Fresno Famous

Travis Sheridan isn’t scared, exactly.

There’s fear, yes, but then that’s part of the gig. After all, this is his first run at the Rogue Performance Festival and he’s doing a 45-minute one-man show.
There’s bound to be nerves.

Sure, he’s acted before. He did some community theater growing up in Madera, even did a little improv when he lived out in Las Vegas. By virtue of his job with the Central Valley Business Incubator, he’s comfortable with public speaking. And he’s been known to tell a hell of a barroom story.
But this?

“This is totally uncomfortable,” says Sheridan, whose show “Bipolarity of Life,” opens 7:30 p.m., March 4 at Veni Vidi Vici.

You can see the full schedule of his show and leave comments or reviews at: http://roguefestival.com/rogue09/?p=131

It’s not that he fears failure — if no one shows, or the audience doesn’t laugh, or think it just plain sucks, that’s an ego check he could handle.

“It’ll be a bad week, but it’s not going to kill me.”

No, this is a question of exposure. How much of yourself can you put out for the whole world to see? Sheridan’s answer? As much as possible. For the past three years he’s tried to live as unfiltered a life as possibly, he says. He’s trying for transparency, putting everything out in the open. He even started a blog as a way to test that self-exposure in some small way.

“And what’s smaller than the whole World Wide Web,” he says with a hardy-har-har.

The show brings that to the stage.
In preparation, Sheridan broke out his old journals — he’s been journaling for years, per his therapists request— and pulled from the emotions he thought would hit with audiences. He chose puberty, because who hasn’t been there, poverty and prejudice.

The show’s title comes from Sheridan’s theory that life is all about perceptions. Some pretty craptastic stuff has happened in his life, yet somehow he managed to come out on the other side laughing. Had that not been the case, his life would be very different.

“How you end up in life is a matter of perspective,” Sheridan says.
Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you’re on your own.
The play is broken into two halves.

The first 20 minutes he tells the stories straight, playing on their tragic nature. For instance, the story of his grandfather, who wanted to love his half-black grandson, but was prejudiced, and could only relate by singing silly little racist lullabies.

For the second half he uses those same stories, the same content, but goes for the big laughs.

“But he didn’t wear black face,” Sheridan says. Cue the rimshot.

The audience is faced with coming to terms with the two sides.
“I want them to feel guilty for laughing.”

“Bipolarity of Life: How to enjoy life without medication”
Part of the Rogue Performance Festival
7:30 p.m., March 4
8:45 p.m., March 6
6:15 p.m., March 7
Veni Vidi Vici, 1116 N. Fulton St.