I wanted to write a bit long insightful post about how amazing our 3-day workshop with Mike McCarthy was last week – but it’s one of those things where, like — I don’t want to give it all away. You know?
If you were there, you know – Seriously helpful stuff.
It was probably on the top 3 of: Most Practical/Important Things Humber’s Offered me as part of the Comedy Program
(I think I reserve a hug from Dave Foley as #1 – but my priorities may be a bit out of whack. Who can tell?)
What a cool and weird stand-up week for yours truly!
I’ve been working like a mad-woman; editing, re-writing and re-working material for my set at Humber’s upcoming Showcase “exercise” at Yuk Yuk’s. The showcases are taking place on Tuesday March 27th & April 3rd – (mine’s on April 3rd – keep the date & come on out!)
To get ready for it, I’ve tried my stuff out on some different rooms over the past few (months) days. This week, I went to London, ON’s Big League Comedy Club for the first time – and folks, it… was… DEAD! I don’t know if it was because the weather was great or because London had already exhausted its other comics in the previous rounds, but by virtue of only having two comics “compete” on Tuesday, both of us automatically moved forward to the next round!
Then, last night, I performed in Night 12 of the Gauntlet Round of the Toronto Comedy Brawl, a local comedy competition put on by Ian Atlas, initially as a way to ensure comedians keep performing over the summer months – but that has now grown to such huge proportions, they’ve had to start what was a summer contest, as early as March!
The Gauntlet Round is weird. Usually great crowds because comics try to bring out as many of their friends as possible, because you get voted by the audience to move on in the competition. However, it’s tough for some seasoned comics to bring out big numbers, since they spend the rest of the year using guilt and harassment as a tool to drag friends out to countless other events.
Luckily, some good pals came out to my round last night (THANKS CAROLYN & LINDA) and I moved forward to the next round of the Brawl which, won’t be happening until May. That’s how many gauntlets there are!!! We don’t continue until May!
If you’re interested in checking out any of the Gauntlet Rounds or following this awesome local comedy event, check out the Toronto Comedy Brawl’s Facebook Page.
And come check out my damn showcase on April 3rd! <— it’s my birthday for Pete’s sake!
Everyone at Humber Comedy gets the opportunity, should they desire, to meet with Mark Breslin, founder and CEO of the Yuk Yuk’s chain of comedy clubs.
So to those of you who think it’s a big deal that I met with him one-one-one, face-to-face & had a lovely and productive meeting with him, I just want to tell you…
It is.
He owns Yuk Yuk’s and now he knows my name! Eeeeeeeee!
Sure, now he knows everyone else’s name too.
But still, EEeeeeeee!
The weeks are speeding past now. Or maybe it just feels that way because it doesn’t take me an hour to get everywhere now. Either way, this week went by super fast.
So REWIND.
On Monday, in addition to working and attending class, (as usual,) I hosted the second portion of the evening for our Comedy Girl recital. I’d decided to take on an additional stand-up class because I didn’t like where my stand-up was at with just Humber and the few open-mics I was attending. I wanted help re-wording and sharpening some of my material. It’s surprising how many people it takes to actually come out with a good joke.
After a series of weekly classes at Comedy Bar, my group of Comedy Big Girls were finally due to perform our new & improved stuffskies.
It was so fun to work/perform with a group of such talented women. That’s right. All women. The main difference between these classes and the stand-up classes at Humber, I found, is that these women tell jokes based on experiences they’ve lived, actual events they’ve gone through. I personally prefer humour that comes out of the shared human experience; stuff that you can really put yourself in a particular situation and really feel what a person must have been going through; be it terribly painful, or awkward or whatever the case may be – as long as it’s ultimately hilarious.
It was a really fun night, and I’ll certainly consider taking more classes with Dawn Whitwell, and the ladies in future.
Any ladies interested in trying out stand-up for the first time, or working out some of the kinks in the stuff you’ve already got should DEFINITELY try these classes out. Go here for more information: http://comedybar.ca/classes.php
I need to find a job for the summer. Something that won’t take up so much of my time/brainpower so I can perform in the evenings. I want to increase the amount of open-mics I attend. I need to.
But I work so much right now at school. I spend so much time telling other people how to get jobs, I don’t have time to find one for myself.
Sigh.
I just had two of the best/most fun comedy nights of my career thus far (Gilda’s Club Fundraiser, and hosting my Comedy Girl class recital,) but tonight, I ate shit at Yuk Yuk’s and that’s ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT!
Why is Larry at Yuk Yuk’s ONLY on the nights when I do terribly? I did well last week = no Larry. Why can’t I just prove to that guy I’m capable of doing a good set?!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH fiddlesticks. I’m going to bed. Nights like this, I wish I’d have been knocked up in high school.
I’d like to thank everyone who participated in and supported “Standin’ Up To Cancer: A Stand-Up Comedy Show in support of Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto”
Because of your generous support our little-comedy-show-that-could raised $500 for Gilda’s Club – Greater Toronto last night at the John Candy Box Theatre.
This was our first attempt at organizing a comedy fundraiser and we’d like to thank each and every one of you for making it such a fantastic success!
HUGE thanks to every single person in the audience for your warmth, your generosity, and for your laughter.
To each and every performer last night, thank you. You were all wonderfully entertaining and I cannot wait to perform alongside each and every one of you in the future. You’re all hugely talented!
Thanks to Sarah White for helping us with tickets and to Paige Turner for designing such an awesome poster – (and to your Dad for letting us print them for free!)
Thanks to everyone who donated gifts and prizes for the raffle. I don’t think anyone went home empty-handed last night! (I know I don’t have a degree in Commerce from Humber College, but my mug says I do!)
Most of all, thank you all for your compassion and support for an organization that provides so much help and empowerment to all people impacted by cancer. For more information about the services offered at Gilda’s Club, or to make an additional donation, please check out: http://www.gildasclubtoronto.org/
Thank you all so very much!
Brie Watson
& Nola Cooks
Here are my pre-bed thoughts about tonight’s show:
1) What an amazing night! I hope you all liked it!
2) If you weren’t there, you should have been.
3) I have so many mugs left over. Do any of the performers who left early want a free Humber mug?
4) What an amazing crowd. What an amazing life.
5) I hope nobody breaks into my apartment and steals the money we raised for Gilda’s Club tonight! Quick Peanut, guard it with your life!
I have so much more to say about the show tonight, but first: sleep!
They say life is cyclical and History repeats itself. In pop culture; music & fashion, we see it all the time (why I’m wearing fluorescent spandex and a scrunchy as I type this message!) With the surge in popularity of podcasts, younger generations are starting to get an understanding, even though they might not realize it, of what was so dang nifty about the radio.
Last Monday, some students in my year at Humber put on a Live Radio Show at Comedy Bar. It seems weird to say that because we weren’t actually live on the radio. We were performing live in front of a (sparsely attended) audience and simultaneously being recorded for a program that will hopefully be aired on Sirius XM Satellite radio, eventually.
The whole idea for the event was that of my sketch teacher, Robin Duke. It was both an assignment on learning about the history of comedy and its origins on the radio (Air Farce started on the radio. Did you know that?) as well as learning how to write sketch for a medium other than stage or video.
I thought it was a lot of fun. It allowed for my characters to survive a nuclear holocaust! This is something I would NOT have been able to afford to recreate effectively either on stage or on video. But alas, my awesome cast (Ashley, Brandon, Paige & Wheatgrass) performed wonderfully and over all, I believe the sketch was well-received. Go us! 🙂 (Including Bruce & Lance for the tips!)
On the other hand, the whole radio play ordeal showed me a lot about the importance of adaptability. Some of you may know that I work part time at the Career Centre at Humber College, helping people better their resumes in order to try to land a decent job… or at least, an interview. Adaptability is a skill that is almost always sought by employers, and a really good skill to have at work, or in life.
Here we are: the scripts have been selected for the performance, the date has been chosen and all that’s left are edits and rehearsals. And lo, the teacher catches pneumonia and has to take a few days off work. As a result, communications get a little more complicated and people begin to panic. “I don’t know when to be where. I didn’t get an e-mail about this or that. I don’t know what to do for this. I didn’t bother editing this because I didn’t hear about that.” Mass chaos.
In the midst of all the confusion, Robin Duke receives an e-mail from Bob Derkach, the musical director for our radio show and long time musical director at the Second City in Toronto. He was to accompany our pieces on the keyboard and with sound effects. The e-mail read simply: “Digging the confusion.”
What an amazing way to look at the situation! I feel like there are two routes you can go. You can get frustrated and pissed off and complain about how much of a mess you think everything is, OR you can just go with it, accept that life isn’t always carefully planned out and make the best out of the situation.
Which one do you suppose is most helpful and beneficial to the project at hand?
***
Now… if only people had COME to the show…
Brie Watson 