Author: Brie

Comedian, Writer & Popcorn Wizard.

The roller coaster ride of the Humber Industry Show ended at the Dog’s Bollocks in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

We spent all day on Monday at the Second City, so for me, it felt like work, which is a good thing, even though I wasn’t getting paid.  It’s just that, I work there… you see.  So, it was nice to be able to consider the performance element of my time at the Second City as work and not have to rearrange chairs and clean up after people afterwards.

I haven’t written much about the process of preparing for the Industry Show, other than a few snippets here and there, but now that it’s over, and I’m no longer writing and re-writing Greece or Ma & Pa Brothel, I have time to reflect.

Reflect upon  how unfair the process was to many of us and how were were told to suck it up because hey, that’s showbiz.  And on my end, it sucks, because who’s going to recognize the girl who wrote the piece but only had one line and spent the rest of the time in the chorus?

Two events took place at the Dog’s Bollocks that metaphorically represent my feelings about the show and its process:

  • Dave Foley bought me beer and;
  • I got a parking ticket.

(OK, he bought beer for the whole table, but that lessens the metaphor, so stay with me here.)

This business, this school has been a series of ups and downs, wins and losses and, I guess all I can do is wish myself and my classmates the best of luck at braving the storm.

(Photo credit: Becky Moore)

(Photo credit: Becky Moore)

It’s cut.  It’s re-cast.  Re-write this.  Re-write it, but make it like it was before you re-wrote it.  This is where we’re at in Industry Show preparations.  It’s terrible and wonderful all at the same time.  And I wouldn’t give it up for anything.

Well…. maybe money.  Lots and lots of money.

I’m gonna go a bit fangirl for a second.  Please excuse, but I have to contain myself while at school so… here goes:

Um, it’s pretty dang nifty, I’d say, to work in a writer’s room with Dave Foley.  I ugh, how can?  I don’t.  What?  It’s Dave Foley for crying out loud.  My parents hated how obsessed I was with the Kids in the Hall growing up.  I was too young to catch their show when it originally aired, but I would watch re-runs on the early days of the Comedy Network repeatedly.  I would TAPE sketches on VHS, the ones I liked the most.   That feels like so long ago.  I had a pen-pal I met on a KITH fan message board.  A message board!  Do they even still have those?  Other than like, craigslist or kijiji!?!?  She sent me photos of their show in New York and I to her from their show in Buffalo.  She sent me Dave’s autograph.  Holy shit, I just remembered that now.   I used to quote Brain Candy with my friends.  Dina did a great Baxter!   I had a poster of The Wrong Guy on my wall when I was in high school for Pete’s sake.  Most of you probably haven’t even HEARD of the Wrong Guy!

And now I’m working with him in a writer’s room!!!!  Life, you’re being awesome right now!

 

I wonder at what point the celebrities we idolize in our youth go from being demigods to just regular human beings who we acknowledge as lucky to have caught a break?

Maybe that’s adulthood?

The other day, Dan & I were engaged in a deep discussion about Zima, the alcoholic beverage from the 90’s that I’d completely forgot about.

I thought he was talking about Orbitz, that drink with bubbles in it, remember?

Anyway, tonight’s Second City improv basically circled around Zima, the very same drink nobody had thought about for like, 15 years but that Dan & I had discussed in great length ONLY YESTERDAY!

Isn’t it weird when stuff like that happens?

How’s this for criticizing the Western trend of adopting Eastern philosophy?  From Wikipedia:  “This article is about the religious concept. For the American grunge band, see Nirvana (band).”

I thought writing a sketch about yoga would be easier.    Maybe if I myself, achieve maksha, this process will be rendered simpler.  Or moot, probably.


Blah.  Back to work.

Why not start this evening’s writing process with a little procrastination?  I need to re-write one of my sketches from the end-of-year sketch show (which was a LOT of fun, but I don’t think I got to write about it too much, other than about Steve’s injuries) AND begin writing a new sketch to be table-read either tomorrow or in the next few days because, well…today, we began the second day of a two-week process leading up to the anticipated/prestigious Industry Show.

(I made it in!!! OMG OMG OMG!  YAY! I’m so happy!!! And honoured!!! AND STOKED!)

The Industry Show will be taking place Monday May 7th at the Second City Main Stage, (where I have been working for the past 3 weeks) and will have an audience of many  industry-types checking it out.  Some previous Humber grads have gone on to be signed by agents as a result of performing in the show and though I may not be that optimistic/delusional, I see it as being an excellent opportunity (one of hopefully many to come) to be seen, in action, by some key players in the industry.

We’ve been issued a schedule of “10am – ?” for the duration of time leading up to the final rehearsals the weekend before the 7th, which makes having a job pretty difficult – actually, it makes me feel real guilty about having to ask for time off work.   I haven’t seen the people at the Career Centre in what feels like ages and I only started at the Second City not too long ago, so I feel like a real dink asking for this much time off.

Anyway, the atmosphere in the room is really interesting.  We’ve got a bunch of tables forming a square and all 26 of us sitting around the tables, pitching sketches, contributing ideas and being relentlessly mocked by Lorne Frohman, the showrunner who, by the way, keeps telling me I’m loud.  If he thinks that’s loud, he should meet my grandmother on cleaning day.  It’s really interesting because throughout the program I’ve been commenting on how great it would be to get to work with other people from other sections who I didn’t have the chance to work with yet, and now here we are, all collaborating in one room.  It’s a pretty neat environment.

Well, I’ve gone on long enough about this.  Time to get back to work.  No.  Time to eat lasagna, then get back to work.

Hey blog-followers!

This is a really cool/interesting/revealing NY Times article explaining/defending what myself and most of my colleagues at Humber are getting into in terms of the alternative comedy scene & comedy nerdom.

It was written by Toronto’s king of the Comedy Nerds himself, Andrew Clark -> who also happens to be the program coordinator of Humber’s Comedy: Writing & Performance program.  (How’s that for comedy nerdy?)

Take a gander:

HOW THE COMEDY NERDS TOOK OVER