Toronto Fringe Review: AHAHA

AHAHA embodies the spirit of the Fringe Festival. It’s frenetic, filled with youthful exuberance and experimentation. 

An insecure comedian needs to pee, and in his desperation, he entrusts the venue to his heckler. Once the heckler takes over, he’s left floundering. And with that, all hell breaks loose. A Trans deity intervenes and turns everything into a live action video game of sorts featuring some unexpected villains in the gods of sound and film, and a final boss who happens to be the Rat King of theme parks and animation. All complete with a cameo from “Jamie Lee Curtis.”

Though this wasn’t to my personal tastes; there is too much of a reliance on frantic shouting that obscures the humour, the story is inventive. The ensemble takes the old hero’s journey trope, drops it on it’s head, and plays with elements of clowning and puppetry to create a spectacle and social satire. It’s one of those shows that only happens at the Fringe, and I’m grateful that these creative minds could run amok and produce something so wonderfully absurd!

AHAHA is a 30 minute gag by delightfully dark and ridiculous story tellers. It feels like this ensemble is at the very beginnings of some unique satire and I’m looking forward to seeing them play with their creativity more in the future! 

AHAHA is on now until July 14 on now as part of Toronto Fringe. Show times and tickets here.