Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me but Banjos Saved My Life by Keith Alessi. The title is fairly self-explanatory, although the journey he has taken to get to where he is today is captivating and inspirational.

The stage is minimal with a selection of banjos, stool, and a neatly placed bowl of the red perils, tomatoes.

Keith has had a long-standing love of traditional banjo music and has spent years practicing and taking lessons to get where he is now. He does admit that  classifies his skill level on the instrument as intermediate, although from qhat we saw during his show I would disagree.

However, the one important part about Keith’s love of the Banjo is that it’s all for pleasure. He became better at playing while he was in recovery. Hence, the title of his show.

The other important message to take from his show is that it is never too late to try your hand at fulfilling your dreams and learn something new if that’s your desire. He has now found his “people” in West Virginia, USA, where others play too collectively, and they are all at various skill levels. It sounds like a lot of fun.

There’s an insight into the history of the Banjo, and Keith has bought only a small selection from his collection across from the States to Edinburgh.

There are programmes given out as you enter the theatre. It is worth taking one and reading it as this show is about so much more information in there than the tomatoes, banjos, and even Keith Alessi himself.

The one thing that will stay with me long after the show is Keith’s motto in life “always looking through the windscreen and not the rear view mirror” after all there’s no future in where you have been.

For more information about Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me but Banjos Saved My Life and other productions across Edinburgh Fringe, please use the link below.

Five Stars

https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/tomatoes-tried-to-kill-me-but-banjos-saved-my-life

https://www.tomatoestriedtokillme.com/