?" When I came across a biography of the
old roustabout, author and political firebrand, at the Fringe's answer
to Rodeo Drive, call it Hogwallows Corner, and it is back this year,
I took it as an omen.
And then the voice of reason spoke. And all potential next year fringe
performers should bend an ear, and it said, "You don't have the
fire in the belly for this one." In other words if the enthusiasm
rating isn't at least twice the pain in the ass rating at the start,
desire will turn to duty.
Well I did the right thing. Because, it turns out that Mr. Everywhere,
TJ Dawe was on the same track. His delightful one man show, Tracks,
gives us Jack London when he was riding the rails in the 1890s across
Canada.
Now you know that insider's delight you get when you learn some of the
lingo of a particular subject? Dawe wisely gives us the vocabulary we'll
need to identify a shack and a platform. Railway lingo. And once again
the magic of the fringe comes through. He takes a four wheeled trolley
with two shelves and he convinces us we're seeing a table where a hobo
can sit to eat a meal he's just bummed, by means of a tale of woe so
moving, and painful, and ...fraudulent, that you can smell the biscuits
baking. Then with a quick shift of shelves, it's the underside of a
railcar, where a profesh, not a rookie, can steal a ride without worry...unless
the shack lowers a spike on a cable and lets it bounce off the rails
and skewer the poor 'bo.
Now that's Jack London, the clear eyed observer, who makes you feel
the inequities in this wicked world without ever lecturing or wagging
a finger. The images, the stories speak loudly enough, even with Dawe's
quiet style.
I don't know if you find this, but I've been to several shows where
I wished the stage and the venue was smaller, in keeping with the intimacy
of the experience. This was one of those times. Of course it does mean
there's a potential for more bums in the seats, but I also saw JOB II
at PTE Mainstage, and it didn't sell out. And I've heard from other
sources as well, that suggest PTE is too far from the heart of Fringeworld.
At any rate it was partly that feel, and that Jason Overy on percussion
wasn't as well used as he might have been, that almost kept me from
giving Tracks four Christmas lights. The train start-ups and rhythm
were great, done with shakers, but there was one scene where Dawe rattles
off the nicknames of the profesh, and the percussion amplified it and
made it poetry. And then I thought, oh you jealous Grinch. Just be thankful
that we didn't have duelling Jack London's at the fringe.
Ron Robinson - CBC Radio
Tracks
Venue 16 - PTE Mainstage
Tracks is the one of four shows that Fringe Festival favourite TJ Dawe
is involved in this year. The fact that I have seen all four of TJ Dawe’s
shows in the first four days of the Fringe should indicate what high
esteem I hold him in.
In Tracks, Dawe plays Sailor Jack, a 1890s hobo, or adventurer that
wants to see the world if you ask him. Sailor Jack tells a series of
tales that he spins to keep himself clothed, fed and out of jail. He
regales us with adventures (and advice) for train hopping and how to
keep one step ahead of the railway cops. Tracks is not really a cohesive
play, but rather a series of scenes from Sailor Jack’s life and,
as such, doesn’t really have a proper beginning or ending. It
works just fine as just a bunch of stories, as this fits TJ style (similar
to Slip Knot). TJ is fine storyteller and the stories he adapted from
Jack London for this show are good enough but I prefer his original
work a bit more. In short, this is exactly the type of show that we
have come to expect from TJ Dawe. Tracks is well worth your time and
a top ten show of the Fringe.
- Jason Olynyk - UMFM
Tracks - Big Sandwich Productions (Venue 16 - PTE Mainstage )
TJ Dawe, the star of last year's Fringe hit The Slipknot, performs this
adaptation of Jack London's "The Road". The story is of a
tramp known as Sailor Jack, who travels North America in the 1890's
by hitching rides on trains. Dawe immerses us in the lingo and codes
of hobo life as we are taken on many adventures in this 75 minute production.
It is a simple stage with only a small scaffold and a percussionist,
but Dawe manages to use it to full advantage as he brings his tales
to life. Why is this young, athletic, intelligent man a tramp, because
it is easier than to not be one. Once again Dawe has a triumph on his
hands as he mesmerizes his audience with his intriguing tales and an
incredible amount of dialogue. - 4 1/2 stars Ken Gordon - CBC
TRACKS
Big Sandwich Productions
PTE -- Mainstage (Venue 16), to July 27
A teenaged Jack London jumps on a train in the late 1800s and quickly
becomes one of the best train-hopping hobos on the continent, eluding
railway staff, mastering the art of the dismount and earning respect
within the tramp and railway community.
This is the narrative told by writer and performer TJ Dawe, who claims
on the play's hilarious handout to be of "no fixed address,"
although rumour has it he currently lives in Toronto. Dawe is a mesmerizing
storyteller -- although he must be the cleanest hobo this side of Reno
-- and cleverly uses a small scaffold to help illustrate the highly
visual stories.
Also clever is the ambience provided by inconspicuous percussionist
Jason Overy (of a fixed address in Vancouver), particularly his train
sound effects.
-- Tamara Bodi - 4 stars - Winnipeg Free Press
Five-star showman
Fri Jul 18 2003
By Kevin Prokosh
TWO years ago, Ti-John Dawe was a stock boy at a Vancouver Shoppers
Drug Mart, making minimum wage.
This week, T.J. Dawe arrives at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival as one
of the very few -- if not the only -- full-time fringe performers.
"I'm making enough money on the circuit, I don't need to work in
the off-season," says Dawe who, unlike most of his fellow fringers,
flew to Winnipeg Monday after the Toronto Fringe Festival wrapped up
Sunday.
"I'm making more money than if I was doing mainstage work. It's
an amazing privilege."
This year, Dawe arrives as almost a fringe festival unto himself.
The 28-year-old storyteller performed his one-man shows Tired Cliches
in Orlando, Labrador in Toronto, A Canadian Bartender at Butlin's in
Montreal and will perform the show Tracks in Winnipeg. He is the director
of One Man's '80s Blank Tape, which played Toronto. He also has a direct
hand in three plays being staged here this week -- One Man Star Wars,
which he directs; The Power of Ignorance, which he co-wrote with Hoopal's
Chris Gibbs; and Toothpaste and Cigars, written with Michael Rinaldi.
Winnipeg is Dawe's 47th fringe festival and he'll have a piece of the
box office of what should be four top-selling shows. His breakthrough
show Slip-Knot, seen here last summer, was an autobiographical comedy
about working dead-end jobs that he stocked with his memories at Shoppers.
"I can make more in a single performance at the fringe now than
I made in an entire month at Shoppers," says Dawe, who was misnamed
after the Quebec fiddler Ti-Jean Carignan. "They gave me a goldmine
of material."
It's always tough to determine who is doing well on the fringe circuit.
Actors by nature are a close-mouthed lot, which is odd because they
make their living by opening their mouths. But you didn't need to be
an accountant in 1996 to know Rick Miller was raking it in with his
Simpsons-do-Shakespeare money-maker MacHomer.
"I don't keep it a secret or rub it in people's faces," Dawe
says during a recent interview. "All I know is there are very few
(full-time fringe performers)."
The key to his success is that he is a one-man operation. He writes
his own shows and then performs them. That means he doesn't have to
share ticket revenue. Last summer, the four performers in The Condom,
The Cucumber and the Girl from Ipanema did boffo box office, but had
to split the proceeds in quarters. "I do it myself," says
Dawe, who will attend his 50th fringe festival in Vancouver in September.
"When I had someone else involved, expenses were a lot higher.
I'm lucky that I am inclined to solo shows. My shows are very simple.
I'm mostly standing and telling a story. The fringe circuit is made
for me."
A little luck doesn't hurt, either. Fringe festivals are becoming harder
to get into because most of them determine entry by lottery. Dawe bucked
the odds and got into all the festivals he wanted.
Dawe first came to the Winnipeg fringe as an actor in Daniel MacIvor's
Never Swim Alone in 1994. He penned Tired Cliches, 52 Pick Up and Labrador
before Slip-Knot was voted best comedy at the Montreal Fringe Festival
and earned a spot at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in 2001. He
paid his dues, losing a bundle at the Adelaide Fringe Festival a year
earlier, but learned plenty.
"The fringe circuit is incredible," says the University of
Victoria graduate, who rooms with fringe friend Alex Dallas in Toronto.
"Your supper is at stake. If you have an idea, six months later,
it can be on stage."
There is no substitute for a good show when it comes to doing well on
the circuit, he says. In recent years, Dawe's shows have grown from
four-star reviews to five-star raves.
"If you get a five-star review, you can start taking down your
posters," he says. "There's a big difference between four
and five stars. Nobody says, 'I'm looking for a good four-star show
to see.'"
Tired Cliches' Reviews from The Orlando Fringe
Festival 2003
Orlando Sentinel
By Elizabeth Maupin
Posted May 19, 2003, 10:50 AM EDT T.J. Dawe is crafty. You'd have to
work extra hours to spot all the threads he weaves together in Tired
Cliches, the virtuosic monologue in which walk signals, kittens and
the word postmodern all come to mean more than anyone might think. At
first a seemingly random stream of consciousness -- similar, at times,
to the musings of standup comic Steven Wright -- Tired Cliches turns
into something more. But only those who are listening hard will see
the art behind his craft.
Dawe, who is based in Vancouver, was judged best actor at last year's
Fringe for his amazing monologue The Slip-Knot. At first Tired Cliches
seems like a less polished effort. But this loose story of working a
minimum-wage job on the graveyard shift turns into a crystalline snapshot
of one single point in time.
Dawe brings it all together so that there's not a seam in sight, and
he uses his voice like a drum, striking faster and faster as he races
to the story's climax. This is a guy who knows what he's doing every
second he's onstage. Listen, and marvel.
Orlando Weekly
by Al Krulick
Wunderkind monologist TJ Dawe reaches back into his past with Tired
Clichés , the show that made his name on the Canadian tour trail.
It's less immediately arresting than last year's "The Slip-Knot,:
but there's still no equal for Dawe's hyperintelligent verbal volleying
(accompanied here by a series of dangerous-looking leaps into a pile
of cardboard boxes). The piece starts as a collage of seemingly unrelated
observations, with targets ranging from the dancing habits of Jesus
to the overuse of terms like "neo," "pseudo" and
"quasi." These scattershot barbs gradually coalesce into a
single narrative that plays like an insanely clever synthesis of the
movies "The Others" and "Office Space." Join Dawe
for one of his brilliant, neo-pseudo-quasi-performance-pieces, and you
aren't likely to forget it. (There's an extra, post-Fringe performance
at 8 p.m. Monday, May 26, at SAK Comedy Lab, 398 W. Amelia St.)
The Slip-Knot Reviews from The Winnipeg Fringe
Festival 2002
Saturday July 20, 2002
The Slip-Knot Although TJ Dawe’s one-man show happens to be at
the King’s Head Pub, you’d be well advised not to order
a Guinness before this 90-minute show- that is, unless you want to know
how it feels when it comes out your nose. The Slip-Knot is easily one
of the funniest, most energetic shows at the Fringe.
Dawe plays three characters, connected literally in a way you’ll
have to discover for yourself, and thematically in their collective
realization that their function in the workforce is only as placeholders
for their respective job descriptions. Through the eyes of a dumpster
truck driver, a Canada Post parcel tracker and a Shopper’s Drug
Mart merchandiser, Dawe tries to make sense of his surroundings with
an observational sensibility that Jerry Seinfeld would envy, and a knack
for stories together that would inspire quiet awe if one wasn’t
busy laughing so hard.
- Peter Vesuwalla 5 stars
Sunday July 21, 2002
The Slip-Knot For all those who’ve been stuck in one dead-end
job after another – those thankless, slightly above-minimum-wage
snoozers – there’s a kindred spirit at Venue 14. TJ Dawe
has been there, done that and lived to rant about it. Ever wonder what
the cashier is thinking at Shopper’s Drug Mart when you march
up to the cash register with only a box of condoms? Why do all feminine
hygiene products contain the word “fresh?” Is there something
other than “personal” lubricant? The former stockboy tells
it like it is and a whole lot more. Dawe has also been a truck driver
and worked at Canada Post, so he’s no stranger to the drudgery
of an eight hour day and what it takes to get through one. His rocking,
raucous, rambling 90-minute monologue flies by in a heartbeat as he
explains in hilarious detail his co-workers and their quirks, some of
the unique challenges he’s stared down, and why it’s important
not to take high-powered hallucinogens before a staff Christmas party.
His delivery and pace are spot on. If Jerry Seinfeld and George Carlin
had a baby, it’d be TJ Dawe. - John Baert 41/2 stars
The Slip-Knot
written and performed by TJ Dawe TJ Dawe is a phenomenom. His performance
of his own 90 minute script achieves levels of such virtuosity that
I'm inclined to believe he has made a pact with the very devil who gets
mentioned numerous times throughout the evening. (After a raise at Shopper's
Drug Mart he is earning $6.66 an hour, "the wage of the beast"
as he puts it). His job as a "merchandiser" for the drug-store
chain (that means he stocks shelves), as a Canada Post parcel tracker,
and as the driver of a dumpster (an "unwanted-shingle-get-ridder-of-er")
form the basis of his three-pronged attack on the sensibilities of anyone
in the audience foolish enough to think they aren't going to laugh,
and laugh a lot. Separate segments of his monologue are riotously funny,
especially his inventory of drug-store products and where they are situated,
and his diatribe on drug-store euphemisms, where condoms are called
"family planning" and where feminine hygiene earns the moniker
"euphemism central". What makes this piece such a delight
is that Dawe's humour is never nasty and always intelligent. To be sure,
he is one of the smartest writers on the circuit. That intelligence
is most apparent in the way he weaves together the three jobs (and the
narratives which spin off of them). By the end of the evening you realize
that what appeared to be some skillfully told stories is really part
of a beautifully conceived map of epic wit and humour, at times wry
and, at others, outrageous. But in addition to all of its laughs, there
is in the piece a serious lament about a world in which "words
cease to have any meaning if you misuse them". When you see The
Slip-Knot you needn't have any worry that language is going to be abused.
Dawe loves words, and the ideas they shape themselves into. In an odd
way, his monologue engages all of us - writer, performer, audience and
words - in what amounts to an intimate love story.
Robert Enright, Globe & Mail
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