52 Stories

Dave Morris—Théâtre Cercle Molière

I’m a non-parent, which means I’m not equipped to handle children, and I do not know how to coexist well with children. This show is almost sold-out, but my row was empty, save me. Then just as the door closes, a group of five (or six) children (approximately six years old) comes and sits beside me.

This bodes to be marginally better than sitting beside children on a cross-Pacific flight.

To my surprise, the children are paragons of theatre neighbours! Perfectly attentive, still, and seemingly genuinely enrapt with the show. Awesome.

Then there are the adults. The person to my left keeps nodding off, in an obvious enough way that I can tell every time it happens. The person diagonal and in front of me? Also, nods offer, BUT! She wakes up during every round of applause and promptly checks her phone status. The person in front of me? Head bobs.

What’s going on here?!

The stories are fun, but they are not intricate, sticky nor gripping, but they’re interesting—and certainly not coma-inducing! C’mon folks! They’re well-spaced out and entertaining enough—definitely not “everyone falls asleep around me boring” yeesh. Morris, the house lighting isn’t completely down—if you could see all this, I apologise for my neighbours.

The card/memorisation is fun; it’s not a trick. It’s a technique that Morris teaches you how to use, and if I ever want to memorise the sequence of a full deck of cards, I now know how to do it. Yes, it’s a parlour trick, but it works, and there are many less useful things you could spend your time learning.

Back to the stories, they’re adequate. However, when almost half the stories, including the finale (which Morris reveals that he uses all the time), end with him saying, “it’s not a good story.” Dave! Doesn’t that evoke you to rethink your show with the question, “should I use these stories?!” I understand. The final story is very emotional for you—and we all witness it. So sure, that needs to stay. The other tales that end with “it’s not a good story.” Maybe fine-tune them to be good stories?

Generally, it’s a good time—and I’m happy to have shared this experience with pre-teen future Fringers.

Ray Yuen