JUST TO BE CLOSE TO YOU and TEA PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD to Debut at Rochester Fringe

Organizers of the 2026 ESL Rochester Fringe Festival revealed that 10x award-winning show JUST TO BE CLOSE TO YOU and 2026 WOW Festival standout TEA PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD will be making their Rochester Fringe debuts on September 15 and September 17, respectively, with runs through the duration of the festival in the new Garden Studio space at One Fringe Place, located at the corner of Main & Gibbs Streets, downtown Rochester.

JUST TO BE CLOSE TO YOU

JUST TO BE CLOSE TO YOU is a 10x award-winning contemporary clown show by artist Cam Porter featuring dreamy lounge-singer Carl Poteraychke who is ready to serenade, seduce, and show people what it means to love—just for an hour. Equal parts absurdist comedy and heartfelt longing, Porter uses character comedy and audience interaction to turn one man, one song, and an increasingly desperate need for connection into something hilariously surreal.

Porter has performed JUST TO BE CLOSE TO YOU for Fringe audiences around the world from Edinburgh, Scotland to San Diego and Adelaide, Australia to Hollywood. The show was awarded 2026 Best of Fringe New Zealand Fringe and 2026 Audience Choice Award Clown at Denver Fringe. Additionally, The Skinny calls it, “A clowning masterclass,” and the San Diego Union Tribune calls it, “A looping, increasingly surreal experience.”

Porter is a Los Angeles-based comedic performer, clown, host, and creator whose escapades have taken him to the quarter finals of America's Got Talent and to stages around the world with his acclaimed one-man clown show JUST TO BE CLOSE TO YOU.  Porter also has a decade-long run co-hosting the comedy podcast and video series Sex Talks with My Mom and teaches clowns across the United States through his popular Instagram series Clown Notes.

Performances run from September 15 through September 26. Tickets start at $22. The show is recommended for ages 13+ and is capped at 60 attendees.

TEA PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD

TEA PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD offers a quiet and reflective moment away from the hustle and bustle of Fringe with a small-audience, multi-sensory experience that invites participants to remain playful in dire circumstances. A standout at the 2026 WOW Festival in San Diego earlier this year, TEA PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD invites guests to partake in exquisite tea and parlor games. In designing this show, creator/performer Jessica Creane was inspired by her time in the Arctic Circle, where she was an Artist-in-Residence in 2022. She further drew inspiration from the ritual comfort of loose-leaf tea and the unfathomable cost that being alive in a beautiful and disappearing world exacts on our ability to connect and find purpose.

Creane has also worked in partnership with The National Parks Service, Princeton's with High Meadows Institute, and as a contributing author to The Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators: How to Teach in a Burning World. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Pig Iron Theater Company and holds an MFA in Devised, Physical, Ensemble Theater. She is a Professor of Game Design at Drexel University and the founder of IKantKoan Play/s–the production company producing TEA PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD–and is serious about play, and playful about the things we are often most serious about.

To that end, TEA PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD doesn't shy away from various explorations of life and death. As part of the show, Creane asks her guests to play a game called the “Perfect End” where they imagine their last day, with audience members offering one small detail that made it perfect: “I will feel like I've had enough time,” “the taste of mulberries,” and “there will be a campfire.”

Performances run from September 17 through September 26. Tickets start at $29. The show is recommended for ages 16+ and is capped at 30 attendees. Drinking tea will be offered at different times during the experience.

All performances of JUST TO BE CLOSE TO YOU and TEA PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD will be performed in The Garden Studio, which has been added this year as a secondary performing arts space at One Fringe Place and can accommodate up to 60 people or less depending on the intimacy level needed for the show.

BUSHWHACKED: BIG JOY FUN TIME REVIVAL

Also joining the lineup at The Garden Studio is (Rochester favorite) BUSHWHACKED: BIG JOY FUN TIME REVIVAL, which is an interactive, high-energy comedy spectacle where salvation comes in the form of pure, unfiltered joy. Hosted by the wildly charismatic Tim and Pammy Shea Fakker, created and performed by the amazingly talented local comedic duo of Abby DeVuyst and Kerry Young, this “revival” trades fire-and-brimstone for bubble guns and questionable life advice. The inspirational duo will lead audiences through absurd testimonials, musical numbers, and miraculous transformations fueled entirely by laughter and good vibes. Come ready to clap, cheer, and possibly be “healed” from your afflictions in the most ridiculous way possible.

Performances run from September 15 through September 26. Tickets start at $27. The show is recommended for all ages and is capped at 20 attendees. There is also a “boozy” version of the show available for ages 21+ with tickets starting at $49, including adult beverages.

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