My Dad Died And All I Got Was This Show - 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.

If you look up cockeyed optimist in the dictionary, there is probably a picture of Vancouver actress Rachel Ruecker as she portrays herself in this solo show. As she says early in the monologue, she's not religious, but she does believe in rom coms, and happy endings, and thinks life should be more like that. When she was 19, Ruecker went to New York to study theatre. She was looking for love, just as much as she was looking for a career. We meet three men Ruecker fixated on, and like her, we hope each time he's going to be her knight in shining armor. There is also the flashback to her 13th year, when her father died. It's implied that her father had been hoping for a boy who he could share his love of sports with, and especially his love of the Vancouver Canucks. His daughter wanted to share those things with him, but she also wanted to be a girl who liked fairy tales. Ruecker is such a ball of energy, and so vivacious its a wonder she wasn't the heartbreaker. She compares herself to the Canucks who came so close to winning, yet had to learn how to accept and deal with losing. Spending 50 minutes with Ruecker, shows she is anything but the loser she wants us to believe she is.