52 Stories - Louis B. Hobson

The 19th edition of the Calgary Fringe runs until Aug. 9 in Inglewood. There are 20 shows, and the way they are staggered each day, it is possible to catch four of them without rushing. There is even time to catch a quick snack between the second and third show.

The old cliche about saving the best for last was definitely the case with out day at the Fringe. We ended with Dave Morris' 52 Stories in which he uses a deck of cards to elicit stories about, in our case, members of his family. We got to meet his son, grandmother, mother, father and an uncle. At the top of the show, Morris opens a new deck of cards and gives them to an audience member to shuffle. He then memories the order of the cards, and takes three of them at a time to recall a person, activity and object. He recalled how he traumatized his young son by making the boy watch The Lion King animated film. He explained why his grandmother was so negative and miserable, and it was a particularly harrowing story that involved her escape from the Armenian genocide of 1915, and her early life in the refugee camp, with her abusive husband, young children, and finally their escape to Ontario. The story about his mother's reaction to her first snowfall is as poignant as it is insightful. He tells us two versions of why his uncle was called Fast Eddie, and like him, we are inclined to accept his mother's version. His memory of his final car trip with his father elicited audible weeping from the audience, because it was so heartfelt. Because the cards will never be configured the same way, each performance will be different. Hopefully some of his family members will reappear in the remaining shows at the Fringe.