That’s a wrap for San Diego Fringe 2026. I saw 32 shows in 12 days and was delighted, amazed, and devastated by the diverse array of uncensored creativity. But I was saddened and frustrated by the low attendance at some of the shows. Fringe offers the kind of daring, experimental, wild and wacky shows that you simply cannot find in mainstream theater. These artists pour their hearts and souls into their work and I wish more people had come to see them.
I do want to take this opportunity to shout out some of the best shows that I saw.
“Don Toberman: Ping-Pong Champ” served up a pantomime ping-pong match between Don Toberman (Chase Brantley) and the audience. The show’s format is a riff on the likes of the old ABC Wide World of Sports, so the play cuts between the match, diving championship and a halftime show. Brantley and his performing partner Darius Emadi are hilarious. There’s one moment when Emadi executes a triple flip dive, which plays out on stage with Brantley awkwardly flipping him over his should and around his body until he lands on the floor. Written description cannot capture the magic of the moment, which exists at an intersection of pure silliness and genius. Everything from the ridiculously short shorts to the audience interaction to the clever scripting is pitch perfect.
This year’s Fringe was blessed with a wealth of clowns. “Just to Be Close to You” was a show that premiered at last year’s San Diego Fringe where I saw it twice, and then I enjoyed it yet again at last year’s Hollywood Fringe. So I was thrilled to get yet another chance to see Cam Porter bring his dubiously talented lounge singer Carl Poteraychke to life. The show is a celebration of awkwardness as Carl essentially sings one song for an hour. This should work and in the first few minutes you may ponder trying to escape the discomfort but Porter works some kind of alchemy to rivet you to your seat and to charm and delight you. Porter has added some new twists but the format is essentially the same. And for all its wackiness, the show has a very sweet heart and Porter’s revelation of what inspired the show may even bring a tear to your eye.
“Re:Re:Reincarnation” is the newest show from Japan’s deliciously wacky Theatre Group GUMBO. This company of clowns is pure joy and comic mayhem. Don’t try to make sense of anything they do, just revel in their inspired insanity and mastery of physical comedy.
“My Precious! The Cabaret” is the show you never thought you needed but now cannot live without. It is Gollum, umm, I mean G’lem performing Broadway show tunes and wrestling with his alter ego Smiggle (name has been changed to avoid legal entanglements). The inspired incongruity of G’lem in his loin cloth reveling in tunes from “A Chorus Line” or Gloria Gaynor fuels the humor and the fun. Morgan Palmer is the wildly talented performer (he even has ballet training) who brings the show to ridiculous life.
“MAN.” is the UC San Diego thesis project of Wes Jensen and it’s a wild ride through music, love and generative AI. This show just wowed me with its energy, passion, and inventiveness. It refuses to fit into any box as it mixes song, horror, humor, and social commentary. These young creatives made me feel optimistic about the next generation of theater artists.
“Oops” is the second show I have seen from Olivia Raine Atwood, and she is an impressive talent. Her shows are tightly scripted, crisply performed, and fueled by frenetic energy. She blends physical comedy with personal narratives and maintains such a breathless pace that we can’t help but marvel at her stamina. She can also make us laugh with just her vocal inflections.
“Mul-TIT-udes” is another clown show, this one from first time San Diego Fringer Tara McCullough, who puts the “tits” in multitudes. Full disclosure, she was the Fringe artist I hosted in my home and it was so much fun to see her working on her show. Every morning I would find an Amazon package with new props she wanted to try out. She was always pushing to improve her show and that made me wish I could see every performance to check out the changes. She serves up multiple characters — including a baby, a chicken, a ghost — finding different voices and physicality for each. Her clowning is playfully inventive and joyous.
“An Audience With Robinson Crusoe” is the creation of Tom Steward, who also did the fabulous “One Man Bond” at an earlier San Diego Fringe. His new show serves up a world premiere of celebrity shipwrecked sailor Robinson Crusoe on a desert island in an undisclosed location somewhere on the seven seas for his one-man show … plus Friday! This “pseudo-solo” show (as he came to refer to it) is not for the irony deficient as it uses text from the original novel to define Crusoe’s character, which if taken at face value is quite racist. But Steward wants the audience to do a little work and… gasp… think about the values and ideas Crusoe espouses. Friday (played by the talented William B.J. Robinson) is on hand to provide silent commentary. The play is sharply written and even manages to find humanity in the deeply flawed Crusoe.
“Simmer” is Kata Pierce-Morgan’s latest Fringe show. Once again she crafts an inspired, avante garde show that has social justice themes bouncing amidst musical numbers. Kata is a poet at heart and her plays do not serve up a linear narrative but rather evoke moods and feelings. As always, she stages her show at the world-famous Les Girls Theater, whose history always finds its way into her shows. If you want to learn more about her history, check out my video podcast, “Stripper Energy.”
“Perra Puta Loca Bruja: A Latina’s Reclamation Journey” opened late in the festival and I loved the storytelling of performer, healer, and artist Vanessa Codorniu. She embodies four archetypes—the bitch, the seductress, the madwoman, and the witch— and uses tales of her family members to illustrate each and to challenge the stereotypes they can represent. Her show is deeply personal but also warmly universal… with a little history thrown in.
“Serving Can’t” is an award-winning sketch comedy show from New Zealand’s Marshall Lorenzo. It’s a polished, bitingly funny, socially conscious show in which Lorenzo rails against capitalism while empathizing with the plight of workers. He finds humor in the truly shitty state of affairs we currently find the world in. Among the multiple characters he plays, perhaps the man practicing scream therapy sums up best our response to the terrors of 2026.
Riot Productions’ “Fairy Tale Monologues” had its world premiere at San Diego Fringe and served up a musical that was eager to examine and challenge the tropes of fairy tales. Created by Sarah Alida LeClair, the show boasts songs that sound beautiful with lyrics that provide food for thought. The show also serves up clever deconstruction of fairy tale stereotypes. As with “Robinson Crusoe,” “Fairy Tale Monologues” asks the audience to think about the stories we have grown up with and re-evaluate some of the values and ideas they presented. And Riot Productions will be bringing the play back in a longer version later this year.
“Lady Satan” is a burlesque show with a social conscience and very personal narrative. Peyton Ashby decided that if people keep trying to demonize trans folks then why not embrace it and become Lady Satan. Ashby uses news clips to highlight the attitudes and misinformation that are creating a dangerous climate of hate, and then counters that with love and actual facts. It’s a show designed to inspire activism and awareness but it also wants to entertain and leave you with joy as an act of rebellion.
Technically I did not see “Life’s a Drag” at San Diego Fringe but did catch it in New Zealand and it was spectacular fun. Dean Misdale has an amazing voice, endless stories to recount, and fabulous clothes. When you are as talented as Misdale all you need is a microphone and a stage to captivate an audience.
“Searching For Robert Hennessey” is Michael Shaun Hennesey’s fascinating journey to find his biological father. It’s a riveting ride and Hennessey is a skilled storyteller.
“The Wickie” was yet another fun clown show. Richie Whitehead plays a lighthouse keeper who is pissed that the ocean has stolen one of his shoes. Whitehead has a great big bushy beard that anchors his physical appearance and makes him comically iconic. It was a delightful show and I got to be the ocean slapping waves in his face with a spray bottle. I took the job very seriously.
“Bards with Blades” is the first production by the new Poway Shakespeare company and it combines two things I love: Shakespeare and swordplay. I love how the company took over Old Poway Park to do an outdoor performance of five combative scenes from the Bard. They served up the battlefield of Agincourt as well as the romantic sparing of Petruchio and Katerine. There was clever use of the space with some projection on the old boxcar to add dimension to the performance. The park was full with people bringing beach chairs and the whole atmosphere was wonderful. They plan to do an immersive “The Tempest” this summer.
“Dad Skeleton Folie á Teux” is the creation of Paige Chadwick and Jacob Rozansky. It was a well-scripted, well-paced sketch comedy show that riffs hilariously off of pop culture, history, commercials, romance and more. We were treated to such things as Alfred seeking a raise from Bruce Wayne, a disruptive audience member at President Lincoln’s speech, and a politician with an unfortunate name. Chadwick and Rozansky play well off each other with Chadwick often being the one to take things to a hilarious extreme.
“Fall of the Valedictorian” is an emotionally intense show in which Philip Simondet shares what it’s like to battle lifelong depression. His show comes with multiple trigger warnings about suicide, self-harm and child sexual abuse. Simondet is brutally honest and open, and even shares a video showing how extensively he had been cutting himself at one point in his life. He shares poems he had written earlier in life and has now turned into songs, and they sometimes convey a mental state that makes you want to go up to him after the show and ask “Are you okay?” or “Can I give you a hug?” But since he mentions how difficult conversations are, I hesitated to do either. The show effectively conveys what his depression feels like, and how exhausting and excruciating it must be. Kata always says where there’s art there’s hope. I hope art provides Simondet with some kind of relief or healing. But it does create mental health awareness for the audience and I was moved by how much he was willing to share.
“Anaadi: The Eternal Flow: The Eternal Flow,” presented by Abinaya Arts Academy with the supervision of Artistic Director Aler Krishnan, was a spectacular and gorgeous dance program. Krishnan also invested it with background on the dances and Indian cultural context.
“Alisha’s Light – Forever 57” is another show that I did not catch at this year’s San Diego Fringe but that I did see an earlier iteration of at last year’s Fringe. Alisha Richard continues to evolve and fine tune the show about transitioning at the age of 57. The writing is strong and inspiring.
2026 San Diego International Fringe Awards
Top Honors
Best of the Fest: “Don Toberman: Ping-Pong Champ,” Moonlight Theater Company, Chase Brantley and Darius Emadi
Outstanding Production: “Oops,” Olivia Raine Atwood
Audience Favorite: “Bards with Blades,” Poway Shakespeare
Critics’ Pick: “My Precious! The Cabaret,” Morgan Palmer
Artists’ Pick: “Don Toberman: Ping-Pong Champ”
Beth Accomando’s Fringe Geek Show Pick: “MAN.” Party Favor Productions
Fringe of the Fringe: “Simmer,” Golden Corpse, Kata Pierce-Morgan
Category Awards
Outstanding Comedy: “Don Toberman: Ping-Pong Champ”
Outstanding Drama: “Alisha’s Light – Forever 57,” Alisha Richard
Outstanding Dance Performance: “Anaadi – The Eternal Flow,” Abinaya Arts Academy
Outstanding Musical Performance: “Life’s a Drag,” Dean Misdale
Outstanding World Premiere: “The Fairy Tale Monologues,” Riot Productions
Outstanding Storytelling: “Searching for Robert Hennessey,” Michael-Shaun Hennessey
Performance Awards
Outstanding Actor: Morgan Palmer: “My Precious! The Cabaret”
Outstanding Solo Performance: Richie Whitehead, “The Wickie”
Outstanding Ensemble Performance: Theatre Group GUMBO, “Re:Re:Reincarnation”
Tour Ready Awards
Fringe Italia Tour Ready Award (Italy): “Don Toberman: Ping-Pong Champ”
Sydney Fringe Tour Ready Award (Australia): Theater Group GUMBO
Fringe World Tour Ready Award (Perth, Australia): “Just To Be Close To You,” Cam Porter and Jeremy Porter
Lagos Fringe Tour Ready Award (Nigeria): “Don Toberman: Ping-Pong Champ”
