Quick-witted comedian brings lunacy from south
The year’s Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival is proving to be a hot ticket, organizers say.
“There have been more shows selling out their advance tickets than ever before,” said Sean Guist of host company Intrepid Theatre.
“Some shows are selling out their opening night before reviews or word of mouth hits.”
Guist noted that three shows had been cancelled: Cafe Soap Opera, God is an Iron and Pomegranate.
A new batch of shows is coming to Victoria from the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival, which ended Sunday.
Guist said highlights of this second wave include: Interstellar Elder, Oliver Copperbottom, Help! I’m American, The Inventor of All Things, Six Fine Lines and Jon Bennett: My Dad’s Deaths.
Los Angeles comedian D.K. Reinemer wasn’t kidding when he declared “It’s bonkers down there!” at the beginning of his hit-and-miss fusion of sketch comedy and political commentary poking fun at what it’s like to live in Donald Trump’s America.
And while he can’t resist taking comic swipes at the buffoonish U.S. president, whom he describes as “a middle-age bully who wants our lunch money, and our health insurance,” Help! I'm American! is shorter on political satire than laugh-inducing lunacy about everything from ridiculous action heroes to game shows, relying heavily on input from participants plucked from the audience.
One game theatregoer, a documentary filmmaker named Heather, was particularly amusing after being enlisted as Reinemer’s Canuck “date” in an uneven series of comic bits, ad-libbing with flair, as when she got big laughs after telling this slick American dude: “You just want me for my citizenship.”
The fact Reinemer is such an endearing, quick-witted performer who also happens to juggle and do magic tricks compensates considerably for his breezy one-man-show’s biggest liability: its lack of cohesion and a unifying sense of purpose as he hopscotches somewhat haphazardly through a string of gags and tongue-in-cheek musical numbers.
Some are hilariously inspired, such as his song Ladies First, which pokes fun at premature ejaculation and even suggests using thoughts of Canada as a potential distraction, like baseball, to prevent that.
Another comic highlight is his tune Sex Is Like. . ., with audience members invited to creatively fill in the blanks with words the guitar-strumming comedian then musically riffs on. Reinemer is also amusing as a rednosed clown who has to improvise after he learns he has been mistakenly sent, not to a child’s birthday party, but to a bachelorette party whose hostess expected a male stripper.
Until the novelty prematurely wears out its welcome, he also coaxes smiles and chuckles with his antics as Buck Winchester, a Cal Worthington-type TV cowboy huckster who doesn’t just sell cars, but dolphins.
A protracted sequence on how to deliver the ultimate Ted Talk falls flat, however, as does his ill-advised, if fitfully funny, impersonation of a captain of the Titanic with standup-comedy aspirations.
Reinemer crams so much material into his hour-long show, there is no shortage of yuks to keep you entertained despite the duds, but this immensely likable comedian would benefit from a good editor.
Still, the audience for the first of Reinemer’s five shows here responded enthusiastically, impulsively echoing suggestions such as Applause or “Awww” written on flash cards introduced early on.