[Theatre and Physical Theatre/Music – Canada]

The Garage International @ Scots,  Fri 16 Feb.

There used to be a program on SBS called Front-up. Its basic premise was that everybody has an interesting story to tell. They would stop random people on the street and in a ten minute interview elicit their amazing stories. Keith Alessi operates from the same premise. All of us have a story to tell – and these stories may well inspire or teach things to others.

Keith’s story is more interesting than most. An unusual family and the fact that he had lived the high life of a successful executive adds spice to his tale. But it’s how he handled the low parts of life that is more the focus here.

Enter the banjo. We are treated to a number of standard gags about the banjo, and hear surprising information about the importance of the Ballad of Jed Clampett from the Beverley Hillbillies. We also learn that banjo players never forgave the movie Deliverance for the negative publicity it generated!

By his own admission Keith his hardly a virtuoso on banjo, but he’s competent enough to play several tunes in different styles. And he’s convinced that music was the key to making him whole again. His telling of his epiphany in a local café in south-west Virginia was fascinating, and was also a reminder of the wonderful musical legacy America has given us.

This is the kind of show that one might normally hear in the motivational speech segment of a conference, but it works well enough as a Fringe show. Perhaps it’s actually closer to what the Fringe really used to be about compared to some of the bigger acts in town.

If you play banjo and you don’t like tomatoes this may well be the perfect show for you. If not, it’s a good story anyway and it may well inspire you to make overdue changes in your life.