Day 2 -- 5:30 p.m. Time Slot

Show: Skits-Ophrenia!!! Starring Dean Hatton w/ Kirsten Stephens
Company: Dean Hatton
Venue: Loring Playhouse
Die Roll: 18

This show is a Mime showcase. Really, this seems to be my year for mime. One of the ladies who is attending the Fringe Prom with me tonight is a mime, one of yesterday's shows featured mime, and now I stagger into a mime show. It wasn't until I saw the very last sketch of this show that I'd realized that I'd seen Dean perform before. He's very good.

So, because I kept all of last night's reviews really short, I'm going to make up for it with this one and explain in excruciating and exquisite detail everything I enjoyed about this show!

The show starts with a nearly cinematic chase scene in which Dean and Kirsten exchange possession of a red tube multiple times while going up and down "escalators," "elevators," and "stairs." The whole thing gets pretty convoluted, but funny in a farcical way. The show was already amusing at this point, espeically in its cartoonish self-awareness. Then, when it all comes to an end, the payoff winds up being the Title poster for the show.

The first titled scene was "Too Much Sci-Fi." two things came to mind immediately. #1...Dean's costume was a Fringe 8 t-shirt! #2...the staff downstairs, and whoever was with them needed to quite down. During a mime show it is very likely that lobby noise can be heard in the audience.

Anyway, this scene was about a guy who falls asleep, imagines himself into the Star Wars trilogy, and then wakes up again.

Immediately afterward, Kirsten, who fulfills the role of assistant and sign holder for much of the show mocks the routine beautifully. In fact, it was equally as funny as the original sketch itself.

The second section of the show was titled "Family Values." It told the story of a guy who theoretically has the perfect life, but he also has a hidden habit of snorting coke. But apparently he's been doing it for too long, because he's no longer getting a buzz. What does he do? Starts snorting everything else! And I do mean everything! Including his child, his dog, and his wife! Yipe!

Scene 3: "Boogers: The Musical" ... I've never seen anything like this. A man in a tux picks his nose, then picks it a ssecond time. He gets a little snot monster on each index finger, and they come to life and start singing "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera. Part way through, Dean's character empathetically starts to sing on behalf of the boogers, serenading them. As an audience member I eventually went from being amused by the absurdity to being intrigued by the horrific possibilities... would he make the boogers kiss, thereby getting his fingers stuck? Would he dispose of them by popping them in his mouth? I'm not giving this one away... You'll have to see it.

There's a sketch called "Jackass the Mime," and another called "Shatner LSD." One word on each. Funny!

The last sketch is the one tht I've seen before at Balls a couple of years ago. It involves a gravedigger who is in love with a corpse. I laughed. i cried. I was Hor-ri-fied!

So far... best show I've seen this year.

RATING: "d20 - One of the Best!"