Firehall Arts Centre until October 30, 2022
Tickets from $25 at www.tickets.firehallartscentre.ca or 604-689-0926
Posted October 22, 2022
Just why are blueberries assholes, according to playwright/stand-up performer TJ Dawe? Well, with an aggressive PR campaign blueberries have blown strawberries, raspberries and boysenberries off the map. And anyway, isn’t it weird that strawberries have no straw, raspberries have the unfortunate connection with ‘blowing a raspberry” and boysen rhymes with poison. Blueberries are now the super-food du jour. Spinach has long since been replaced; hardly anyone remembers Popeye and his claim regarding spinach: “I’m strong to the finich/Cause I eats me spinach…” (And when making an olive oil-based salad dressing, who amongst us thinks upon skinny, pug-nosed, big footed Olive Oyl, Popeye’s girlfriend in the old comic strip and TV show going back to the 1920s? But I digress; it’s a risk one takes after experiencing TJ Dawe in action.)
A veteran of almost 150 Fringe engagements, TJ says he’s obsessed with doing what he does: solo shows that up ‘til now have been mainly autobiographical. In this show, he turns to how we as a species readily accept what is actually very weird, absurd or paradoxical. Take sneezing, for example. An explosive outpouring of bacteria-laden droplets that, rather than disgusting those within the splash zone, garners outpourings of “Bless you” from complete strangers. Weird. Or sleeping. Going to a rectangular platform, donning special clothing, covering ourselves with some sort of cloth, closing our eyes and waiting for sleep to overtake us. Why don’t we just curl up like a dog and take a snooze?
Dawe’s obsession with things weird and wonderful includes the English language with all its inconsistencies. Take “phlegm” for example. What’s with ‘ph’ taking over the job of ‘f’? And what about that silent ‘g’? And don’t get him started on words that have several meanings – often contradictory.
It’s a bit of a workout; insights and jokes come at you like a hailstorm. You have to pay attention to get the full effect or he’s spinning off in another direction before you know it. Language, food, human behaviour – all in an hour.
Presented by the Firehall Arts Centre, the show starts off each evening with a 20-25 minute opening act featuring one of four stand-up comics: Yumi Nagashima, Charlie Demers, Patrick Maliha and Dino Archie. Each one of them, in rotation, opens three shows. Check the website to find out more: www.firehallartscentre.ca
For TJ Dawe fans – and they are legion – Blueberries Are Assholes is a gift but I wonder if TJ himself isn’t really the main attraction? We’ve been watching him for years; lanky, curly-haired and, if memory serves, the son of a school principal. Boy next door good looks. Boy next door nice kid. Now all grown up. But there’s so much more going on with him: from weed and ayahuasca to the Enneagram, TJ Dawe is a truth-seeker with a finely-tuned sense of the ridiculous and a willingness – perhaps a compulsion – to share his findings with us. It’s a compelling and entertaining combination and one that keeps us coming back for more; we’re hooked on knowing what condition TJ’s condition is in. Now that’s branding, that’s successful PR.