Review: (Toronto) Follow Your Fear (Fringe)

Charm Will Out
by Lisa McKeown
@lisammckeown

Improv is difficult. And scary. And that’s exactly what inspired this 45 minute one-man improv show, performed and created by Todd Charron. Each performance is different, and based on suggestions from the audience. The idea that voice acting might be scary because failure is so easy was the theme of tonight’s show, and with that idea in mind Charron came up with 45 minutes worth of sketches making up four different plot lines. With a group to think up ideas improv can be difficult enough, but going solo is a brave move since Charron has to carry the entire show on his own. At times the characterization was underdeveloped, and each conflict could have been more subtly explored  - I think the biggest secret of good improv is to go small, to focus on details, instead of always trying hard to be funny. Despite these awkward aspects of the performance, Charron’s ingenuous stage presence is charming, and he does end up weaving the plot lines together in unexpectedly funny ways, uniting the theme in a final thought about the perils of the voice-acting world. 

Follow Your Fear is at the Toronto Fringe