Cody Bondarchuk

I didn’t really know what to expect coming into it, but this show blew me away. It was a nearly perfect comedy complete with sharp political humour, absurd premises, and impressive work from all three actors (each in multiple roles). Some jokes could be tightened up but I’m really splitting hairs here because it all generally worked and was a joy to watch from start to finish.

I love a show that doesn’t pull punches and accurately targets fascist politicians with insightful commentary — they don’t deserve gentleness, so why do so many works tiptoe around it? This one didn’t and I was absolutely here for it all.

I was worried that I hadn’t studied up enough for this, not having taken Field Zoology 101 or 201, but the instructor did a fantastic job of bringing new students into his world and wowed us with his scientific findings.

The truly skillful use of an overhead projector to create simple but evocative visuals tied the masterful storytelling together, on top of a very joke-dense script and impressively witty word economy. I’m still floored with how clever it was without coming off as at all pretentious or inaccessible. Baby Mothman will both haunt and delight my dreams for a long time to come.

This show is incredible! A must-see if I had put out a review earlier in the festival, but definitely keep an eye out for 401 in a future year.

This show was unfortunately bad on pretty much every level and I did not enjoy it. I don’t want to be overly harsh and dissect it in too much detail but to summarize: the plot was so thin and made almost no sense (especially for how long the show is), the scenes and musical numbers started getting repetitive and did not explore any other dimension to the main character’s ethical struggle other than “I feel bad about this”, the acting was strained at best, the music was out of time and off-key, and the overall arc of the story ended up coming off as anti-science but didn’t delve into why.

I was actually really excited for a show that explored the trade-offs and complexities of animal testing for human progress. I think most reasonable people dislike the thought of animal testing and know there are alternatives that should be explored more, but without the show even setting up why animal testing was the only path for this particular scientific advancement, the critique didn’t make any sense and the whole journey seemed a bit pointless. 😢

Really solid improv — I am so glad this group made it to Edmonton Fringe this year and was delighted to hear they’re coming back next year!

Long-form improv can be tricky but these are obviously experts in their field and they pulled off a coherent, charming, and hilarious Black version of The Mighty Ducks. Can’t wait to see them again!

This is improv at it's best – quick, crude, hilarious. The performers were all strong and the premise of acting out secrets from the audience (submitted on index cards ahead of the show) is a great one.

I think the flow of the show was particuarly strong because the club's Secretary (narrator on the mic) curates the secrets into suitable categories for short scenes vs. longer ones. I genuinely think every single scene landed in some way, which is impressive for improv.

It is incredibly ambitious to randomly choose from 100 prepared bits over the run of a festival and perform them in unknown combinations of 10-12 per show. I think the concept is brilliant (especially the refusal to repeat a bit once it's been done in a show) and the actors' presentation of the concept deconstructs the very idea of a Fringe show in some ways.

That being said, not all 100 are going to be winners and the selection we had at the show I attended had some bits that just didn't land. The ones that did were really clever, refined, and had a point of view, but being interspersed with less strong bits waters down the impact unfortunately.

You can also tell it's a big source of pride among the actors that the festival had to audit their bits ahead of time this year given an incident from a prior festival season, but the constant references to that get old quick and show a lack of confidence – if you're going to be controversial just be controversial, you don't need to keep insisting what bad boys you've been.

Overall I think it's worth a watch, but be prepared to roll the dice on what you'll get and know that it may not be their best material on a given night (which I suppose is the point).

A very different kind of show where the audience participation is not just strategically timed at intervals but truly drives the bulk of the content. Aliya Kanani serves as a skilled and humorous moderator of what essentially becomes a group therapy and listening session.

It's an interesting idea and I think dedicating more time to the show instead of just an hour will make it soar even higher (Aliya herself noted this as the most common feedback she's received about the show). The extra time will also build more mutual trust to talk about difficult topics. I thought the moderation of speakers was expertly done and allowed for a wide range of views and discussions without devolving into soapbox rants – I suppose that's also contingent on having a courteous audience, which we did! I would see this again, definitely.

To get my most shallow criticism out of the way: please don’t say you’re a 60-minute show when you’re barely 35!

So this unfortunately did not work for me. I really do think some workshopping could make it great because it’s an interesting premise and there are some funny and insightful moments, but the writing is mostly flat and the plot jumps make you crave what is missing between the scenes.

I was frustrated that in order to make one of the two main characters quickly unlikeable they relied on her being vaguely bigoted and crass as somewhat of a ham-handed way to signal to us that she was bad (as if her actions didn’t already signal that). The full motives of her and the other lead remained unclear though and made it tough to care about either.

It wasn’t torture by any means and I did have some good laughs, but I just can’t recommend it.

Easily the best work Sketchy Broads has done (that I've seen). It's like they drilled into my skull to find out the exact kind of humour I like and decided to run with it.

All the comedians bring their own strengths to the show and their characters – both the writing and acting is so well done. Nikki Rae Hallow especially is an absolute standout and her role as RFK Jr's uvula will be seared into my memory forever. The final sketch of the show is a perfect cap on this collection, and it will make your jaw drop right to the floor.

I love horror, drag, and horror drag so this did not disappoint – it was both sick and sickening, and overall a good gay time! I want to especially highlight the truly beautiful set, costuming, and musical choices.