Best advice for Rogue fans? Be ready for anything

The Fresno Bee

(Updated Sunday, February 29, 2004, 6:20 AM)

The new and expanded third annual edition of the Rogue Festival, A Celebration of Independent Performance and Art, kicks off Thursday with a reception at the new Rogue's Galleries venues during ArtHop, at 5-8 p.m.

ArtHop is held the first Thursday of each month, when many of Fresno's studios and galleries open their doors for free to encourage shopping and browsing.

The rest of the festival will be held Friday, Saturday and March 7, 12 and 13 at seven different venues in the Tower District. The freewheeling, nonjuried performances include theater, music, dance, spoken word, puppetry, storytelling and performance art presented by more than 40 different acts. Performances are held in quick succession, offering a varied taste of the offbeat, the semi-traditional and sometimes the just plain weird.

New to the festival this year are the Rogue's Galleries, art gallery shows affiliated with the festival, and the Rogue Film Festival, a presentation of independent films. Rogue Late-Night will feature Fresno bands and DJs at the Starline and Club Fred.

Highlights include Patrick Combs' nationally touring show, "Man 1, Bank 0," based on Combs' own story about a banking prank in which he successfully cashed a fake $95,000 promotional check he received in the mail. Combs and his show were named Best of San Francisco Fringe Festival and Best Solo Male Comedic Performance at the Fringe Festival in September. He also will perform in March at HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. Other highlights include roots musician D. Kien Lim's "Songs From London" and a performance by singer-songwriter Terra Naomi.

The festival main stages, which will feature performances up to one hour long, will be at Starline, 833 Fern, and Club Fred, 1426 Van Ness Ave. The Rogue Cafe, which will feature performances up to 45 minutes long, will be at Veni Vidi Vici, 1116 N. Fulton St. The Rogue Film Festival will be held at the Rogue Film B.Y.O. Venue, 641 E. Pine Ave.

The Rogue's Galleries are at Ashtree Studio, 1035 N. Fulton St.; Salon 637, 637 E. Olive Ave.; and Recycom Gallery, 604 E. Olive Ave.

Admission to shows varies, from free to $6, and up to $3 for Rogue Cafe shows. Admission to the Rogue's Galleries is free (except for performances, which may cost up to $3), and to the Rogue Film Festival is $5. Rogue Late-Night performances will cost less than $6. A limited number of Rogue Ready Passes, costing $50 and covering admission to 12 shows, are available now at Rogue venues, at Livingstone's in the Tower District and at Javawava in front of Fresno High School.

For more information, visit www.roguefestival.com or call 222-0674, 6-9 p.m. weekdays.

A schedule of events is available on the Web site, but may change due to the nature of the festival. So if your heart is set on a particular event, you might want to call and/or check the Web site as close to the time as possible.

But in the spirit of the Rogue, probably the best attitude to have is to be ready for anything, anywhere, at any time.

-- The Fresno Bee