2025’s Fresno Rogue Performance Festival is a Magician’s Wonderland. No less than four magic acts entertain the masses this year. Magic of Eric led off my tour of tricksters. A good old-fashioned performer with a pack of new tricks, Eric Hiett ties knots that transform ropes into rings that link and change shape at his command.
Tim is a solo performer but he is never completely alone onstage as he transforms, over a very short period of time, into a multitude of characters without the use of props or obvious costumes. It’s just vocal inflection, movement and attitude that provide the individuality. The twist is, he doesn’t rely on cartoonish caricatures to get the point across.
Totally by chance, I ended up picking mostly local shows to review this year. One of those was The Trimmings by Marc Gonzalez, local actor, writer and sometimes reviewer, who I have known for a while now. I very much enjoyed his playwriting and solo Rogue show debut in 2020, Merely a Player, so I was looking forward to seeing what he had to offer this year.
Totally by chance, I ended up picking mostly local shows to review this year. One of those was The Trimmings by Marc Gonzalez, local actor, writer and sometimes reviewer, who I have known for a while now. I very much enjoyed his playwriting and solo Rogue show debut in 2020, Merely a Player, so I was looking forward to seeing what he had to offer this year.
I know I say this every year, but you do not want to miss Martin Dockery’s show! I also say every year that Martin could read the phone book and make it riveting—and that is not an exaggeration! But of course, that’s not what he does; he always crafts an interesting and brilliantly performed show, and this year is no exception.
Jaguar Bennett calls himself Fresno’s Most Offensive Comedian. His latest show is called Why You Suck, and it lives up to its name, as that really is the focus of the show. However, he not only tells the audience why they suck, he also turns that on himself.
“Buckle up – it could get weird.” These are comedian Joey Rinaldi’s words of warning at the beginning of Idiot Abroad Comedy Show. I’d put the emphasis more on comedy than weirdness, especially considering the packed house was howling with laughter within the first five minutes of the show.
You are hereby summoned to a theatrical performance of You’ve Been Served at Rogue Festival this March 1, 2, 7, and 8. Failure to appear at my one-woman show with musical numbers means you will miss my darkly hilarious odyssey that begins with the whirlwind three hours in which I discovered my husband was cheating, confronted him, and watched as he neatly packed his duffle bag, took all the pans off the wall (except the scratched one), and moved in with his side piece.
After last year’s Marty’s Turn, I got a hankering to perform my own writing again. But I had learned a few things since Merely a Player, which served as my playwriting and solo show debut in 2020, also at the Rogue Festival: 1) I don’t have the bandwidth to learn and perform an entire, traditional solo play, and 2) I need a team. I need to be directed. I need someone to help me develop the script, and I need someone with an eye for design.
If you follow the arts scene in Fresno, you've no doubt heard of the Rogue Festival. Maybe you've even attended. Created in 2002 by Fresno playwright Marcel Nunis, it has become one of the oldest, continuously operating (and best respected) fringe festivals in North America. The Rogue has progressively grown in size from one venue with two stages and a handful of local acts to nine separate venues and 40 performing groups and individuals from all over the US, Canada, Australia and the UK.
