Slam Bam, No Thank-you Ma'am

Most of Toronto's live venues are concentrated in the downtown West end. 3030 Dundas aims to showcase different acts in The Junction, a trendy area in the North-West. On Monday, I dropped by to watch grown adults play with plush toys.

Specifically, a collective of puppeteers were putting on the final show of their season. Being a "Puppet Slam", it involved short acts or scenes that may be more experimental in nature. The MCs for the evening was Frank Feltman, a cynical news anchor and Puppet What What, a bubbly girl sock. The last slam I went to was hit and miss, and I was hoping for higher quality material tonight.

No such luck, it was still more miss than hits. There were sound problems all night. The performers could not sufficiently project their voices into the large bar (with a whirring ventilator)  and the single mic didn't help. Most acts were half-baked. A lot of work went into the puppets or costumes with not much time given to other things like scripts and acting. Mostly though, the material didn't seem particularly experimental or interesting. This was standard issue hand-puppetry but without the fun and humour.