2015 Archives | Otaku No Culture

[Victoria Fringe Festival ’15] The 11 o’clock Number Rocks, A Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

the-11-oclock-number-1

VENUE: Metro Studio Theatre
1411 Quadra St. Victoria, BC

LENGTH: 60 minutes

To perform improv on stage must require the talents to think fast and furious. To see that person compose a song on the fly and be funny at the same time has to be commended. In what Grindstone Theatre has provided in their show 11 o’clock Number at the Victoria Fringe Festival 2015, which included input from me (who asked for zombies), I’m very impressed at blending the ideas of a neurosurgeon discovering a miracle in what some brain cells of her boss’ daughter can do and finding a cure to an emerging Zombie apocalypse in Victoria that would even impress Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti from CW’s iZombie. Every night promises to be different, and in what I enjoyed opening night is the comedy from Jordan Ward and Dan Moser when one of them played a gender-swapped role and the two were playing off each other with ease. They even kept the act clean. And to see them ham it up behind the singer made for a hilarious contrast.

Continue reading “[Victoria Fringe Festival ’15] The 11 o’clock Number Rocks, A Review”

[Victoria Fringe Festival ’15] The Lexicon of the Brothers Grimm is Fully Explored in The Untold Tales, A Review

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

a3f779_4fb3ff82d5d04029b6c81b4baf8ffed9.jpg_srb_p_259_389_75_22_0.50_1.20_0

VENUE: Metro Studio Theatre
1411 Quadra St. Victoria, BC

LENGTH: 75 minutes

Audiences going to see The Untold Tales of the Brothers Grimm will be treated to lesser known tales from the trio and to quick summarizes of their better known tales. But wait, not everyone will know that the family consisted of nine siblings. Jacob (Josh Sundmann) and Wilhelm (Nich Gulycz) are the duo who achieved wider recognition. Some members passed away before their prime and others were not as involved in these two’s endeavours. What makes this show fascinating is a look into how one of the members of the family really wanted to be part of Jacob and Wilhelm’s life. The mousey Ludwig Grimm (Brooke Baliam) adds an element to the show that helps provide a plot. On the historical front, and perhaps overlooked for this play, is his contribution to the Grimm legacy by providing an illustrative front-piece to a later edition of their book, Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

Continue reading “[Victoria Fringe Festival ’15] The Lexicon of the Brothers Grimm is Fully Explored in The Untold Tales, A Review”

[Victoria Fringe Festival 2015] A Look at the Many Faces of Tim Motley, Dirk Darrow & Beyond

standup

Location:
Victoria Event Centre
1415 Broad Street

Showtimes:
Aug 27, 2015 – 8:15 PM
Aug 29, 2015 – 8:15 PM
Sept 2, 2015 – 6:15 PM
Sept 4, 2015 – 10:00 PM
Sept 5, 2015 – 4:45 PM
Sept 6, 2015 – 6:30 PM

Stage Magician and Comedian Tim Motley has more than just one character hiding up his sleeve. He can simply be himself, or appear as a character from long ago. In the past, he’s played the role of Arizona Jones, a character that’s a cousin of the famous archaeologist, Indiana, but these days, he’s Dirk Darrow, a sleuth with an eye on enchanting audiences with his slight-of-hand and wit. He appeared two years ago at Victoria’s Fringe Festival back as a Not Completely Serious Supernatural Investigator in Dirk Darrow: NCSSI, and this year he returns with 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick. If there’s a sexual joke in there, theatre-goers will have to attend the show to find out. At other Fringe shows, this show has been reported as sold out.

Continue reading “[Victoria Fringe Festival 2015] A Look at the Many Faces of Tim Motley, Dirk Darrow & Beyond”

[Victoria, BC] How to do the Nerdy Fringe 2015 Edition

Various Venues
August 27 to Sept 6
Victoria, BC

Requires Fringe Button ($6)
Tickets range from $9 to 11
Available through Ticket Rocket or at the door

I’m fairly certain that there’s more than a few staff members at the Victoria Fringe Festival who are nerds too. I’ve met one person who worked there who is an avid LEGO enthusiast and I’m sure that buried in the closet are a few NERF guns. When nobody is looking, it’ll be time to bust a move.

People not acquainted with what the Fringe is about will quickly discover that the shows are experimental in nature, and the stages used are small to accommodate an intimate performance. Anything can happen, and the idea of a festival is to give new up-and-coming talent a chance to earn their cred. There’s a few groups that have moved on to bigger shows. The Reduced Shakespeare Company got their start at Fringe and Tom Stoppard‘s play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was performed first at the Edinburgh Fringe. In a tiny way, Evil Dead: The Musical owes its debt somewhat to this method of putting on shows. It opened in a club before making it big. Musicals are just one part of what can be experienced at Fringe Festivals, and that’s what I tend to gravitate to when the Victoria Fringe Festival caps off the Summer.

Continue reading “[Victoria, BC] How to do the Nerdy Fringe 2015 Edition”

Packing Two Weekend Fandom Conventions into a Four Day Nerdtacular

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Changes are in store for both Emerald City Comicon (ECCC) and Fan Expo Vancouver (FEV), two of the Pacific Northwest’s biggest pop culture conventions. They are now respectively owned by ReedPOP and Informa Canada. While Hobby Star Marketing still manages the Fan Expo brand, they now report to a larger company that operates out of 43 countries that deal with a variety of exhibits than just focussing on geekdom whereas ReedPOP is more about the popular culture scene.

In what I’ve experienced from both of this year’s shows, a few of these modifications are not all that visible. Some include courier expressing show passes to fans so they have them in time for the show (ECCC) and others mean hiring additional security / staff for traffic control (FEV). The check-in of fake weapons is another and these are honestly needed for the safety for everyone. These changes are perhaps the most noticeable for this year’s two shows. As for what will happen in 2016, fine-tuning is required to manage the crazy lineups I saw when big name stars appear on the show floor.

Continue reading “Packing Two Weekend Fandom Conventions into a Four Day Nerdtacular”

How Can A GottaCon Grow? An Editorial

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Gottacon2015

The good news is that GottaCon now takes up two buildings to give the people from the City of Victoria and elsewhere the exposition of what the world of gaming offers. Is it a geek haven? Sure, if folks could find something related to pop culture to enjoy (which is mostly found in their evening entertainment), but when this event is primarily about celebrating gaming in all its forms — from board games, miniature battles, cards to video — the big question is will they succumb to requiring celebrities to draw more people in?

Most likely not — but in my case, I have to say that I am losing interest. They do get locally well-known folks to fuel the panels. My pursuits into this realm now lay in finding exhibitions and discussions about new trends. I’m fascinated with the world of mobile/tablet gaming and there’s nothing in the event’s webpage and panel listings to draw me in. Kano/Apps was there to represent that world but they were mostly showing off their own products, saying they are recruiting programmers and nothing was listed as panels to explore this young industry.

Until GottaCon catches up with the mobile world or offers industry type technical panels, I see no reason to attend for all three days. One is enough for me, if they are lucky enough to collect my hard-earned money.

Continue reading “How Can A GottaCon Grow? An Editorial”

Pages: 12