Month: July 2012

There’s always been a bit of a challenge getting people to show up to the Comedy Bar on a regular Monday evening.   But for The JokeBox Comedy Lounge, by Impulsive Entertainment, produced by Deanna Palazzo and James Dalzell, it’s: “Challenge Accepted!”

Every Monday, the JokeBox Comedy Lounge plays host to a variety of comedy performances.  I attended last night, and there was a good mix of some stand-up, both booked and lotterized, improv and sketch comedy to entertain all the senses.  And, despite an off-night for the Comedy Bar’s famous mac n’ cheese, I’d say it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

The night kicked off with host and noted bartender/IT Asian, Jim Kim, who always brings forth funny observations – in this case, about the Olympics and his mixed feelings towards attractive athletes, both male and female.  After which, the line-up consisted of:

  • Jordan Foisy  (Stand-Up Lottery Spot)
  • The Winston Zeddesmores (Improv)
  • Natalie Norman (Stand-Up)
  • The Reception (Sketch)
  • Mischa Cheeseman (Stand-Up Lottery Spot)
  • Ron Josol (Stand-Up)
  • Good Game (Musical Sketch)

It was a good mix – I’d never seen Ron Josol perform before, but he was really great!   He was just home from Just For Laughs and was certainly still on his festival-game because he was hilarious!  And the headliners, Good Game, with their mix of deadpan musical comedy, were a real treat to finish the night up!

All in all, you can’t go wrong for such a variety of talented comics for $5 on a Monday.  Get off your butts and check this show out!

 

The JokeBox Comedy Lounge, every Monday at 8pm, Comedy Bar – $5

Procter & Gamble has this ad paying homage to the selfless moms out there who are there every step of the way in the upbringing of a Olympic athletes (or in general, anyone who’s ever dreamed big.)  It’s really touching, and I know it’s a big giant evil corporation, but it still made me feel like: “I love my Mom!” – then I balled my eyes out.

McDonalds opted for a different advertising technique in this market.   Less sentimentality and more dub-step.   In an effort to sell a shitty-looking chicken sandwich?    It made me feel like: “Make this stop – I’m never going to order this shitty sandwich.  If I go to McDonald’s it’s not for “healthy” chicken sandwiches, and it certainly isn’t to wait around for a half hour to let the staff finish their dance routine, so shut up, stop dancing and make me a Quarter Pounder!”  – then I threw my cat at the TV.

P&G = sentimental |  McDonalds = pure rage

I’m gonna go stock up on toothpaste and pads.

 

You know that thing where you’re so addicted to something stupid like, say… Coca-Cola, and you have to see somebody about it because it could be the reason you’re tired all the time, and you don’t want to do anything, and it’s probably slowing killing you?  You know that thing?

Anybody?Image

The first thing I did when I got back from camping was clean out my fridge.  I don’t know what that was about.  I guess after just one single night out of living without amenities, something sparked in me in the way of:

“Brie, you live indoors, in a comfy apartment.  Maybe you shouldn’t let food rot in your fridge because a) it smells, and b) if you lived in the wild and you kept things the way you keep them at home, you would have been mauled by a bear a long time ago.”

“I think I smell expired buttermilk in here!”

 

Brie’s Advice

Live each day as if you were camping, knowing that if you do the slightest thing wrong, you’ll be eaten by a vicious bear.

I was finally able to check out a few more Fringe shows after a lovely improv class down at the Second City Training Centre.  I made my way over UofT’s campus for a switch from solo performances to an evening of ensemble casts.

Fringe Show # 3 ->  I will never listen to Annie Lennox the same way ever again.

A friend of mine highly recommended Tony Ho’s Sad People – and I was happy to find out it fit into my schedule last night because I never got around to seeing these guys during the last year’s TOsketchfest.  Finally, my time had come to be weirded out by their talent.   I chugged a beer at a nearby O’Grady’s Pub and proceeded to climb the many stairs up to the Robert Gill theatre for, I’m not afraid to say it, one of the weirdest and most wonderful performances I’ve ever seen.  They’re really nothing like other sketch comedy troupes in the city.  Though bizarre and hilarious, there’s a powerful humanity behind a lot of their sketches and monologues – as depressing as that may sound, particularly in the case of the guy who wanted to put his 51 year-old mother in a home.  I was impressed at the strong, very real emotions the characters could portray, for a comedy show, especially in the nurse/patient scene – even though one of the characters’ face was covered with gauze throughout the entire sketch.  (I’m thinking just the shy side-to-side movement on his wheelchair spoke volumes!)  My favourite sketch of the show had to be the time traveling one.

So many good ideas!  Such great performances.  And cool guest performances.  If you’re into sketch comedy, you should check out Tony Ho for sure.  Here’s what they’ve got left, Fringe-wise:

  • July 13 11:30 PM
  • July 14 01:45 PM

Two days left!  Check ’em out!

Fringe Show #4 ->  Not the War of 1812 I learned about in high school!

I ran over from UofT to Spadina (not a very far run) to catch the National Theatre of the World’s performance of “The Soaps” A Live Improvised Soap Opera.  Another one of their formats I’d never seen before, but equally as hilariously entertaining as the Carnegie Hall Show and the Script Tease Project.  This edition of the Soaps had a background of the War of 1812, which had a certain fun significance for me because I used to give tours in a Niagara-on-the-Lake historic home that was used as a field hospital during the War of 1812.  If you live in Southern Ontario, particularly near or on the Niagara River, you’re gonna year a lot of stuff about 1812, at school and otherwise.  This year happens to be the bicentennial of the war.  (I really think they should take this production down to the Niagara Region – there’s huge 1812 hooplah going on down there this summer – I bet tourists would go CRAZY over it!)  But I digress.  The cast, composed of some heavy-hitting Second City alum, played British, American and First Nations characters as their stories entwined over issues of romance, betrayal, drama… and corn!  Every night is a new story with the Soaps, so I URGE you to see this one because if you like good improv, and I mean really great, nothing beats it kindof improv,  you will lose your SHIT over this one.  Only three days remaining at St. Vlad’s!

  • July 12 09:15 PM
  • July 13 12:30 PM
  • July 15 02:45 PM

(I can say lose your shit in a review right?  Whatever.  It’s my blog.  I’ll write what I want.)

Finally… A Different Kind of Review –

I’d like to post a review of the car break-in I experienced last night.  Nothing on the car was broken or destroyed, which is a plus.  Well done, jerkoffs.  (Which leads me to believe I may have left my doors unlocked, but that’s not likely.  It’s like, automatic behaviour for me to lock my car after paying for parking.)  I DID, however, leave the windows open SLIGHTLY so the car wouldn’t be stifling when I got back from my Fringe-hopping.  That must have been it.  When I got back to my car, all my CDs had been taken, as had my change in the ashtray.  I worry some of the former car-owner’s old mail was taken, but go figure, they didn’t take the shitty $15 fan I bought at Canadian Tire as a substitute for my broken car air conditioner.  Luckily, I’d just emptied my car earlier that day of some a pretty nice North Face jacket, and some other clothes.  Also, it was fortunate these creeps didn’t know how to open my trunk, because they might have liked some of the stuff they found back there.  (Like that dead body!!! Moohooohahahahahahahaha)  All in all, I give this crime a rating of: “Fuck you, you delinquent fucks.”

Funny, I never had my car broken into when I lived in Ottawa!  (Then again, I didn’t own a car in Ottawa.)

Send me your prayers, well-wishes, good vibes, positive vibrations, happy thoughts, good fortune, good luck, encouragement, cheers, your faith, a boost, some hope…Anything positive, really.

At around 9:30 tomorrow morning.

Because I have an important audition.

And I REALLY want it to go well.

 

Fringe is upon us, Toronto!

What a fun way to take in live theatre – and live COMEDY – in a medium different than the everyday scene.  I’m aiming to see as many comedies as I can this Fringe, because I tend to prefer those to dramas or otherwise, but hell – I’ll see anything if it’s free, folks.  Just sayin’.

So far I’m at a 1 show : 1 day ratio for Fringe since the party launched on July 4th.

I’ve seen two solo performances so far.  Sometimes, it’s nice to hear about someone else’s struggles for a change.

Fringe Show # 1 -> The only reason I know there’s a Big Brother UK is because my former roommate used to watch it for the nudity…

My first show of the Festival was July 4th at 10pm ->  ZACK ADAMS: A Complete History of Zack Adams with my pal Gillian at The Solo Room venue at the Tarragon Theatre.  This is a show about the life & times of a young man from Australia who’s always wanted to perform & who must come to terms with the fact that home is where the heart is, and it might just be the best place to perform as well.  We follow along with Mr. Adams’ sometimes funny, sometimes tragic tales about friendship, love and… bees He recounts his life as a performer and the struggles progressing from small town big fishdom to bigger cities, where one becomes well, just-another regular-sized fish.  A regular-sized fish who landed Big Brother UK, but a regular-sized fish nonetheless.

As someone interested in maybe putting on a one-person show in the future, I liked this performance.  It’s amazing to see another human being pour his heart out to a bunch of strangers.  He was fearless, sometimes singy, sometimes dancy (no doubt showing off the training from that fancy Australian performing arts school) – but also very honest and simultaneously very theatrical.  See it.  Learn about this great performer’s interpretation of the hand he’s been dealt.

Fringe Show # 2 ->I knew I wasn’t the only one who wanted to see Stewart & Colbert in an intimate setting.

My good friend Erin and I met up at the Theatre Passe Muraille for the 9:30 Backspace show of Fake News Fangirl.  You should see this show.  I’m not just saying that because I know Sharilyn personally and I think she’s wonderful.  Because there is that.  But if ever you’ve felt like you were a fan of something and tilting slightly towards the obsessive, Sharilyn’s show will help you to acknowledge you aren’t alone in this world and, in fact, it could be much much worse.  In high school, I really dug the Kids in the Hall.  But my so-called obsession is really nothing compared to the hours Sharilyn has spent on her affections for Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert et. al.

This show was a wonderful insight into the world of someone who isn’t just a fan of comedy, but who lives for comedy.  And not just for the laughter – I mean, Sharilyn is basically comedy Wikipedia.  And to hear about her endeavours – because  she’s done comedy — the open mic scene, improv, writing for the Daily Show & Colbert Report classes in NYC — she’s done it.  You will witness a struggle of the self as ‘one who does comedy’ vs. ‘one who loves comedy’ and see how blurred the lines are between the two.

A must-see for all the comedy nerds!

—

But…

Along with my being an active participant in Fringe this year, I can’t help but harbour a bit of resentment over the fact that I (we?) could have been in the festival this year, but that for reasons beyond my control (ie. I’m broke/internal collapse) – it did not happen.  What an amazing experience it must be to perform/produce/promote your work on your terms.  That being said, the more shows I see, the keener I am to make something happen Fringe-wise for next year.  In the meantime, I’m going to go plot out my next round of shows for the weekend.  Oh, and find my softball gear.  Comedy Softball season starts tomorrow!

Happy Fringe, everybody!