Vancouver Fringe Fest review: Jem Rolls: Ten Starts And An End connects, entertains, and enlightens

If you love words, you’ll find a kindred spirit in performance poet Jem Rolls, who announces his passion of language and its secrets—“both in the parts and in the whole”—right off the top. The poems and stories that follow are full of pithy observation, sometimes cheeky (“All conspiracy theories are a CIA plot”), sometimes startling in their originality (“Some words have so many syllables that they manage to reach round and strangle themselves”). You’ll also learn the definition of “unfuck”, and find out why English people have more of them than Canadians. Rolls’s declamatory, full-throttle delivery can be a bit shouty at times, but he never fails to connect, entertain, and enlighten.

At the False Creek Gym on September 6 (8:30 p.m.), 8 (1:15 p.m.), 9 (9:30 p.m.), 13 (5:55 p.m.), 15 (6:15 p.m.), and 16 (3:30 p.m.).