Off to the carnival at this year's Fringe

Take a walk through the wild side of carnival life in one of this year's Vancouver International Fringe Festival productions.

Burnaby resident Brian Anderson -a 20-year veteran of Vancouver Theatresports League and director of last year's Fringe hit Gutenberg! The Musical! -takes the title role in his creation Arnie the Carnie's House of Fun.

From nailing hammers up his nose to laying on a bed of nails, and offering up card tricks, the show is a glimpse into the sideshow stunts made famous over the years.

"In a world of YouTube and CGI, it's rare for people to experience wonders in real life," said Anderson in a press release. "We'll be performing some classic stunts of the carnival in front of a live audience and tracing the history of the legendary carnies who created them."

North Vancouver piano player Matt Grinke -who is also currently appearing as lead keyboardist at Theatre Under the Stars' Bye Bye Birdie -provides musical accompaniment and a few stunts of his own.

"When I realized that Matt's talents went beyond the keyboard, we wanted to find a way to showcase his amazing mathematical skills," said Anderson.

During the show, Grinke will unscramble a Rubik's Cube in under a minute, and try to create a magic cube square -where every row and column adds up to a specific number. In this case, the number will be decided by the audience. Allen Morrison, also of Vancouver TheatreSports, is directing the production.