"the
funniest performance I've seen at the Fringe"
Review by by Liz Nicholls, Edmonton
Journal
In a world where we constantly feel inadequate, confused,
disoriented and abandoned on the technological autoroute,
there is help and a joyful message at the Fringe. It is
a self-help seminar on how to tap into the power of ignorance.
Yes, mankind has been barking up the wrong tree all this
time, questing after knowledge, seeking enlightenment. "Are
you confused?" asks the silky-voiced, reassuring man onstage.
"If you don't understand, you're already using your power
of ignorance. ... Confusion is the boulevard to ignorance"
(via "the rumpus room of endarkenment"). And perfect ignorance,
as you will learn in the course of this exquisitely constructed,
perfectly daffy architecture of logic by Chris Gibbs and
T.J. Dawe, is what you need not only for success and happiness,
but life itself. The assertions are provocative; for example,
"without ignorance, everyone in this room would be dead."
Vaguen (Gibbs, half of Hoopal) provides irreducible proof,
numerous syllogisms, useful analogies, riddles, inspirational
aphorisms (ig-mantras like "Duh" with deep breath) from
the great ig-masters of history about how to rid yourself
of unwanted knowledge and how to understand better the importance
of a lack of understanding. Since only a tiny portion of
the human brain is ever used, "isn't it better to rely on
the 90 per cent that does nothing than the 10 per cent that's
already busy?" This makes sense, and the man onstage has
one of those silky, reassuring voices. He is here to help.
There's a hysterical rigour to the process here, and Gibbs
as Vaguen is the funniest performance I've seen at the Fringe.
The Power Of Ignorance is bliss; join the ignorati.
(5 STARS)
"wicked,
gut-busting satire"
Review by by Adrian Chamberlain,
Victoria Times Colonist
If you're going to catch just one show at the Uno Festival,
this is the uno for you. Penned by fringe festival darling
TJ Dawe and U.K performer Chris Gibbs, this comedic look
at motivational seminars is wicked, gut-busting satire.
It will make you laugh - loudly.
Vaguen, played by Gibbs in a white turtleneck and double-breasted
blazer with brass buttons, is a self-proclaimed master ignoramus.
He entreats the audience to embrace the "power of duh,"
that is, the blissful state of ignorance. “Ignorance
is limitless possibilities,” declares Vaguen, encouraging
us to enter the "gateway of naiveté" and
follow the "path of befuddlement." Sounds absolutely
silly, but then, doesn't embracing nothingness sound like
something a zen master might advocate … or at least
a self-styled guru from Southern California?
Gibbs, who recalls Saturday Night Live's Chris Parnell in
both mannerisms and looks, is a confident comedian who absolutely
nails the smarmy charm of the worst motivational speakers.
His theatrical, self-conscious style and obnoxious assuredness
is exactly what we see on late-night infomercials featuring
weasels promising to teach us how to get rich selling real
estate. The absurd humour found in Dawe's own one-man shows
crops up in The Power of Ignorance - there are bizarre,
risk-taking tangents in which Vaguen alludes to his dysfunctional
childhood, for example.
Gibbs's poise as a performer is reflected in his sharp ability
to ad-lib. On Tuesday night he was able effortlessly to
improvise jokes about passing motorcycles and late theatre-goers.
It was hilarious (although it seemed less so when a certain
theatre writer in the front row was selected for a lambasting).
Overall, this is one of the funniest shows I've seen
in years. Cleverly written and beautifully performed, The
Power of Ignorance is satirical comedy at its finest.
(5 STARS)
"in
the top five of the funniest plays I have seen in nearly
half a century of theatre-going"
Review By Janet Coutts, montreal.com
This is the funniest piece I have ever seen at any of the
13 fringes I have attended. Heck, it's in the top five of
the funniest plays I have seen in nearly half a century
of theatre-going.
It is written by Chris Gibbs and TJ Dawe, and performed
by Chris Gibbs. Now why would TJ Dawe collaborate on a funnier
piece for someone else than for himself? The only thing
I can think of is that TJ is just too sweet on stage to
show his mean side - and this play has some very black jokes
about childhood abuse and puppies.
Even the program is funny, so read it to put yourself in
the mood before the show starts. I was moaning in pain between
bouts of laughter during the show. Really.
I won't spoil things by telling you any of the jokes. The
program notes tell you everything you need to know. And
ignorance is powerful.
This show is heading west to other fringes, so if you missed
it, Go West, young (wo)man! It's worth it.
Brilliant
mind came up with Ignorance
Review by Colin Maclean, Edmonton
Sun
Fear not, gentle Fringer. Vaguen has arrived to save you
from the pain of knowledge.
Vaguen, who was once Chris Gibbs of the Fringe favourite
duo "Hoopal," champions, well, the power of ignorance.
The show begins in darkness with a voice rhyming off a list
of absolutely unrelated topics. (He even gets into his shopping
list.)
"What do these things have in common?" he asks.
Well, they are all connected by nothing but, of course,
the power of ignorance.
Vaguen then delivers his famous seminar on how ignorance
can change your life.
"If you don't know what isn't possible, then nothing
isn't possible," he tells us.
He even returns to the Bible to quote one Jesus Humphrey
Christ who said, "They know not what they do."
The basis of Buddhism, he points out "is the knowledge
of nothing."
Vaguen did not come to his enlightenment overnight. He studied
with the great ig-masters of the world and ignored everything
they had to say.
He even gives us our own power of ignorance ig-mantra: "Duh!"
He tries to help us out by using hypnotism but, alas, keeps
putting himself under before he reaches the end of the procedure.
There are great pearls of ignorance here.
"Ignorance helps when you try to explain why your country
went to war." "What you don't know won't hurt
you and so the ignorant man is invincible."
Gibbs, (who benefits from the directing of uber-Fringe performer
TJ Dawe) has the timing of cosmic clock, a subtle comic
personality that finds humour in the smallest gesture and
a fractured logic that can only come from a brilliant mind.
Brilliant mind? Gee, sorry Chris. I blew your cover.
Duh!
(4 STARS)
"The
Power of Ignorance is bliss"
Review by Christopher Hoile,
Eye Weekly
"Stop thinking and start living!" That is the motto of The Power of
Ignorance, a hysterically funny spoof of self-help seminars and the
self-appointed gurus who lead them. Anyone who saw Chris Gibbs (pictured)
last year in Antoine Feval at the Fringe Festival or in its run at the
Diesel Playhouse will know that he is an inspired comedian with a sense
of timing so perfect he can get a laugh with the simplest pause or
gesture. The occasion for this revival of The Power of Ignorance
(2003) is the recent publication of a spin-off pseudo-self-help book
of the same title promising "183 pages of mostly new material!"
The leader of the seminar and author of the book is Vaguen (Gibbs), Master of
Ignorance. While in a mental institution, Vaguen was adopted by a group known
as the Ignorati, who taught him how to harness the power of unknowing and sent
him to spread ignorance throughout the world. We know that a little knowledge
is a bad thing. We know that what you don't know can't hurt you. Building on
such accepted commonplaces, Vaguen gradually reveals to the audience how we
can overcome fears and obvious impediments to success simply by ignoring them.
At 90 minutes it might seem that authors Gibbs and T.J. Dawe have stretched
a single-minded theme rather thin, but they have, in fact, cleverly woven
Vaguen's background story into the lessons he teaches. As Vaguen's seminar
progresses he draws increasingly on peculiarly nasty episodes from his
childhood, which he naively assumes the audience has also experienced. It
soon becomes clear why the young Vaguen would have been drawn to a form of
self-help based on tuning out reality.
Gibbs gives a marvelous performance full of irony. He exudes an air of
artificial suavity that does not fully mask the insecurity underneath. Bit
by bit he shows how Vaguen's mispronunciations, malapropisms and unpleasant
memories eat away at his façade until we eventually glimpse the quivering
milquetoast Vaguen would be without his self-induced ignorance. Gibbs's
surprising acrobatics and the literally smashing finale will convince
anyone that The Power of Ignorance is bliss.
(4 STARS)
"a
fringe festival show at its best"
Review by Stephen Hunt, Calgary
Herald
You know how, when you go to see a play at Theatre Calgary
or ATP, how it's all very ritualistic and sort of classy?
You know--latecomers will not be admitted because they would
disrupt the performers and audience's attention? The seats
are all upholstered? The subject matter oh so tasteful,
serious--even the puppet shows around here are filled with
classical allusions?
Now try a fringe show. In a church basement. On a day when
it's 30 degrees out. The show is for adults, but a few of
the adults have brought their newborn baby along, and really,
well, what are you supposed to do with a newborn baby?
There's a lady in the front row who keeps dozing off right
in front of the guy doing the show, but who among us hasn't
felt a little downward tug on the eyelids at the theatre
before? Naps count as an audience reaction.
Into all of this anti-glamour steps Chris Gibbs, a seemingly
serious man, dressed in a black suit that's sort of boxy
and quasi-1980's, wearing a tight, white turtleneck underneath.
He is British. He looks a little like he might host a show
explaining the nuances of financial derivatives, or the
politics of the Swat Valley in Pakistan.
But no! He's actually a guy named Vaguen, giving a motivational
speech about the power of ignorance.
"What's the most negative word in the English language?"
he asks.
"No!" someone from the audience yells.
"And the most positive word is 'don't know!'"
he yells back.
Vaguen is here in this anti-glam church basement to preach
the empowering act of dwelling on that 90% of your brain
that none of us use. He is part of a secret inner sanctum
of ignorant men he calls the Ignorati. His message: in order
to thrive in this messy, crowded world--even in a church
basement full of babies who keep chirping at the wrong moment
and the woman sleeping in the front row--one must get in
touch with one's Ig.
If the baby happens to chirp out of place--and what baby
doesn't?--Gibbs simply goes right along for the ride, incorporating
the child into the show.
"Thirty years from now, that child will be sitting
around with friends, saying, 'I've always really hated theater,
and I have no idea why'."
When the dozing woman's head topples onto her partner's
shoulder, Gibbs pulls a masterpiece of an improv out of
that moment too, explaining that he was using his soothing
voice to get the baby to fall asleep, only to have it work
on the wrong person.
And then, just when the wordplay and intellectual gymnastics
threaten to sprain your brain, Gibbs breaks into quite credible
boy band dance maneuvers, or does a back flip that would
make a Russian gymnast proud. He's as fine a physical performer
as he is a verbal one.
And if you ever wanted to write a one-person show, this
one is worth all the textbooks and MFA programs combined.
Gibbs (and Dawe, who is the Godfather of the Fringe. T.J.
Dawe is just a code for 'another five stars') take a premise
that's basically an intellectual conceit, which is funny
enough--but they don't stop there.
Throughout the show, little cracks appear in Vaguen's bad,
'80's armour, as he gives us glimpses of the childhood of
a little English boy whose mum was quite a bit less than
nurturing. They come in snippets, sneaking in through the
side door, but their cumulative wallop packs a more poignant
punch than 90% of those autobiographical shows that many
performers write that don't really serve as much more than
a 55 minute long therapy session for the performer.
If you want to see a fringe festival show at its best, check
out The Power of Ignorance. Saturday afternoon's show was
one of the best times at the theatre I've ever had. It was
so much fun, maybe Gibbs ought to start asking people to
bring their children and narcoleptic partners to the show.
(5 STARS)
"painfully
funny"
Review by Ron Robinson, CBC
TJ Dawe, "what, you again?" (he's everywhere at
the fringe), co-wrote this 60 minutes of inspirational lunacy
with Chris Gibbs. Fringe fanatics will recognize him for
Hoopal and last years Gibberish, both top notch comic outbursts.
Now I put it to you that by the age of 25 we come to realize
we can't know everything, some of us know very little. Oh,
you have your areas of expertise, like minature plastic
dinosaurs, all of them except the stegosaurus, damn Kellogg's,
and we sent the ten box tops like they asked, and did they
even send so much as a bloody note...as an example of the
kind of lecture that Gibbs gives.
So, why not give ignorance a chance? Plead ignorance. Drift
through life like Manuel in Fawlty Towers, "I know
nothing". Travel down the boulevard of Confusion to
the land if Ignorance. Learn to chant the ig mantra..."duh".
We've all been to a self- actualizing, motivational, invest-
now -while- others- perish seminar, at one time or another
in our lives. Gibbs as Vaguen is an amalgam of them all.
And then bit by bit his childhood comes out as a factor
in his search for ignorance. It is painfully funny, but
with a hint of edginess, not to all tastes, I'll grant.
The ending is "striking", that's all I feel I
can say, but the laughter carried on as people were leaving
the venue. Another smash hit at the Fringe.
(5 STARS)