IS THAT HOW CLOWNS HAVE SEX? - VAN FRINGE 2018

Is That How Clowns Have Sex? A One-Woman, Queer Clown Sex-Ed Show produced by Maximaliste Productions doesn’t shy away from sex talk, and will have you in stitches doing so.

The performer, Fiona Ross, is quirky and sweet, and has the right comedic timing as she playfully acts out different aspects of sex education using her clown character Ms. Beatrice Haven. Don’t expect anything serious or to have your sex questions answered in a clear fashion, but you will be entertained and there will be a lot of laughter throughout.

At times the act can get a bit repetitive, but Ms. Beatrice manages to keep the audience engaged and you never quite know what’s going to happen next. So, if you plan on going make sure to bring a weird, funny, or burning sex question and it just might get answered during the show!  

​Is That How Clowns Have Sex? A One-Woman, Queer Clown Sex-Ed Show by Maximaliste Productions is playing at Your Open Closet 6 - 16 September as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival.

~ reviewed by ​Jenna Masuhara

Click "read more" for the full video transcript.

Hi Theatre Addicts, I'm Jenna and I'm here for the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival to be watching Is that how Clowns have Sex? A One-Woman, Queer Clown Sex-Ed Show, which is by Maximaliste Productions and at Your Open Closet. This is part of the BYOB series. I'm excited to see this show, it should be, I'm hoping it'll be funny as well as maybe provide a little of sexual education that I didn't know about. So yeah, I'll see you after the show. Bye.
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Hey, I'm back and I watched, Is That How Clowns Have Sex, a One-Woman, Queer, Clown, Sex-Ed Show. And I must say I had a lot of fun. It was funny, and engaging, and I think the audience agreed with me as they were laughing throughout the show as well. I do wanna say first though, it is labelled as 14+, and I would agree with that assessment. It is sex talk so something maybe you don't want to expose your kids to just yet. But definitely teenagers can go to this, I mean, there's nothing risque, or too out there about this show.

The topic's sexual education. So they should be learning about this stuff anyways. And the show does sort of take a good look at critiquing past educational systems of teaching about sex and the problems that were part of it. But all in a very funny, quirky, weird sort of way that will get you laughing. And so I think it did a good job of that.

The title says it's a one-woman show, so the performer is Fiona Ross and she plays a character called Beatrice who is self proclaimed sexpert basically. And Beatrice is a clown, so she's funny and quirky and weird. If you're scared of clowns I don't think you really have anything to worry about, this is a nice sweet clown character. Not anything sinister at all to it. She's trying to be inviting and engaging to the audience. And she does do that. So there really isn't anything to worry about, unless you're terrified of all things clown. Because she does have the face makeup, and the red nose, and quirky clothes. So unless those things are a big turn off for you, you should be fine. Yeah, you should be fine.

Fiona Ross, or Beatrice I should say, I guess the character is sort of like naive and is figuring out the world of sex as she goes along, and we're along with the road. So yeah, it's quite fun. One thing that this performance uses is a lot of props. So there's a lot of condoms, and sex toys, and blankets, and posters, and other weird things. And the objects are not all used in ways that you think that they would be used. So that's an interesting part of the show, and there's also, it adds a comedic element to it.

I do have to say one criticism I do have with the show is that at certain times it's hard to see what the props are, and especially if you're to the back you can't read what the signs say. So you either have to look around people or just wait til she says what's on the board if she does say what's on the board. Sometimes she doesn't read out everything that's written on there. So I would say maybe move the board up higher so that people to the back can see, because it's a flat seating arrangement, there's no levels, so if you're a short person in the very back you're not going to be able to read what's on the signs. I would maybe improve that part.

And that also has to do with the space of the place, so this is at Your Open Closet, which is a clothing store. So, it's a bit different from your traditional theatre stage. And it is a very small space so there's not a lot to work with. It works in that it's very intimate, so the performer can easily move throughout the audience and talk to people, and sort of engage with them. And you would prefer that smaller setting for this type of performance. But, like I said with my critique, because it's a flat level and there's no incline, people at the back can't read what's the sign that she puts on at the front, or the bottom on the floor. So that could be changed.

But yeah, overall, she did a really good job of engaging the audience. I thinks she has great comedic timing and she manages to get people involved, and laughing. One thing that she does at the beginning of the show is, she goes around asking you to write down a question that you have about sex. Like, anything at all, could be serious, or whatever, and you write it, and you hand it in. And so she picks out those questions throughout the show and answers them. And so there is a bit of improv element to this show. So I don't think any one show will be exactly the same, which is quite cool. And you can tell that she's good at thinking on her feet.

There are times where because there is a bit of improv elements, sometimes the stuff gets a bit repetitive depending on what the question is. She sometimes goes back to a similar sort of act that she did for another question. But she manages to keep the audience laughing, and engaged so that's a good thing.

If you're not scared of sex talk. This is a funny, little intimate show that you can go to with a bit of non traditional staging. So that's always nice to see. So that's about all I have to say. Once again, I'm Jenna and I saw Is That How Clowns Have Sex? A One-Woman, Queer, Sex-Ed Show, by Maximaliste Productions at Your Open Closet which is a clothing store. So if you've seen this show, comment below and make sure to check out our Theatre Addicts YouTube channel, and visit our website to see more reviews and interviews that are coming out. And yeah, I'll see you around. Thanks. Bye.