Last summer as a build up to his six appearances at DC’s Fringe Festival, I bent the ear of anyone who’d give me the time about how truly great and unique and f’n hysterical a Hamell on Trial gig can be. Hell, I caught four of those six performances, did the lights for two of them, and STILL I was laughing my ass off each and every time.
Then the unexpected and the well-deserved occurred: Ed won the Fringe Festival’s distinguished Director’s Award. That’s right—HE WON THE WHOLE FREAKIN THING. Not that it’s a competition, but it’s a fine honor indeed.
Ed returns to Washington with a series of dates that feature the best of the best of the Summer Fringe acts in a mini Fall Fringe Festival which kicks off this Wednesday the 11th and runs to the 22nd of November.
From the Fall Fringe Fest site: Returning bold and victorious as the Winner of the 2009 Capital Fringe Directors’ Award, Artist Ed Hamell brings his terror-ist threat back to DC “…a one-man punk band– and by punk we mean (mostly) loud, fast music informed by politics, passion, energy and intelligence, played by a guy with a sharp tongue and a wicked sense of humor,” Winner of the prestigious Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Anyone who witnessed the raw energy of “The Terrorism of Everyday Life” at this past years Capital Fringe Festival show knows that live performance is where Ed is at his irrefutable best.
Last summer we hit Ed up for his first person take on “The Terrorism of Everyday Life”:
“They’ve asked me to blog a bit as to what you can expect to see if you were to choose to see my show. Hell if I know. First of all why are you reading this? Do you have too much time on your hands? Are you scrutinizing each and every blog by each and every fringe act? Are you familiar with my work and wanna see what kind of wackiness I’m gonna write? I’ll give you some basics and I’ll shoot from the hip.
It’s a one man show, pretty biographical, got a lot of hard hitting music, a bunch of social commentary, and you should, if all goes well, be pretty entertained, challenged and laugh your ass off. It’s a reality show. Not like the ones on T.V. that are scripted and insult your intelligence. I’ll respect your intelligence and tell you the truth, albeit in a humorous way.
I’ve been kicking around doing my potty mouth anarchistic folk punk for about 10 years and decided a couple years ago that I would script and mold it into a more theatrical setting. Hired a really great director, Kate Valentine who was a heavy hitter in the New York City Art/Burlesque scene and signed onto new management, “The Invasion Group” who brought the world the great comic genius Bill Hicks. My good buddy Ani DiFranco produced the entire venture and we brought our show over to Scotland for The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest in the world. I was honored to have won the coveted Herald Angel Award. Three thousand acts and they only pass out seven of those babies so it was extremely flattering.
Now we tour the States and Europe with the production and we’ll be bringing it to Washington. Looking forward to it. But the real deal is as follows: Opening night will be a fair showing. How big is the venue? 120 seats? I’ll have 40. But those 40 will tell their friends because maybe they’re punk rockers and they respond. Or maybe they’re artists with a dream who toil away at a thankless job and they need a shot of inspiration and so they get it that night and tell their friends, “I don’t know how to explain it but you got to see this guy”. Because were you to tell me, “Hey, he’s bald, he plays the guitar like he did a kilo of Red Bull, he yells at the crowd, he’s got a foul mouth and I laughed until I pissed my pants but then he made me cry and sing songs about genitals with my parents” I don’t know that I’d be buying a ticket to wait in line either. Or maybe you got elderly parents and you don’t know how you’re going to afford to take care of them or you just lost your job and you don’t know how you’re going to keep your house and you just want 75 minutes, (or how ever long they’re going to let me explode) to forget all your troubles. Then I’m your guy.
And you’re going to tell your friends and I can guarantee by the last night we’re gonna have a full house. Blogs ain’t gonna sell it. I could wallpaper my bathroom with 5 star reviews from The New York Times, Playboy, Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, The London Times and if truth be told that ain’t gonna sell it. Word of mouth sells it. So…I hope you come out, I give 150% every night and I hope you spread the word. Watch the sparking demons escape from my brain.”
Hamell on Trial – Sugarfree (Mp3)
Hamell on Trial – Disconnected (Mp3)
Hamell on Trial – Big As Life (Mp3)
Hamell on Trial – John Lennon (Mp3)
Hamell on Trial – Rupert Smiley (Mp3)
Hamell on Trial – Glover’s Eulogy (Mp3)
Catch Ed Hamell’s “The Terrorism of Everyday Life” From November 11th-22nd. Dates, times, and tickets can be found here.
