What I Did on My Summer Fakcation!

Jaqi Bowes’s What I Did on My Summer Fakcation! is a hilarious reminder that we need to slow down and stop exchanging thousands of hours of our precious time for a handful of coins to feed into the slot machine of life. The house always wins!

Of course, Jaqi has the added limits on her time of every working actor. What if you get an audition? What if you get a callback? What if Spielberg calls? This comes from direct life experience, by the way, my husband is an actor. But this show is really about accountability – to ourselves.  Being positive constantly, trying to avoid really talking about what’s missing in our lives, we artfully set aside what we should all be focused on: our lives. 

Every second passing is a countdown and we cannot afford to throw any of it away.

As we all age, that fact becomes more and more apparent. I say ‘no’ a lot more now than I did and I’m starting to feel pretty good about it!

What I Did on My Summer Fakcation! is Jaqi trying desperately to get away while the several portions of her mind actively work against her with long lists of reasons why she shouldn’t go and how she could die on vacation in multiple horrific ways. The portions seem evenly split, one or two parts of her brain whom she gives comical personalities to are on her side at least.

This show is a musical and Jaqi’s brilliant and very funny songs pepper the show as she explores her travel options and the rest of her life. But the characters in her head continuously interrupt her progress with all the terrifying possibilities leaving the house presents. Let alone leaving the country! 

What a genius Jaqi is. Equating vacations with self care and the opposite of an early grave. Imagining her funeral with the attendants ruminating on Jaqi’s death and the fact that she never went anywhere.  This is a lesson in regret. A wake-up call to those of us who somehow never get around to going where we’d love to. Who put our work schedules and housework and family obligations artificially determining where we expect to spend our valuable time. Of course we need to have income and see our loved ones. But life is so short, I can hardly believe where the years go. Jaqi has exactly the right idea about our priorities, and she brilliantly exposes the flaws in the lists we make and the excuses. 

Solo shows are my absolute favorite Hollywood Fringe fare. It’s the absolutely best place to examine the human condition, revisit painful moments in our lives and laugh, laugh, laugh. Amongst an audience of equally passionate theatre goers. 

Now Jaqi is looking after her elderly mother who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. So her life is filled with every vital detail of her health journey. Her mother was the ultimate caregiver to Jaqi her entire life. A single mother when there were really very few to know of. An advocate for her and a supporter of her every goal and her biggest fan. Jaqi spends the time she has now with the one person who gave her everything, even though she often doesn’t know who she is. 

This show’s arc is beautifully reflective of a real life is all its glory and sadness. Jaqi sings and dances and acts her way through a story of love and loss and finding the best in everything. Even if it is a fakcation.  Jaqi really is a born storyteller and a wonderful, gifted actor, and this is a perfect showcase of all her many talents. Prepare to laugh, cry a little and then laugh a lot more!! Sounds like a good life to me!

Tickets: 

https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/9646?tab=tickets

When:  

Saturday, June 6 at 3:45 PM
Sunday, June 14 at 5:30 PM
Saturday, June 20 at 4:15 PM
Encore show Tuesday, June 23 at 8 PM

Where: 

Upstairs @ El Centro
1103B N El Centro Ave, Hollywood.