Review: At Tampa Fringe 2022, ‘Tales of Mild Interest’ is way more than mildly interesting

“Tales of Mild Interest” bills itself as live radio theater, or “comedy you see with your ears.” Even these clever taglines failed to describe the act I was about to see at Tampa Fringe, which runs through Sunday, Aug. 7 in historic Ybor City.

To be honest, that’s how the incredibly entertaining “Tales of Mild Interest” didn’t make it onto our list of 10 can’t miss shows at Tampa Fringe 2022.

When “Tales of Mild Interest” founders Erica Garraffa and Jesse Hutson took the stage at Tampa Fringe Previews night last Wednesday, I wasn’t sure what to expect. At first, I was kind of mesmerized by their perfect radio voices. Then I snapped out of it and started listening to what they were actually saying. The writing duo was introducing the B-team, a collection of bizarre B-list superheroes they’d created to save the world when the A-listers aren’t available.

The premise sounds absurd. When they finished their narration, I still wasn’t convinced that I needed to see this show.
Garraffa and Hutson were about to demonstrate some live sound effects when recorded music poured out of the PA system. This is what happens when your preview runs over three minutes at Tampa Fringe. Garraffa and Hutson comically looked back and forth between the speakers, the organizers, and the audience. Hutson said in his perfect voice, “Are we getting played off the stage? Is that what’s happening now?” I couldn’t help but laugh as they dramatically walked off the stage, taking their bizarre-looking instruments with them. I made a mental note to add the show to my list.

The following week, on an unusually lively Monday evening in Tampa, I walked into HCC Studio Theatre and sat in the front row, a couple seats down from Tampa Fringe co-founder William Glenn.

The set is almost elaborate for a Fringe show. There’s a line of 10 folding chairs upstage—five of them have jackets or capes hung over their backs. Underneath the row of 10 chairs is a row of 10 baskets containing props and headwear. A copy of the script lays on the seat of each chair. Unusual instruments cover a card table downstage right. I’m curious what kind of story they will tell with this unique collection of objects. Waiting for the show to begin, I share these thoughts with Glenn.

“This is the type of show we have Fringe for,” Glenn told me in the five minutes before “Tales of Mild Interest” began their third 2022 Tampa Fringe performance.

It makes sense. Fringe is all about showcasing non-mainstream theater, and radio serials stopped being mainstream in the 1950s. Back then, it was a sound-only experience.

Radio theater takes original stories inspired by 1930s radio serials and brings them to the stage for an experience that is both audio and visual. Here, actors (typically voice actors) don costumes and dramatically read from a script.

“Technically, it’s a staged reading,” Garraffa told CL.

But when “Tales of Mild Interest” takes the stage, it feels more like a nontraditional comedy show, kind of like 10 physical comedians coming together to tell several laughter-worthy jokes and stories.

Hutson became interested in radio theater after seeing it live on stage in Chicago. It was the first time he’d seen a radio serial performed in a modern way, and he couldn’t wait to try it himself. “Tales of Mild Interest” gave their first live radio theater performance at the inaugural Tampa International Fringe Festival in 2017 his is where they first introduced Tampa audiences to “The B-Team!” and “Swampy Gunderson: Dracula Hunter.”

This year, they present “Tales of Mild Interest Episode 2,” a funny and charming collection of alternative superhero stories.

They begin with “The B-Team.” Once again, Garraffa and Hutson step up to the mic and introduce their superheroes. But this time, there’s an actual person playing each of these superheroes. They walk downstage one by one, script in hand, their costumes a strange collection of insect antennae, hats, and other accessories. Brace yourself. The fate of a rare butterfly is in the hands of these weirdos. While the B-team tries to save the world from an evil cicada (no really), cast members take turns at the sound effects table, where they blow into kazoos, strike a burlap bag full of broken glass and plates with a hammer, and blow into a purple gourd flute called a Hulusi. The sound effects are so well integrated with the story that I have to remind myself to periodically glance over at the sound effects table to see how they are producing these sounds. Costume change. Hutson walks downstage dressed like a crazy old swamp dweller. He is now Swampy Gunderson: Dracula Hunter, hunting down a shape-shifter who’s terrorizing the town. Finally, we meet the Noble Gases, another team of superhero misfits out to save the world from evil. Garraffa drags a violin bow across the rods of a waterphone aka ocean harp, a musical instrument invented by Richard Waters in 1969, to produce the laser-like sound heard in the fight scenes.

Live radio theater isn’t the easiest thing to describe. If I give you too many details I’ll spoil it, which is why you really need to go see “Tales of Mild Interest” while it’s still on stage at Tampa Fringe. Trust me on this one. Erica Garraffa and Jesse Hutson’s “Tales of Mild Interest” is just the kind of laugh we need right now.

This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2022.