by Jim Loucks, Steve Budd, & Karen Hall

It is almost time for the Rogue Festival again–it will be taking place March 1-9 in the Tower District of Fresno. Here are the 3 final Rogue Performer Preview articles! Don’t miss our article about Rogue 2024 as well. We will also be posting several show reviews once the festival begins!

You will be able to see ALL of our Rogue Festival coverage in our special Rogue category and you can find more Rogue Festival information on our Rogue event page over on KRL News! There you will find press releases and extra info! You can also go to the Rogue Festival website for more info and to purchase tickets.

Booger Red
By Jim Loucks

I’m very excited to be bringing my show Booger Red to the Rogue Festival for the first time! I’ve been traveling with my three solo shows around the U.S. and Canada for many years and I’m happy to finally be able to bring one to the Rogue Festival.

Growing up in South Georgia as the son of Booger Red, a hellfire and brimstone Southern Baptist preacher, I was blessed to witness some of the best performances anyone has laid eyes on. Not only my father’s mercurial, jumpin’-up-on-the- front-pew-and-wavin’-his-Bible style, but also the laid-back Appalachian nasality of Alton Mash, and the earnest, pleading sermons of Rastus Salters. I mean, even their names were enough to get your attention. And yes, they were slicked back on top and sometimes decked out in plaid suits and two-toned shoes. And yes, they scared me, and probably damaged me for life, but I got something from them. Not religion, but the feeling that comes with expressing yourself and sharing in front of an audience.

Jim Loucks

As a child, I felt like I had no voice. My preacher father needed me to be perfect, to believe, to represent the family as a paragon of Christian values. But what if I didn’t believe? What if I was meant to speak a different truth? I had to break out and find my own way, discovering on my journey that I was a performer and storyteller.

But my father didn’t start out as a preacher. Booger Red began his life as the hooligan son of alcoholic parents, left to fend for himself in a chaotic childhood. He had to travel his own road of discovery, eventually becoming a rock star Hellfire and Brimstone Southern Baptist preacher, attracted to its structure and guidance, and thrust into the spotlight by his natural talent for performance.

Being able to write about my father’s journey has helped me deal with a lot of the fear and guilt that was deeply ingrained in me by fundamentalist religion. Growing up, I really didn’t understand where my father was coming from, but looking at the decisions he made, I see more now what he got out of it. It never registered with me how great a performer he was, because he downplayed that aspect of his role as a preacher. That’s how I’ve found a connection with him now, all these years later.

Booger Red was created as part of an Artist Residency in Madisonville, KY, and premiered at their first-ever Bacon, Blues and Big Stories Festival. The goal of the Artist Residency and Festival was to encourage the arts in their small community through storytelling and music, to help people find their own creative means of expression. This inspired me to talk about my own journey of finding my voice, and eventually about the parallels to my father’s journey of becoming a preacher. I’ve taken the show on tour ever since, and I hope that this story will inspire others to claim their own unique voice.

I have been touring my solo shows throughout the U.S. and Canada for the last several years, earning “Best Solo Performance” at the Houston Fringe for Booger Red and at the Tucson Fringe for The Biscuiteater.

I have performed Booger Red at FronteraFest in Austin, TX, Frigid Fest in NYC, the Electric Lodge in Venice, CA, Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston, and the Fringes in Houston, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Vancouver, Orlando and Ottawa. My first two solo shows Cemetery Golf and The Biscuiteater had successful runs at FronteraFest, the Electric Lodge, United Solo in NYC, Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston and the Fringes in Orlando, San Diego, Hollywood, San Francisco, Boulder, Scranton, Chicago, Tucson, Ottawa and the Cincy Fringe, where I received a CityBeat critic’s pick. I currently live in Venice, CA with my wife, producer/artist Deb and our yellow lab Joe.

The Vista Theater, 1296 N. Wishon Ave, Fresno, CA 93728

Performances: 10:00 p.m. on Friday March 1, 5:00 p.m. on Saturday March 2, 6:30 p.m. on Sunday March 3, 5:30 p.m. on Friday March 8 and 8:00 p.m. on Saturday March 9.

Tickets: $15, available at fresnoroguefestival.org and www.jimloucks.com.

Stars Story
By Steve Budd

Ever wish that someone you love would change overnight? Be careful what you wish for! I speak from experience.

Seeing Stars, a solo show, is a true story about something dramatic and traumatic that happened to my family over 30 years ago. The events had a profound impact on me. Unsurprisingly, the story has stayed with me. I’ve wanted to share it with others for decades. I finally am.

Have you read Death of a Salesman? Remember Biff and Willy? Meet Steve and Hugh. A son in search of his father, in search of connection, in search of himself. Seeing Stars is a dramedy about the space between fathers and sons. You’ll meet some distant dads: Poseidon, the father in Ibsen’s Ghosts, Willy Loman, and Steve’s dad Hugh.

Steve Budd

At 31, I moved back in with my parents. I’d always wished my father were different. Less distant. Less gruff. Less critical. More alive. More engaged. Easier to connect with. Well…was I in for a surprise!

Seeing Stars is timely, as COVID-19 and job loss have led lots of 20- and 30-somethings to move back in with their parents. Mental illness has also been on the rise and touches the lives of many.

I brought my show What They Said About Sex to the Rogue Festival in 2020. The goal of all of my shows is to get people talking about things we need to talk about more and don’t talk about enough. Things like family dysfunction and mental illness. While it’s true that my shows deal with serious topics, there are lots of laughs along the way.

Seeing Stars premiered at the 2023 San Francisco Fringe Festival and won the Audience Choice Award. I’m looking forward to bringing the show to Fresno and the Rogue Festival.

FIVE PERFORMANCES ONLY:
Friday, March 1, at 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 2, at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 3, at 2 p.m.
Friday, March 8, at 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 9, at 3:30 p.m.

Tickets: $15
Running Time: 60 minutes
Dianna’s Studio of Dance
826 N. Fulton St., Fresno, CA 93728

Delusions and Grandeur
By Karen Hall

For years people would ask me when I was going to bring my cello into my comedy. That’s never particularly enticed me though. What I wanted to do was bring clown into the classical music world where, as you may imagine, we take things way too seriously the majority of the time. The catch is, that’s terrifying. The clown by nature has to flop; has to fail. The classical musician, however, should be flawless.

Making this show was creating my dream job. After marinating on the clown-cellist juxtaposition for years, I started exploring and devising at various workshops and open clown shows around Los Angeles. As I live-wrote pieces I began to weave them together with pieces of music for an intimate and humorous cello recital and I feel very fortunate that audiences have latched onto it so well. It’s typically the slow-burning cult classic of a festival with people coming back multiple times to get it all and shows selling out in advance. I can promise you excellent music (I play the “First Bach Cello Suite” in its entirety over the course of the show), I can promise you some laughter, and I think I’m getting pretty close to promising existential crisis but that’s not yet guaranteed.

Delusions and Grandeur is a classical recital, a devised experimental theatre piece, a personal storytelling, an exploration of clown and Idiot, and a genre-less solo show attracting great press reviews and sold-out houses around the world. It lets me tackle some of my biggest fears and daunting questions in a way that allows my clown to share their flops and hopes directly with an audience. Cello and I look forward to bringing it next to Rogue in Fresno.

Friday, March 1 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 2 – 5 p.m.
Sunday, March 3 6:30 p.m.
Friday, March 8 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 9 8 p.m.

Tickets $15
THE LOTUS ROOM
626 E Olive Ave, Fresno, CA 93728

Hope to see you all at Rogue!

If you love theatre, be sure to check out Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast, which features mysteries read by local actors. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, and also on podbean.

Check out more theatre reviews & other local entertainment articles in our Arts & Entertainment section. You can also find more theatre coming up on KRL’s Local Theatre event page.