At the Fringe, you pays your money and you takes your chances. But sometimes you want a sure thing, a show by a performer or group with a track record.

In your 20s and stressed about life? Frustrated because your job sucks and all your friends are better off than you are? Wondering why you spent four years earning a degree that gets you nowhere you want to go? Congratulations – you’re having a quarter-life crisis!

If you need to laugh, you’re in luck. As always, there’s a huge contingent of comedy talent at this year’s Fringe.

Having a difficult time with our prime minister? So are lots of theatre artists. Check out two shows that take aim at the often invisible leader whose behind-the-scenes activities rub many the wrong way.

You probably know Risa Morris as the house manager who does the best spiels for Tip The Fringe, the pre-show call for audience donations. In them, she talks about the importance of theatre and how her daughter Jennie loves it.

Not all Fringe applause comes from audiences and reviewers once a show’s opened. Most Fringe shows are chosen by lottery, but the festival also holds an annual new play contest, whose winner gets a slot in the fest and production funding from Exclamation Productions and macIDeas.

This time last year, Edmonton’s Chris Craddock was living the dream. His gay rap opera, BASH’d, opened off-Broadway, and the successful run eventually earned Craddock and co-writer/performer Nathan Cuckow a GLAAD Award.

You might not know the name Lindsay Anne Black, but if you’re a regular theatregoer you certainly know her costumes from shows like April 14, 1912.

The Fringe never fails to premiere some first-rate scripts (as well as a few that won’t and probably shouldn’t survive after the festival closes).

People often associate puppets with theatre for young audiences, but extraordinary artists like Ronnie Burkett have proven that puppets can entrance older viewers, too.

One of the more surreal experiences at Fringe 2008 was seeing Sara Hennessey perform her stand-up show, It’s Sara Hennessey Time, at noon one Sunday in the cold confines of the George Ig. “It was really silly,” recalls the talented comic. “Nobody does comedy at that time. But it forced me to be super-playful.”

The one-writer, one-director play is so… yesterday.

Like his New Testament namesake, Adam Lazarus is no stranger to miracles. He showed that recently in the physically demanding, multiple Dora-nominated ensemble piece Appetite.

Lisa Horner won us over in a concert version of Guys And Dolls as the brassy, desperate-to-be-married Miss Adelaide, wrapping up the production and sticking it down her bra like a winning raffle ticket.

Is the Fringe slowly turning into a music festival? Unlikely, but this year’s diverse crop of music-themed shows should play to fans of all genres.

If you saw last summer’s Stratford production of Cabaret, you were likely mesmerized by Trish Lindström, who made the fun-loving Sally Bowles into a dangerous, scarily intense nightclub entertainer who always put her own needs and insecurities at the top of her agenda.

Yes, Fringe tickets are inexpensive, at $10 or less. But you don’t have to put down a cent to enjoy the Fringe Club’s late-night shows, most of which start at 10 pm.

After all this, are you tired of theatre? Then go to the movies. In The Silver Stage, on every night except Monday at the Bloor Cinema, live casts will “perform” movies like Blue Velvet and Jurassic Park while the real thing screens behind them Rocky Horror Picture Show-style.