Memories of forgotten hosts, a hot reception

To commemorate the Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival’s 30th anniversary, we’ve compiled some favourite memories from veteran fringe folk:

Rob Gee, performer — A spoken-word poet from Leicester, England, Gee returns this season with Pandemonium, his new collection of “chaotic” slam poems.

Gee has performed at Victoria’s fringe festival for a decade. He remembers an embarrassing incident from his debut show in 2006. At the time, he and fellow performers did plenty of late-night drinking at the Fringe Club. “It wasn’t a hugely sober affair,” he said. After a boozy evening or two, Gee groggily approached a Fringe lineup with his flyers. He then explained his show to a bewildered-looking older couple.

“The more I tried to talk to them, the more perplexed they were looking. Eventually, I gave them a flyer and the man said: ‘No Rob. We came yesterday. We’re your billet.’ I felt deeply ashamed.”

Katt Campbell, guest producer — Over the years, Campbell has held many positions with the Victoria Fringe, ranging from volunteer to front-of-house manager to her current post, guest producer.

A single recollection remains burned in her memory. One year, she helped at the Downtown Activity Centre on Pandora Avenue. A longtime Fringe venue, the centre offers programs and housing for the disadvantaged.

Apparently, upstairs residents took umbrage at the clamour bubbling up from the courtyard, where fringers had gathered.

“Disgruntled residents of the centre threw flaming garbage at us from an upstairs window,” Campbell said. “It was quite exciting.”

Trent Baumann, performer — Best known as “the Birdmann,” Australian Baumann brings a comedy show, I Forgot to Fly Today, that’s chock-full of surrealist one-liners. Like Gee, he has played the Victoria Fringe many times.

He recalls being billeted by a family with a “polydactyl cat,” born with extra toes on each paw (cats usually have five on their front paws and four on their hind legs).

“It was a good feeling to get a high-five when you went out to do a show and a thumbs up when you got home,” Baumann said.

Andrew Bailey, performer — This year, Victoria writer-actor Bailey is doing his comedy show Me, the Queen and a Coconut.

He has never forgotten one 2005 Victoria Fringe performance. Bailey had just finished reading a “brutal” review of his show (from a non-TC reviewer) that made him doubt whether he belonged in theatre. As well, he was to perform in front of his parents for the first time. His mother, a character in his show, was terrified by how she’d be portrayed.

“My performance was sloppy, but engaged. The audience was with me. The next morning, my mom called me at work, in tears, to say how proud she was,” Bailey said.

The show, Scrupulosity, won best solo show at the Victoria Fringe. He has toured the fringe-theatre circuit ever since.

“Whenever I get nervous, I think: ‘Well, I got through that one.’ ”