by Terrance McArthur

Here are more of our Rogue Festival show reviews! We also have several Rogue Performer Preview articles that have been going up over the last few weeks. You will be able to find all of them, along with a preview article about the Festival itself, in our Rogue Festival category and you can find more info on our Rogue Festival event page over on KRL News and Reviews. Tickets for the Rogue Festival can be purchased on their website and you can find this year’s schedule.

Blood Harmony
Review by Terrance McArthur

Blood Harmony—The unique tonal and harmonic quality of singers from the same family (See: The Everly Brothers)

Blood Harmony—A performance by The Murray Girls, who create amazing vocal combinations that enhance everything from folk murder ballads to Sixties pop.

Leigh and her family have been Rogue Festival standouts for sixteen years, and they aren’t about to stop. There are three daughters, and they have joined their mother onstage in different combinations.

Sometimes, all three young women would perform. At other, there would be two. This year, Leigh and Killean form a dynamic duo that fills the Veni Vidi Vici patio with a joyful noise.

The two singers managed to pack more than twenty songs into a 60-minute show. Appalachian favorites like “Shady Grove” and “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” share the set list with “The End of the World” (Skeeter Davis hit from 1962). Leigh gets wild and lusty on “The Curst Wife” and “The Widow’s Promise” (aka “The Widow and the Devil”). Dolly Parton’s “When Love Is New” has a mournful, plaintive quality. “Wild Rover” is a gleeful sing-and-clap-along, while “Smile” (melody by Charlie Chaplin—Yes, THAT Charlie Chaplin) is gentle and comforting. “Danny Boy” and “The Parting Glass” are as Irish Gaelic as you could want in March.

Leigh and Killean prove that, 4, 3, or 2, any-sized collection of The Murray Girls is a good number.

Blood Harmony’s final Rogue 2023 performances are Friday, March 10, 8:30pm, and Saturday, March 11, 5:00pm, at Veni Vidi Vici, 1116 N. Fulton Street, Fresno. Tickets are $8. Go and enjoy.

Tim Mannix, Magician
Review by Terrance McArthur

There are magicians. There are comedians. There are comic magicians. Tim Mannix is a magic comedian!

Tim Mannix: Magician is a Rogue Festival show that threatens to burst out of the tiny Hart’s Haven stage. He’s an excellent magic performer, capable of turning a collection of socks into an amazing mystery that leaves people gasping at its final reveal. Bubbles floating in the air change their composition. Play-Doh hides the answer to a question. Strips of colored thread are torn off the spool, but will they stay that way? A wheel of playing cards takes a surprising spin. Miracles every minute!

Tim is quick-witted, tossing quips and zingers left and right, yet his putdowns are soft Nerf Balls that don’t sting. He reads the audience well, and parents know they can bring children to his family-friendly shows without fear. His assistants from the audience may do silly things as a part of the act, but they are not demeaned or degraded.

I’ve known Tim Mannix (and have seen his shows) for many years. He provides fast-paced, laugh-filled magic and comedy that changes with the times. He’s not doing the same tricks and illusions he performed at the Rogue three years ago, and his award-winning shows bring audiences back again and again.

The final performances for Tim Mannix: Magician are Friday, March 10, 8:30 pm and Saturday, March 11, 3:30 pm at Hart’s Haven, 950 N. Van Ness Ave., Fresno. Tickets are $10. Abracadabra!

Terrance V. Mc Arthur worked for the Fresno County Public Library for three decades. He is retired, but not retiring. A storyteller, puppeteer, writer, actor, magician, basketmaker, and all-around interesting person, his goal is to make life more unusual for everyone he meets.

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