Toronto Fringe Review: $20 Sandwich Ruins Your Childhood

Raw and unfiltered, $20 Sandwich Ruins Your Childhood is a personalized show that amusingly and endearingly puts an audience member in the hot seat by looking back at their childhood, and then humorously turning it on its head. Crafted interview-style, the four members of the eponymously named $20 Sandwich – Brennan Asbridge, Antony Hall, Shaun Hunter and Chase Jeffels – take turns asking a volunteer from the crowd questions that they in turn use as the basis for a one-of-a-kind improv show that is highly entertaining.

The troupe manages to take the awkward, embarrassing and ordinary moments from youth – mostly individual to the person who shared their story, at other times relatable to the wider audience – and craft them into multiple scenes that make up the performance. For the premiere show, a lady by the name of Nicky was the lucky recipient that was interviewed by the cast of $20 Sandwich. In the course of sharing about herself, she divulged memories that gave the comedians ample fodder for what they would soon be acting out on stage: Nicky’s grandfather threatening to disown her father if he let her dance ballet, boys marveling in shock at how hairy her legs were, that she is still discovering sex having not been allowed to even think about it by her parents, and an alcoholic teacher that drank during class. The quartet took that information and proficiently utilized it as the foundation for the scenes that followed, often peppering in almost verbatim quotes from Nicky herself, displaying the strong attention to detail and command the troupe had on their material.

Each scene truly could exist on their own as hilarious sketches, detailing the comical nature of one’s adolescence with farcical twists. However, it is the collective of scenes that reference each other at various points, where the pervious answers shared stack upon one another, the spectators gleefully reacting in knowing laughter from being in on the joke.

The cast were able to seamlessly weave both some of the most unhinged and mundane things from one’s childhood into each scene, while still being funny and not unnatural in their presentation of it, a true feat. Sitting at a runtime of 75 minutes, the playful nature of $20 Sandwich Ruins Your Childhood has the ability to not only feel shorter in length, but also leave you wanting more, in the best of ways.

One of the great things about this show is that should one decide to see it more than once, they’ll be treated to a new story and production each time that is sure to deliver. When it comes to on-the-spot audience participation, things can very easily go off the rails, but Asbridge, Hall, Hunter and Jeffels skillfully work together to create a hysterical experience for all. Get silly, nostalgic and tap into a stranger’s – or possibly your own – days of youth, as $20 Sandwich Ruins Your Childhood takes you on a fresh trip, laughing all the way.

$20 Sandwich Ruins Your Childhood is on now until July 12 at the Toronto Fringe. Show times and tickets