by Shannonn Kelly
21:52PM EST. July 10, 2012
I’m not Gay, but I am a Nerd so I couldn’t resist seeing “Gay Nerds“. 
Plot:
Started as a web series, The fringey “Gay Nerds” is an episodic adventure about 3 nerds that merges geeky pop culture obsessions with a queer comedic sensibility. “Ralph Stanton” (Robert Keller) finds himself marooned in a theatre and his sidekick “Sam Steinberner” (Ryan Kerr) and roommate “Lana Donahue” (Kirsten Dahlin Nolan) must “band together to perform a play or risk being trapped onstage for all eternity”.
“Gay Nerds” written by JP Larocque is a fast and furious send-up of all that Nerds adore and hold sacred in pop culture. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Star Wars, Lost, Lord of The Rings, X-Men, iPads, iPhones, LARPing, Twitter, FaceBook and Netflix.
Dressed as a low rent Katniss Everdeen from “The Hunger Games“, Sam is the smart-alec modern-day Mickey Rooney who wants to puts on a show every time he opens his mouth. From the moment we see him on stage we realize Sam is our pop culture pilot that absurdly navigates us through attitudes, memes and other mass media culture phenomena that are preferred by an informal consensus of nerds everywhere.
When Ralph and Lana realize that the people staring back at them are for real, they understand they have no where to hide from this bizarre reality show and they better acquiesce to Sam’s whims or forever be doomed to live in a limbo of twilight zone gawkers.
Sam goes about setting the stage and decides he needs a few cute helpers. One unlikely soul is “Charlie” played by Joseph De Melo a plant in the audience. Charlie just wants to leave but slowly he’s drawn into the “play” as he hopes the sooner it’s over the sooner he can get out of the spotlight.
The jokes are fast. The wisecracks faster. The whole cast boomerangs off each other with wild abandon harvesting huge laughs along the way. Gay Nerds is so funny, so often, it was hard to take notes in the dark. My notepad is complete gibberish.
What elevates Gay Nerds into the Fringe stratosphere is the ‘faux play’ they decide to put on as an ode to Tennessee Williams. Actress Kirsten Dahlin Nolan is a curvy, sexy Jessica Rabbit; funny as hell and vivacious as “Maggie the Cat” to straight-man actor Robert Keller’s crutch limping “Brick” obviously broken because of his repressed homosexual desire for his dead friend.
Enter actor Ryan Kerr and the house is brought to it’s knees in belly laughs about the same way it was on the old Carol Burnett show when she wore the Bob Mackie designed “Drapery Dress” in her send up of “Gone with the Wind”.
“Gay Nerds” is like Spam-A-Lot for just plain nerds everywhere.
Don’t be surprised if you see this re-mounted as a Mirvish Production. Do NOT be surprised!
In the meantime see it Now! And may the Farce be with you…
“Gay Nerds” continues at the 24th Annual Fringe Toronto. For the Advance Ticket Link Please Click HERE
Venue: Factory Theatre Mainspace, 16 Ryerson Avenue
Remaining Show Times
July 12 04:00 PM
July 13 07:30 PM
July 14 04:00 PM