Never Own Anything You Have to Paint or Feed (Howard Petrick)

Saskatoon Fringe Festival

3 Stars

This is a personal monologue tale with a twist: It all may (or may not) be true.  In Never Own Anything You Have to Paint or Feed, Howard Petrick shares a slice of his youth: of working in the railyard and later riding the rails, of a time when America was on the move, and when a fortune was to be made with just a bag of balloons and some fast talking.

It’s an enjoyable hour, and for someone relatively new to acting, Petrick does quite well.  I assume that is because he is not acting.  I overheard him pitching his show in a lineup, and his onstage persona is just…Howard Petrick.  Telling a story.

The first part of the show has a tendency to ramble, the character portrayals are good but a bit one-note, and the ending (while very funny) makes one wonder if the whole thing was a tall tale, and if we were taken in, just like those poor kids in Petrick’s first story.