Mike Fotis, a monologist from Minneapolis, puts on a show that’s about as minimal as it can be. He introduces himself by saying, “I sit at a table and tell stories.” In fact, he sits at a table and reads stories that he has written. He’s an expressive reader and a sharply sardonic writer, so what he offers up keeps audiences entertained. But there’s not much to it.
His 50-minute Fringe session in a small room downstairs at MOTR on Main Street fills up pretty quickly, and it’s apparent audiences remember his shtick from last year and have returned for more. He came on wearing an emerald-green T-shirt emblazoned with the words STILL KICKIN. That’s tongue-in-cheek, of course, because most of his subject matter in two long anecdotes is about his neurotic concerns over his health and later about dogs in his life. He is the master of the understated overstatement, a bit like David Sedaris with slightly more energy.
His parents are characters in both tales he shares. His mother, who he describes as a “Spanish soap opera,” is not what you’d call indulgent; his father, “an adorable pharmacist,” jumps immediately from dismissing Mike’s mild cold symptoms to suggesting he might be suffering from a stroke or brain cancer. He likens an over-eager healthcare worker’s behavior to “an alligator who found a secret entrance to the puppy farm.”
His dog stories, beginning with childhood pets, start sweet with “Snoopy,” an overeager beagle, and turning to “Copper,” a mutt that loves his father and viciously intimidates the rest of the family. Then we hear about his adult experience getting his own dog, a puppy he calls Maddie, with training and daily life events pushed to absurd extremes. His own feelings of hypochondria cause him to agonize when his dog gets sick. Afterwards, he confesses to how overly dramatic he’s been — but also that his dog is his best friend. There’s a monotonous, dry charm to Fotis’s storytelling.
I don’t want to give away his brief, odd entr’acte involving food and silence. He says it has nothing to do with his stories, that it’s simply something he’s always wanted to try. It had the audience laughing, as did his oddly personal if neurotic tales. His eccentricity keeps people coming back, but he’s definitely an acquired taste.
Read the official 32-page FRINGE FESTIVAL GUIDE
here
and find the full performance lineup
here
.
This article appears in May 27 – Jun 2, 2015.
