Tragedy + Time Served = Comedy<\/em>, to this year\u2019s Fringe (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cI didn\u2019t want it to be just for\u2014for lack of a better term\u2014marginalized groups,\u201d says Hughes. \u201cI want it to be accessible to anyone. I think I\u2019m able to get it across and I think I\u2019ve written it in such a way that even if you\u2019ve never done anything I\u2019ve done, the core human experience, the baseline thing that\u2019s universal to all, is there: feelings of alienation, loneliness. The details are different but underneath it all, it\u2019s the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diane Barnes, another of this year\u2019s solo performers, says that the unique setting of Fringe suits her performance, My Stroke of Luck<\/i>, which she has performed at other Fringe festivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fringe audiences are, \u2018I\u2019m up for anything. What\u2019s this one? Is it funny? Okay. Is it clowns? Okay. Magic? Okay!\u2019 It\u2019s different, you know,\u201d Barnes says.<\/p>\n
Fringe, which started 70 years ago in Edinburgh, still follows its founding principles of openness and spontaneity, which help to make it so enjoyable and popular today.<\/p>\n
\u201cFringe is different because it\u2019s kind of random, right? You apply and maybe you get in, and maybe you don\u2019t,\u201d says Barnes. \u201cIt\u2019s un-curated, which is fun. It means all sorts of things that have to get past the gatekeeper can be seen. In many places they couldn\u2019t get past the gatekeeper.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a retired medical doctor, Barnes brings a unique perspective to the stage. She was a diagnostic radiologist until she had a stroke; after that, she was in rehab\u2014and out of work\u2014for a year. When she got back to work, she realized after a few years that her heart wasn\u2019t in it anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had realized this really doesn\u2019t feel the same because, you know, I\u2019m a lot different than I was before,\u201d she says. \u201cI found I was much more wanting to engage with other people. Being a radiologist, we consult other doctors, but we\u2019re doctors to doctors, so we basically sit in a dark space and analyze images all day and make dictations and occasionally pick up the phone and talk to people and occasionally go in and ask a patient about something and then the technician generates the study. I found that just wasn\u2019t the way I wanted to work anymore. So I started looking around. I took an improv class called Show Up for Your Life. I thought, \u2018Well, if I don\u2019t show up now, when will I ever?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Victoria Fringe Festival
\nWednesday, August 23\u00a0to Sunday, September 3
\nVarious prices and venues
\nintrepidtheatre.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBe prepared for anything and everything in between.\u201d These are the words of stand-up comedian Mark Hughes, who will be presenting a solo performance, Tragedy + Time Served = Comedy, at this year\u2019s Victoria Fringe Festival. Hughes says his show is \u201cdramatic storytelling with comedy very, very heavily peppered in.\u201d \u201cIn my stand-up, I get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,196],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-august-16-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14469"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14472,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14469\/revisions\/14472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Mark-Hughes_TragedyTimeServedComedy.jpg\")
<\/a>