Five Stars
In the stifling heat of the Victoria School Attic, I could barely coordinate making the straw from my slush meet my parched lips. But there on stage was a tireless TJ Dawe doing his trademark verbal aerobatics without a hitch for 85 minutes.
As has been the case in the past, Dawe delivers yet another outstanding performance to Fringe audiences with The Slip-Knot, the follow up to last year's Labrador and 52 Pick-Up.
This time Dawe tells the tale of a man and his three pitiful entry-level jobs - a stock boy at Shopper's Drug Mart, the guy who traces lost or damaged mail at Canada Post, and a truck driver that picks up discarded roof shingles.
He slips from story to story, his charisma keeping the audience focused and on course. (Coloured spotlights also help keep things straight). Running parallel but tied together with smart wordplay and equally compelling tragedy and comedy, the stories are each engaging on their own but better together.
The Slip-Knot arrives on Saskatoon's doorstep armed with the Montreal Fringe's Just For Laughs Comedy award. Here too, it ranks among the shows guaranteed to entertain.
Kim McNairn
The Saskatoon StarPhoenix
