I got the chance to speak with the amazing Lauren Hance, creator of The Holy O, on her fabulous podcast What the FRINGE?! about PEACHES: THE PLAY!

I talk about the why’s behind the show, my creative process, and mine & Lauren’s “meet cute” at the 2023 Vancouver Fringe Festival.

In its world premiere, PEACHES: THE PLAY! was awarded runner up for “BEST OF THE FEST” at the Vancouver Fringe Festival in 2023!

Set in the dystopian future of 2028, PEACHES: THE PLAY! is a piece of historical fiction.

Maarika finally has a big audition! ...only there's a catch: she has to audition for the role of Harvey Weinstein.

In a dialogue with her shadow, a puppet named Peaches, Maarika works out how she feels now that she's being forced to put herself in the shoes of her attacker.

& it's funnier than it seems!

Donate here!

The performance on Wednesday, September 13th, 2023 was recorded! While my favourite performance was actually on Sunday, September 17th, 2023, this one is a very special and important one in the history as it’s the performance responsible for the “BEST OF THE FEST” runner-up award.

peaches explores "everything I learned while dedicating my life to never being r*ped again"!

In this eight-episode series that is just as much a social experiement as it is a podcast, I attempt to tell my story in a way that makes approaching the sticky subject matter of rape culture safe and accessible.

Could I help make it so that people actually wanted to talk about this stuff?

I guess you’ll have to listen and decide for yourself!

This podcast, in its second month of going live, was featured in The Jerusalem Post Magazine as one of the podcasts being produced out of Israel to keep an ear out for.

Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music & www.maarikafreund.com

If you’ve listened to Chapter One: The Handbook, the first episode of peaches, my podcast dedicated to everything I learned while dedicating my life to never being r*ped again, you might be wondering how I was able to tell my story in a stand-up set.

To answer that question, I’ve posted a clip from Moonlight Comedy (hosted by The Stage TLV) on July 6th, 2022.

When you press play, just close your eyes and pretend that I’m Harvey Weinstein.

I had the opportunity to film this cheeky little ad for JoyTunes in Tel Aviv.

The funniest part about it, for me, was that it wasn’t until I got a WhatsApp message from a cousin in Finland that I learned the commercial was live and interrupting people while they were trying to enjoy watching YouTube videos.

While this Heritage Minute breaks the 90 second rule, if you had a radio in Canada from 1994 through the mid 2000’s, you’ll be glad to finally know how this quintessential tune came to be.

But no spoilers - you’ll have to watch until the end for the big reveal.

I was told by the friend who cast me in this short film for Hacksmith Industries (to showcase the replica Mandalorian armour they built) that after this shoot he’d never be able to look at me the same way ever again.

Meet Daisy, a day-drinking Southern Belle and fashionista who’s too smart for her own good.

One of my favourite sketches filmed to date, Small Talk explores a very realistic and highly relatable scenario about what it’s like to engage in small talk with a complete stranger.

In this short film about Catfish, a past-his-prime leader of a stationary biker gang who must face off against new rivals and old demons to win back his self-respect, I play Katherine, the loving girlfriend to Catfish.

She’s seen where his creatine addiction has taken him before, and she won’t see her ride-or-die spin his way, both literally and figuratively, down into that rabbit hole again.

This film made it all the way to the big screen at the L.A. Comedy Fest in 2015.

In a seven-part YouTube series I wrote and created along side Alaine Hutton, I play Midge, a confident and seductive young woman who was prone to her own outbursts and mishaps.

The series featured Ryan Cooley (Degrassi: The Next Generation, The Tracey Fragments), which helped it gain some great traction. We were even lucky enough to become an early-days internet meme.