The 11 O’Clock Number by Grindstone Theatre
August 11 – 21 at Holy Trinity Anglican Church
More information: grindstonetheatre.ca

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An interview with Byron Trevor Martin. 

Describe your show in five words.

A hilarious improvised musical comedy.

Okay, now that we’re intrigued… what’s the longer description?

The show is completely improvised meaning that nothing is rehearsed or planned out. From a short interview with an audience member the cast creates a musical comedy based on the person’s life. Like any good musical the show weaves a story with impromptu songs, dance breaks and show stopping numbers. As seen in New York, Orlando and across western Canada, this completely improvised musical comedy stars some of Edmonton’s best improvisors who make up a musical on the spot.
“Hilarious! The show left me laughing uncontrollably!” **** – Edmonton Journal
“Fantastic show!”- The Buzz Winnipeg
“What they do seems virtually impossible.” – ****Breakfast TV
“Guffaw-inducing, genre-hopping, zinger-laden mess of fabulous foolishness in 4 and sometimes 5 part harmony” – ****CBC

You’ve presented The 11 O’Clock Number: Life is a Musical several times at the Edmonton Fringe Festival & beyond, in addition to your regular weekly performances. What do you think audiences connect to with the show?

This show is so connected to the audience that night. People have not only enjoyed hearing their lives turn into a musical on a comedy level but there’s a strange thing that happens where after the show we often get people coming up to say how touching and effecting it was to see their story on stage. The show is very funny, it’s fun to watch and I think people like musicals.

The 11 O’Clock Number: Life is a Musical is completely improvised. What role does the audience play in helping you create the show?

The audience will be asked to shout out what they do for a living. From that we narrow down a few people who we think could give us a good amount of inspiration and then we have a short interview with them to draw out some more details. We are very careful to treat the interview with respect since it can be nerve wracking sharing personal information with a large group of people.

You perform The 11 O’Clock Number weekly during the year as well – what do you love about presenting the show at Fringe?

During the year we do the show at 11pm which means a lot of people don’t get to see it who don’t want to stay up late. We get to connect with a whole new demographic during the fringe.

Anything else you want audiences to know about the show?

We are very excited to be at Holy Trinity where we have a beautiful stage, and air conditioning!! If you like musicals, if you like improv and if you like story telling you will love this show!

The 35th Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival is August 11 – 21. Get your tickets at tickets.fringetheatre.ca.