Jason’s Reviews - FringeMTL 2026
The Syllabus
I wasn’t late for class, but I almost was. Walking down the bustling, pedestrianized Mont-Royal Avenue on a Friday evening, I walked right past what looked like a little alley, without realizing it was the continuation of Laval Street, and where White Wall Studio is located. I don’t blame the venue, or even the Fringe, as I believe their program has a solid map. But would it kill the City of Montreal to put up a street sign at the intersection like they did further up the, ahem, street?
You need to climb one staircase to get into the performance space, and then you’re in a rather large room, which really fits “The Syllabus”. Or, more accurately, the show’s creator and solo performer Michael Gougis turned the White Wall Studio into his classroom, even referencing the random mirror at the back of the room.
It was hot, with no air conditioning, but Gougis had fans set up, pointed at the audience, which did the trick. Their noise did cause me to miss a couple of words he said near the end of the show, but I think that added to the realism of the experience. I didn’t feel like I was listening to an actor performing a show, but rather a professor giving a class. And that’s exactly what it was. No plot, no characters. Just one guy with a laptop attached to a projector giving an introduction to his college Media Studies class, laying down the rules for consumption, drugs, pornography, fraternization, and deadlines, in increasingly over-the-top takes that work as both comedy and social commentary.
I didn’t need the internet to know that what Gougis said about himself in the show was legit. He is an award-winning journalist, and was a real college professor in California, and that came across clearly. His presentation clearly was funny, but Gougis was very real. The only actors in the room were us, the audience. His students.
The show allows latecomers throughout, and a few of my fellow classmates did stumble in after the figurative bell. Gougis was all too happy to chastise them, but not as a comedian, rather as a disappointed teacher would when his students are late for class.
When he repeatedly used the line, “in your car, in the parking lot”, I thought that maybe he didn’t realize that very few people in the audience probably had a car. But then I remembered, I’m not a 40-something Montrealer at a show, I’m a 20-something college student in California, so I did have a car. We all do. I also probably have to deal with gun violence as a fact of life, and racial prejudice, and gender prejudice, all of which are mentioned. So yes, that’s your content warning.
I didn’t think it was possible to do a comical and topical one-man show, and a fully immersive theatre experience at the same time, but Michael Gougis proved me wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed this approach, and was refreshingly surprised and entertained. And it was well-paced, too. The 45 minute runtime felt more like 30, and had me wanting more, and that’s always a good feeling to have when you leave a play…or a classroom.
