Playing coy: TJ Dawe avoids the camera at the Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival.
One of the country’s best-known theatre personalities, TJ Dawe has authored six shows (including Labrador, The Doctor Is Sick and The Curse of the Trickster) and a handful of adaptations of literary works. The script to his original show The Slip-Knot was recently nominated for a Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour.
In addition to being a prolific writer, Dawe is also a tireless performer — he devotes a good chunk of every year touring his plays. He’s been on stage at everything from the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal to the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina and is a mainstay of the Canadian Fringe theatre festivals. Dawe is currently on a cross-Canada tour of the Fringe circuit, which takes him to Toronto (July 6-16), Winnipeg (July 20-30), Saskatoon (August 5-14), Victoria (August 25-September 5) and Vancouver (September 8-18). His diary of this year’s Fringe circuit will be updated throughout the summer.
Part 1
Back in Toronto for the Fringe Festival. My seventh Fringe here. Used to live here, too, a while ago. On and off. More off than on, though. Got tired of paying rent on a place I was never in. Stuck all my stuff in storage and now I live nowhere. Anywhere. Wherever I am. And right now, that wherever is Toronto. It’s good to be back. I like Toronto.
Plenty of Canadians hate Toronto, but I’m not one of them. Get this: on Friday, I’m going to a Fellini film in a theatre, and then I’m going to a bizarre black-and-white Canadian zombie nurse movie a friend of mine’s in — in another theatre. And a week ago I saw the first two Alien movies — in yet another theatre. What a cool city!
Opened my show at the Fringe last night. The Slip-Knot. I’ve done it a hundred and fifty times or something. First did it four years ago. It’s my most successful show. I’ve never done it here, until now. And part of it’s about moving to Toronto! It’s good to finally do it here. It’s good to do it, period, but there are a couple of Toronto references that mean a lot more here than anywhere else.
Anyway, the show opened, and it was good. Big, laughing crowd. Slip-Knot’s never failed me. It's about three jobs I've had: truck driver for a dumpster company, lost parcel tracker for the post office, and shelf-stocker at a Shopper's Drug Mart. There's a spot on the stage for each story and I jump from one to another, advancing three narratives little by little. It’s goddam hard, though. There’s this sequence where I’m reeling off lists of jargon associated with each job. And throwing in commentary lines in between. And jumping between the three spots. And trying to make eye contact with the audience. And mean everything I say. And say it like I’m saying it for the first time. And enunciate. All at high speed. And every time I do it, there are two voices arguing in my head: “You’re gonna screw it up, you’re gonna screw it up” — “Shut up!” — “Tonight’s the night! Tonight’s the night you fall off the tightrope!” — “Shut up!” — “You’re talking now but you’re not even listening to what you’re saying – you’re arguing with me!” — “Shut up!!” Where does that negative voice come from? Why is it so strong? Why can every actor I know quote their bad reviews verbatim – even if they’re a decade old – but only vaguely remember their good ones?
