Improv for cat ladies
“Bushwhacked Cabaret of Destiny” | Spiegelgarden | Sept. 17, 18, 21 (Boozy version on Sept. 20) | From $29 | Ages 16+
The improvisational comedy duo Abby DeVuyst and Kerry Young, known as Bushwhacked, are longtime Fringe favorites. This year, they offer four different shows in total, including the so-called “Cabaret of Destiny,” a tongue-in-cheek mystic voyage featuring cat ladies, Long Island mediums and even a touch of sword swallowing.
Before they don sparkly dresses and become the tarot readers Bella Donna and Ella Vator inside a cozy tent, the pair lead the audience members on a winding path to the very back of the Spiegelgarden, a corridor DeVuyst called a “murder hallway.” This show couldn’t have taken place anywhere else. The DIY Bushwhacked ladies do not stand on ceremony, thriving in the shadow of fancier locales and utilizing an impressive array of homespun props — shoe boxes, tubes of hydrocortisone and old remote controls.
After a zany tarot reading arrives a dash of topical humor. Indeed, one of the best bits turns vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s recent “childless cat ladies” dig into a showcase of the absurd. Clad in furry boas and plush kittens, the pair take turns belting “Memory” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” intercut with another solitary ladies anthem (mentioning it here would spoil the joke).
Before the fun, each of the 16 audience members gets a name tag, allowing the performers to more freely engage with them. The energy and enthusiasm of the crowd propels the entire show; when the Bushwhacked ladies ask you to reach into a box or shout out a number, the action literally can’t continue until you do.
So, pick a card. Tell them what’s in your pocket. Pet the kitty. Keep the momentum going, and DeVuyst and Young won’t disappoint. —PATRICK HOSKEN
Sparkle party
“Drag Me to Drinks” | Spiegeltent | One night only
It starts out innocently enough. Have a few cocktails, eat a bite or two. And then, before you know it, you’re trading $20 bills for 20 $1 bills and stuffing them into the pink sequin jumpsuit of an (also) pink-big-wigged drag queen lip syncing to The Jackson 5’s “ABC.” This, and other scenes, happened on Monday night in the Spiegeltent during “Drag Me to Drinks,” an annual one night only sell-out at Rochester Fringe Festival.
Host Aggy Dune began the evening by heckling the crowd for partying on a Monday (“You’re all passing on ‘Matlock’ to see the dragon queens?”), and then training drag newbies on proper tipping etiquette, introducing her assistant, Hot Corey, who spent the evening gathering loose bills into clear buckets as the drag queens sashayed their way around the tent. No cash? Need more info? Hot Corey has a QR code for that, and the queens have Venmo. After all, it’s 2024.
“Drag Me to Drinks” cast members Aggy Dune, Mrs. Kasha Davis, Darienne Lake and Ambrosia Salad rotated through sparkly costume changes and neon wigs, performing songs that ranged from Bonnie Tyler to Billie Eilish. Standout moments were Mrs. Kasha Davis’s “I Am What I Am (La Cage Aux Folles) and Darienne Lake’s “HOT TO GO!” Special mentions to audience members sunburn guy, Peter “Ride of Steel” Iglinski and the women who were yelling at each other over their booth seats while Mrs. Kasha Davis talked about how kindness is so important. And of course, the 90-minute evening ended with all four getting the audience dancing to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.”
The self-dubbed “dragon queens,” who are all in their 50s and 60s, have been performing since the days of long-closed Club Muther’s on South Union, and at Fringe since its inception. Mrs. Kasha Davis and Darienne Lake have appeared on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” And all four joined forces in recent years to create “Drag Me to the Stage,” a production company that represents their popular “Drag Me to Brunch,” “Big Wigs,” “Drag Story Hour” with Mrs. Kasha Davis at Blackfriars Theatre and other pop-up performances. (Upcoming shows are listed at dragmetothestage.com.)
It’s a reminder that Rochester’s drag scene, though not always based at a club these days, is just as vibrant — and fun — as ever. —LEAH STACY
350-year-old puppets
“Port-a-Globe Punch and Judy” | Sept. 21 | SOTA Commons | Sept. 21 | Free | All ages
A few minutes before “Port-a-Globe Punch and Judy” started, puppeteer Keith Jones strolled through the SOTA Commons area, spraying bubbles on and around audience members. Before even bringing out the puppets, Jones emphasized to young and old in the audience that this would be interactive.
The 25-minute show, performed by Jones with assistance from Rauncie Reynolds, provided laughs for both children — who made up most of the crowd — and adults in attendance by including them at every possible moment. While Punch and Judy is a puppet show that has been around for over approximately 350 years and initially appealed to adults, the Rochester-based Port-A-Globe Mobile Puppet Theatre provided this entertaining delight (and one of the best options for kids at the 2024 Fringe Festival).
Puppets Mr. Punch and his wife, Judy, are the main stars. But Jones and Reynolds included a variety of humorous characters, including a clown named Joey, a doctor, a swarm of bees and the devil. Before Mr. Punch caused a ruckus with Joey, the clown fought a plant that refused to be watered.
Once Mr. Punch showed up, though, the children in the audience really started to get involved. The lead puppet accidentally flushed his baby down the toilet, attracted a large swarm of bees, and then went toe-to-toe with a doctor. By talking to the audience during each sketch, Jones and Reynolds smartly offer kids a chance to point out how ridiculous Mr. Punch is acting. The show has an emotional intelligence, using things young kids are scared of — big needles for shots, bees and being flushed down the toilet — to connect them to the performance. —HENRY O’BRIEN
Americana, Arabic style
“Sandcatchers: ‘The Lines’ Album Release” | Bop Shop Records | One night only
Musician Yoshie Fruchter plays the oud, a pear-shaped stringed instrument that recalls a lute and is also perhaps the oldest instrument in the world. Its sound is deep and rich, occasionally tinged with darkness. With his group Sandcatchers at Bop Shop on Tuesday night, Fruchter led a program of melodies and rhythms inspired by Middle Eastern musical traditions that, in practice, actually lands somewhere closer to bluegrass and Americana.
It’s a fascinating mash-up, and it sounds as organic as the wood used to make each oud (Fruchter had two, in different tunings). He was joined by electric bass player Michael Bates and exploratory drummer Shai Wetze, along with Myk Freedman on the lap steel, who virtuosically made his instrument sound alternately like a saxophone and a screeching guitar as the songs necessitated.
The group’s album “The Lines” hit digital services in January; it’s out now on vinyl. This set dipped into their entire catalog and also included a reverent cover of the Indian-inspired, George Harrison-penned Beatles song “Within You Without You.” Fruchter’s oud became a droning sitar while Freedman’s lap steel took on the role of a bowed dilruba. The band exploded during its second half, wisely stripping the reverence to create an entirely new take.
At its best, the Sandcatchers sound recalls the magic of Béla Fleck, especially when he teamed up with Dave Matthews Band for their darker tunes circa 1998. This might seem paradoxical given the reputation of the latter, but those who’d say that have clearly never heard “The Stone.”
It might be more apt to evoke those who inspired them: Peter Gabriel and Daniel Lanois, purveyors of “world music” fusion whose roots hewed close to actual folk music (English and Québécoise, respectively). Fruchter’s use of an Arabic beat in a complex time signature points to both the Middle East and American mountain music without a specific geographic signifier. The sound roams like a backpacker before it eventually lays down to rest. —PATRICK HOSKEN
“Bushwhacked Cabaret of Destiny” | Spiegelgarden | Sept. 17, 18, 21 (Boozy version on Sept. 20) | From $29 | Ages 16+
The improvisational comedy duo Abby DeVuyst and Kerry Young, known as Bushwhacked, are longtime Fringe favorites. This year, they offer four different shows in total, including the so-called “Cabaret of Destiny,” a tongue-in-cheek mystic voyage featuring cat ladies, Long Island mediums and even a touch of sword swallowing.
- RAFAEL RODRIGUEZ.
After a zany tarot reading arrives a dash of topical humor. Indeed, one of the best bits turns vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s recent “childless cat ladies” dig into a showcase of the absurd. Clad in furry boas and plush kittens, the pair take turns belting “Memory” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats” intercut with another solitary ladies anthem (mentioning it here would spoil the joke).
Before the fun, each of the 16 audience members gets a name tag, allowing the performers to more freely engage with them. The energy and enthusiasm of the crowd propels the entire show; when the Bushwhacked ladies ask you to reach into a box or shout out a number, the action literally can’t continue until you do.
So, pick a card. Tell them what’s in your pocket. Pet the kitty. Keep the momentum going, and DeVuyst and Young won’t disappoint. —PATRICK HOSKEN
- LOUIS RESSEL.
“Drag Me to Drinks” | Spiegeltent | One night only
It starts out innocently enough. Have a few cocktails, eat a bite or two. And then, before you know it, you’re trading $20 bills for 20 $1 bills and stuffing them into the pink sequin jumpsuit of an (also) pink-big-wigged drag queen lip syncing to The Jackson 5’s “ABC.” This, and other scenes, happened on Monday night in the Spiegeltent during “Drag Me to Drinks,” an annual one night only sell-out at Rochester Fringe Festival.
Host Aggy Dune began the evening by heckling the crowd for partying on a Monday (“You’re all passing on ‘Matlock’ to see the dragon queens?”), and then training drag newbies on proper tipping etiquette, introducing her assistant, Hot Corey, who spent the evening gathering loose bills into clear buckets as the drag queens sashayed their way around the tent. No cash? Need more info? Hot Corey has a QR code for that, and the queens have Venmo. After all, it’s 2024.
- LOUIS RESSEL.
The self-dubbed “dragon queens,” who are all in their 50s and 60s, have been performing since the days of long-closed Club Muther’s on South Union, and at Fringe since its inception. Mrs. Kasha Davis and Darienne Lake have appeared on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” And all four joined forces in recent years to create “Drag Me to the Stage,” a production company that represents their popular “Drag Me to Brunch,” “Big Wigs,” “Drag Story Hour” with Mrs. Kasha Davis at Blackfriars Theatre and other pop-up performances. (Upcoming shows are listed at dragmetothestage.com.)
It’s a reminder that Rochester’s drag scene, though not always based at a club these days, is just as vibrant — and fun — as ever. —LEAH STACY
- PHOTO PROVIDED.
“Port-a-Globe Punch and Judy” | Sept. 21 | SOTA Commons | Sept. 21 | Free | All ages
A few minutes before “Port-a-Globe Punch and Judy” started, puppeteer Keith Jones strolled through the SOTA Commons area, spraying bubbles on and around audience members. Before even bringing out the puppets, Jones emphasized to young and old in the audience that this would be interactive.
The 25-minute show, performed by Jones with assistance from Rauncie Reynolds, provided laughs for both children — who made up most of the crowd — and adults in attendance by including them at every possible moment. While Punch and Judy is a puppet show that has been around for over approximately 350 years and initially appealed to adults, the Rochester-based Port-A-Globe Mobile Puppet Theatre provided this entertaining delight (and one of the best options for kids at the 2024 Fringe Festival).
Puppets Mr. Punch and his wife, Judy, are the main stars. But Jones and Reynolds included a variety of humorous characters, including a clown named Joey, a doctor, a swarm of bees and the devil. Before Mr. Punch caused a ruckus with Joey, the clown fought a plant that refused to be watered.
Once Mr. Punch showed up, though, the children in the audience really started to get involved. The lead puppet accidentally flushed his baby down the toilet, attracted a large swarm of bees, and then went toe-to-toe with a doctor. By talking to the audience during each sketch, Jones and Reynolds smartly offer kids a chance to point out how ridiculous Mr. Punch is acting. The show has an emotional intelligence, using things young kids are scared of — big needles for shots, bees and being flushed down the toilet — to connect them to the performance. —HENRY O’BRIEN
Americana, Arabic style
“Sandcatchers: ‘The Lines’ Album Release” | Bop Shop Records | One night only
Musician Yoshie Fruchter plays the oud, a pear-shaped stringed instrument that recalls a lute and is also perhaps the oldest instrument in the world. Its sound is deep and rich, occasionally tinged with darkness. With his group Sandcatchers at Bop Shop on Tuesday night, Fruchter led a program of melodies and rhythms inspired by Middle Eastern musical traditions that, in practice, actually lands somewhere closer to bluegrass and Americana.
It’s a fascinating mash-up, and it sounds as organic as the wood used to make each oud (Fruchter had two, in different tunings). He was joined by electric bass player Michael Bates and exploratory drummer Shai Wetze, along with Myk Freedman on the lap steel, who virtuosically made his instrument sound alternately like a saxophone and a screeching guitar as the songs necessitated.
The group’s album “The Lines” hit digital services in January; it’s out now on vinyl. This set dipped into their entire catalog and also included a reverent cover of the Indian-inspired, George Harrison-penned Beatles song “Within You Without You.” Fruchter’s oud became a droning sitar while Freedman’s lap steel took on the role of a bowed dilruba. The band exploded during its second half, wisely stripping the reverence to create an entirely new take.
At its best, the Sandcatchers sound recalls the magic of Béla Fleck, especially when he teamed up with Dave Matthews Band for their darker tunes circa 1998. This might seem paradoxical given the reputation of the latter, but those who’d say that have clearly never heard “The Stone.”
It might be more apt to evoke those who inspired them: Peter Gabriel and Daniel Lanois, purveyors of “world music” fusion whose roots hewed close to actual folk music (English and Québécoise, respectively). Fruchter’s use of an Arabic beat in a complex time signature points to both the Middle East and American mountain music without a specific geographic signifier. The sound roams like a backpacker before it eventually lays down to rest. —PATRICK HOSKEN
