Minnesota Fringe Day 10: MicroMedics, DOLLY WHO?’S HOLIDAY HORROR SHOW, Final Dress,  The Temporary Tattoo Trio, Cabin Fever, An Exorcism, Don’tcha Know? (The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner),  Dice of Destiny: Neon City.

Day 10 brought the sad news that Jackdonkey Productions had to cancel their final performance of 503. Hopefully they will do a remount in the future. From what I heard from those who caught it, it’s too good not to be seen. We are hoping that Jeffrey Nolan is on the mend and want to share Jacdonkey’s venmo account with you which is @jackdonkeyprod. I know they would appreciate any donations to help offset the financial costs that went into producing a show that you weren’t able to perform. This is a young theater company with young Actors and artists in the company, I think that’s probably all I need to say to make you understand how much your donations would mean.

This was the penultimate day of the Fringe Festival. I’ll be seeing shows in the first two slots and the last slot tomorrow and then attending the closing night party. On that last day I’ll be trying to capture some quick sound bites of what everyone’s favorite show was and how many productions they saw. I’ll have fans and buttons with me to give out. If you are headed to Mixed Blood or Theatre in the Round tomorrow flag me down to get a fan, those venues in my experience can get rather warm, and the fans really help. Below read my reviews of all the shows I saw on day 10!

So I was able to catch MicroMedics after all. This improv show’s format is that we follow the adventures and loves of the MicroMedics, which are a crew of Doctors shrunk down to fight diseases inside of human bodies in their MicroMedic ship. Where Rec League is Improv at the top of its game with seasoned improv performers, this is younger performers who don’t always read what each other are putting down but get enough laughs to make it worth seeing. There are definitely some good performers in this group and it will be fun to watch them develop their skills over the coming years. The best part of the show might be their adorable and choreographed opening theme song and their outfits. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/micromedics

I’m not gonna lie, I have a soft spot for Destiny Davison’s Dolly Who since first encountering the cartoonist character at the 2023 Minnesota Fringe Festival. Her offbeat sense of humor isn’t for everyone, but I kinda vibe to it. DOLLY WHO?’S HOLIDAY HORROR SHOW has Dolly hosting a show based on a holiday we all create together. It features her signature line drawn cartoon characters along with a host of invisible technicians who help put the show together. It’s chock full of bizarre lighting and sound effects, with Dolly seemingly as unsettled as we are by everything that is occuring. If you get Dolly, you’ll enjoy the show, if it isn’t your thing it may leave you cold. Another really cool thing for fans is she has all sorts of magnets, buttons, stickers and fun merch you can pick up if you enjoy her artwork as much as I do. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/dolly-who-s-holiday-horror-show

Final Dress is another improv show, I should warn you, this was a big improv day for me with four of the seven shows I saw being improv ones. This one is the brainchild of Michael DallaValle & Sean Dillon who together are Dilly Dally. This one is supposedly the final dress rehearsal for a new play, each performance has a guest Director who walks the Actors through the show. The name of the play is up to the guest Director, for my performance they were directed by Duck Washington and the play was titled After the Goblin Wars. It’s improv so it’s always going to be different, but note to self and faithful readers next time you see that Dilly Dally is doing a show, get tickets. It’s the type of Fringe show where you wish you could see every performance. It’s such a great concept and they are both brilliant improvisors, and I’m sure it didn’t hurt that Washington is also an accomplished improvisor. But honestly, looking at the other four Directors they had lined up, I don’t think you could have gone wrong at any of the performances. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/final-dress

The Temporary Tattoo Trio was a riot, plus I got inked, temporarily. This high energy show about three best friends named Tyler living their best lives as temporary tattoo artists and spending as much time as possible at the most beautiful place on earth, Wisconsin Dells. It takes an unexpected turn, and then another, and this ludicrously upbeat and silly show gets surprisingly real. It doesn’t get dark, and it doesn’t stop being funny. But the guys, like all good actors, commit to their characters and it makes all the difference. I don’t want to give anything away, but this was damn near a tie for The Fringe of the Day Award. But I promised myself I wasn’t going to be wishy washy and do ties this year. So I flipped a coin. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/the-temporary-tattoo-trio

Cabin Fever was improv show number three today and that’s about where I would rank it as well. It’s more successful than MicroMedics, but doesn’t quite reach the level of Final Dress and Dice of Destiny: Neon City, which wasthe final show of the day. This one is a reality show about lesbians who are dropped into a remote cabin in the woods for 6 weeks to see who will be chosen by Ashley, the girls they are all trying to woo. This is the final episode, so Ashley will chose the one she feels she has a love connection with. I’m not sure what reality shows to compare it to, as I’ve never watched any of these finding love shows like The Bachelor or Love Island, which I assume is what these are based on. It’s quite fun and the host, a drag queen named Buttercream, is really good. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/cabin-fever

An Exorcism, Don’tcha Know? has demonic possession, Lutefisk, Bars (the bake sale kind not the alcohol serving kind), and Minnesotan accents as thick as a sixth grade english teachers eyebrows. This cross between the Church Basement Ladies and The Exorcist is a pretty gosh darn good time. Anyone that spent time in the Luthern church, which I have, will probably get an extra jolt of recognition out of the whole thing. But maybe Minnesota churches, particularly in smallish towns, are all more or less the same. The show trades heavily on the audience’s knowledge of the Minnesota caricature, and we all ate it up! Earning it The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/an-exorcism-don-tcha-know-

Dice of Destiny: Neon City by The Bearded Company was the fourth Improv show of the day and is basically on exactly the same level as Final Dress. Final Dress is what I believe they call long form Improv, meaning the entire show is telling one story as opposed to a bunch of different little scenes that don’t necessarily fit together. So if that’s long form, I guess Dice of Destiny: Neon City is very long form Improv. You see, each of the five Fringe performances picks up the story where the last performance left off. So the five performances together make up one long story. Another show in which you wish you could see all five performances. The setup is a future world where the population is controled by a giant corporation through drugs. And the pair of 80’s style movie characters who try and save the future. The interesting twist aside from the serialized story is that it incorporates role playing. Not the playing of roles, though obviously they do that too, but they actually role a 20 sided dice to determine if their actions are successful or not. This is a well polished troop that has been performing locally for years. In the leads are the excellent Anna Tobin and Endometriosis: The Musical co-creator Maria Bartholdi. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/dice-of-destiny-neon-city

That’s it for day ten of the Minnesota Fringe Festival you can click on the Fringe website here to get details on all of the shows https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025. Don’t forget to tune into The Stages of MN YouTube channel for mini episodes all week long from The MN Fringe Festival https://www.youtube.com/@TheStagesofMN

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