Hamilton Fringe reviews: Felt Cute, Might Overshare Later, Church Boyfriends and more
Frequent Best of Hamilton Fringe winner Kristi Boulton’s show about life’s embarrassing moments is deeply “felt”
The 12-day Hamilton Fringe Festival continues at 16+ indoor and outdoor spaces throughout the city until Sunday (July 26). See my earlier reviews here, and more information about the festival itself here.
Brilliant Boulton
Who among us doesn’t have embarrassing episodes in their life, moments we would like to delete permanently from our mental hard drives?
Kristi Boulton has several doozies, which she relates in her superb solo show Felt Cute, Might Overshare Later (Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭). But rather than tell them directly, she has her hand puppet alter ego recount them, with Boulton — an old hand (sorry) at puppetry as an alumna of Avenue Q — supplying the higher pitched voice, while also responding to her felt friend (and the audience) as herself.
She begins with a cute story about her eight-year-old self being cast as an urchin in a school play and then forgetting her one line and making a memorable, wet departure from the stage. Then she proceeds to adolescence, where as a 16-year-old in love with a boy who in turn was obsessed with her best friend, she engaged in a drunken game of “Seven Minutes in Heaven,” with disastrous, humiliating (and again wet, but in a different way) results.
Boulton, a 5x Best of Fringe winner, has a warm, generous stage presence and directs the show with confidence but not cockiness. Halfway through, she drops a hint about a story that she’s not yet ready to discuss, even via her friend. When she eventually does, it’s as herself, with no puppet proxy, and it’s cathartic and deeply moving to witness.