Fringe Review: The Disney Delusion

Dates: Aug 21 – Aug 31, 2025

Location: VCM Wood Hall (Fringe Venue 2)

Artist / Company: Leif Oleson-Cormack (Vancouver, BC)

Duration: 60 minutes

Rating: Ages 14+

Genre: Comedy, Storytelling

Leif Oleson-Cormack is a Juilliard-trained playwright and award-nominated comedian. In Disneyland Delusion, he tells the story of how he once tried to love-trap a friend on a trip to Disneyland. The plan unravels through drunkenness, awkward sugar-daddy encounters, and even a Sinatra impersonator, all layered with sharp observations about queer dating. The show traces a misguided pursuit, built on the belief that he could manufacture romance, and lands with a moment of self-awareness and change.

Highlights

This is a very good show, very well executed. Oleson-Cormack is a master of his craft and we wouldn’t hesitate to see another of his shows, whether storytelling or stand-up. His jokes about bisexuality are particularly strong. The story is well-rounded and expertly structured: he is striving toward a goal we sense he shouldn’t be chasing. His misbelief—that he can and should orchestrate this ill-fated romance—comes apart with hilarity. The result is a superb arc of pursuit, collapse, and transformation.

Workshop Notes

The setup portion felt a bit long, though it was amusing. If there was anything that didn’t land for us, it falls in the realm of taste. As Oleson-Cormack notes, he’s a hit with the 55+ crowd, and that seemed true here. The older attendees were laughing the hardest. Some of the shock value—especially around gay dating—may not land as strongly with audiences already steeped in queer culture.

Rating

★ ★ ★ ★

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The Victoria Fringe Festival, presented by Intrepid Theatre since 1986, has become a cornerstone of the city’s arts scene, known for its unjuried, anything-goes approach to performance. For Carmunist and Septimus, Fringe is the highlight of the year. We’ve been involved as volunteers for more than a decade, and more recently, we’ve opened our home to performers as billets. Reviewing Fringe shows is something we’ve talked about for some time, and now we’re putting our experience as fiction editors and theatre stans to work, offering our thoughts and workshop notes for as many performances as we can attend.

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