Review: (Winnipeg) Geek Life (Fringe)

Lieutenant Broccoli
by Edgar Governo
@pseudohistorian

At one point in Geek Life, juggler Aji Slater talks about when he was a child bonding with his father over episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Jerry Goldsmith's familiar score plays in the background. When I thought to myself that he was actually using the original musical arrangement from 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture instead of the more familiar version used for the series, I knew just how well-suited I was to be an audience member for this show.

Slater's mix of monologue and circus act goes into his many geeky passions and how they informed his key life choices, but his ultimate goal is to tap into the inner geekiness we all share in common. Science fiction and fantasy are a part of it for him and, admittedly, for myself--if you understand the reference I'm making with the title of this review, you're in the same boat--but the nature of those specific passions matters less than the fact that you're passionate about them in the first place. I'm not especially interested in the circus arts, but I was caught up in Slater's enthusiasm for them just as much as I appreciated how we could probably have a long conversation about Sliders or Quantum Leap, and the same holds true for the two audience members at the performance I attended who expressed their respective interests in philately and the soldiers who fought in World War I.

This show is not for coulrophobes (Slater spends a good deal of time talking about clowning), but it's easy to see yourself in a lot of what Slater has to say regardless of what makes you squee. Now, I wonder who he'd like to see cast as the Twelfth Doctor...

Geek Life is at the Winnipeg Fringe