I'm really glad that Venezuela is being promoted as a children's show by having a $2.00 ticket price for those under ten. There are a few other shows that aren't children's shows but are suitable, which is nice too. But the days of having outright children's shows seem long in the past. The days when nobody knew what the Fringe was so people were willing to try variety have been pushed out. Though maybe that will change as the youngest Fringe Oldtimers start having children.
In 1994 or 95, one family from the West Island did a Dr. Seuss show, I really wanted to see it, but they finished early and it slipped by. I remember 1996 and realizing the Fringe was right in that period at the end of the school year when nothing much is happening but you still have to attend. I thought how MacHomer could be a great field trip in those last days of school before summer. It helped that the Fringe ran from noon to midnight back then, so shows were happening during school hours.
Then in 1997, Rick Miller and Stephanie Baptist (did I get that right? They later formed a legal partnership and produced a child or maybe more) did Babaloo & Ganoosh which was intended for children. Stephanie showed up at the Fringe For All in costume, wearing shoes shaped like hot dogs in buns. "Are those dogs tired?", I asked. I saw it, memory reminds me that someone small did watch it, interested in the toys on stage before the show started. And Rick tossed a beret into the crowd, coming close to Bill Brownstein is what I remember. (They did get a decent review, though.) But I don't think it did that well, certainly not drawing children.
Then in 1999, Marc Boiteux and Lazareth did Once Upon A..., Lazareth being a dummy. They had been doing comedy clubs around then, but this was intended for children. I don't think many attended. When I saw it, I remember one maybe ten year old girl attending, and she had a good time. Then she dutifully went right over to the Beer Tent to fill out buzz. Marc said he didn't get the audience he'd hoped, the typecasting of the Fringe already being strong. But he was back the next year, with "Balloon Factory"., helped along by the Great Zamboni, who was a man, not machine. That time he made the effort to promote away from the Fringe, pulling kids in from elsewhere and I thought he did well. I think that was the year I saw him handing out flyers at the Fraser Hickson Library street festival, one couple glad to know that the Fringe was coming since they were uncertain of the dates. He came back again with the same show in French the next year, and then I guess that was it. He had a sandwich board chained to the short black fence at the Beer Tent, two months after the Fringe one year I was passing by and noticed the sign was still there.
The addendum to this is that about a week before the Fringe, I was watching the news and they had a story about Sun Youth's annual bike giveaway. A familiar face appears, and then yes, it is Marc Boiteux, of course looking older. Apparently he'd had some diabetic issue, and his son had done the right thing, which is why his son got the bike.
I can't remember any children's shows since then. Though of course plenty that might have some appeal to them. And we must never forget that dance has potential to lure a young audience, so much of the movement is similar to what small children are doing anyway. And better to drag them to a cheap and short show at the Fringe, complete with the informality, than spending big money to take them to Place des Arts.
Oddly in 1999, there was "Kid's Day at the Fringe", right there at the Beer Tent in the parking lot of the restaurant. But I must have gotten there after it was over, since I have no memory of it. It was sort of incongruous, and seemed more a nod to someone who was on staff that year than part of some Big Plan for expansion.
Children's shows are often fringe, somewhere over there. If anyone set out to do a specifically children's show now, they'd have to work hard away from the Fringe to bring in an audience. I don't think we even do enough to promote that the Fringe can be a family event, Cabaret L'Amour Fou from the west coast 2 years ago certainly should have brought children in. Instead of a fringe, we've set up a monolith of "young hipster" that can be as alienating as any clique.
