Author: Brie

Comedian, Writer & Popcorn Wizard.

You know those days when you SHOULD be editing your 10-minute plays, but instead you sort and organize through all the photos on your computer – those days when you decide it might be a more effective use of your time to start writing Christmas cards or other correspondence?

You contemplate washing the dishes, but even that doesn’t seem nearly as important as installing the two-year old iLife you’ve been waiting a year to set up, even though the 2011 edition is now available.

You know… those days?

I was the opener (or emcee) for the late night Humber Yuk Yuk’s show tonight.  Normally they put me up near the very end of the show, so I have the entire duration of the show to dread my performance.  There was something nice about getting it done with first.  Like ripping off a Band-Aid.

But… I think I still prefer going up near the end.

You’re performance is more memorable when you go up closer to the end.

Well, my gig as one of the “Humber Interns” at the 2011 Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival is over, and what a ride it has been!

If my calculations are correct, I performed in 1 show with my sketch troupe, LaughDraft; I saw 12 shows, during which I was able to check out 23 sketch troupes; and I attended 3 workshops – 2 free and 1 that was supposed to be paid, but because of my “intern” status, I was able to check out for free. (Thank you to whoever made that possible, by the way – it was great to meet/work with other amazingly talented people from various other sketch and improv troupes.)

It helped that I was working on the Troupe and Video of the Day posts leading up to the festival, because I was able to get to know some of the troupes before I saw them perform.

Working with the producers with the fest, the other staff members and alongside the many volunteers has been such a fun experience.  I met and worked with so many great people.  What a treat!

Also, I’m not surprised but very happy for my buddies Vest of Friends, as well as for Falcon Powder and Peter n’ Chris for the awards they picked up.  All extremely well merited, if you ask me.  They all really did stand out this year!

I’d give honourable mention to CBC’s This is That & Two Kids One Hall for really knocking my socks off.  These two shows, part of the headliner series, even though I had to watch them on the sidelines, were so great, they were inspirational!  Scott & Kevin from the Kids in the Hall are icons in Canadian comedy.  To see them continue to work their stuff and that it’s funnier than ever says great things about comedy in Canada, I think.  That it exists?  That it’s here to stay?  Whether you like it or not.  (I don’t know?)

And This is That, I’d never heard the broadcast before, but the mere concept, to me, was hilarious.  And believe me, I will be listening from now on.  They were fantastic!  A CBC faux-broadcast taken completely seriously in all of deadpan’s splendor!   I’m still in stitches!

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Other moments or troupes that seem to stand out during the fest to me were:

Charles were so funny, so witty, so smart!  The reference-levels and knowledge they possess is quite impressive.  And that they demonstrated this knowledge in their sketches is something to aspire to.  I’ve made a note of that for my own future-sketch writing.

Fratwurst‘s sketches were super clever, but their Barbershop Quartet song really set them apart! (And the post-balloon make-out sess.  Way hot!)

Ninja Sex Party‘s video about the couple hooking up at a party.  Holy crap that was funny! And unexpected!  Bam!

Inside Joke Film‘s energy was out of this world! Seriously, they must be some kind of crazy-energy-robots.

Punch in the Box took physical comedy to a whole new level performing an entire scene topless, using their hands to cover their boobs.  Grown women, people.  This was hilarious!  (Don’t worry Mom, I don’t intend to try this out in any of my sketches any time soon.)

The Queer Comedy Collective’s “Dyke Moments in History” about the Invention of the Purse was ridiculously funny!

She Said What’s Napoleon sketch was probably the funniest sketch in the entire festival.  There, I said it.

Shoeless‘s banana bandana and celery cap have still got me laughing spontaneously on the bus, making other TTC riders uncomfortable.  And their Twilight scene?  Oh man.  Too much!!!

The National Theatre of the World, their professionalism and their chemistry was truly phenomenal.  I want to see EVERY show they do from now until the end of time.

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That wasn’t it though.  So many sketch troupes.  So much hilarity.  This list could go on for days!

What I’m getting at, I think, is that it was such a great experience to be a part of this festival, both in the role of intern and performer.

The only thing left to say, I think, Thank you Julianne & Paul (and Andrew).  And bring on TOsketchfest 2012!

HERE, newly-formed comedy troupe! Here’s the opportunity to have a coveted performance spot in a successful annual sketch comedy festival! Many troupes applied, and many didn’t make it in.  You didn’t even have to apply.  The program coordinator of your college got you the spot!  Lucky ducks!

Now, while we’re at it, here are several passes, allowing you to see any and every show in the festival for FREE.  Isn’t that awesome?

In addition to all that, there are free workshops going on that will help you become a better and more successful sketch writer, performer and troupe as a whole.   What do you think about that?  Wouldn’t it be great to learn how to get better, right from the get-go?  Some troupes take YEARS to figure this stuff out.  We’re just GIVING the information away for free!  All you have to do is show up!!

You can meet and mingle with other performers too!  Mingle with them and make connections that will almost guaranteed get more performance time!  It’s THAT easy!

Oh wait, what?  You’re all too busy for all of that?  More important things to do?  This whole comedy school thing you’re trying out, that’s what?  Just for fun?

That’s cool.  I understand.  I’m pretty sure success will just fall out of the sky and onto my lap too.

 

I am so tired from all this comedy!  This has got to be the best thing to be tired about in the world.  Listen to me, “boohoo, I’m so sleepy because I’ve spent the past 5 days straight laughing at amazingly talented sketch comedy troupes.”

That being said, I’m shortly going to head down to catch Night 5 of the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival.  What with my privileges as a Humber intern, I’ve had the opportunity to catch SO many shows this past week!

I attended a very informative lecture about how to make web shorts and took from it lots of information that I hope to one day apply when I get a faster computer and a camera of my own, or in the meantime, as I borrow other people’s crap.  I think I remember hearing something about members of the festival having access to facilities for editing at a discounted rate, which might be extremely advantageous, the more I think about it.

I saw great performances from the National Theatre of the World, Shoeless, She Said What, Haircut, Punch in the Box on Night 2.  I went home wanting to perform nothing but the best, smartest, sharpest, wittiest stuff in my future performances.  I guess we should all always strive for that as comics, but there’s something about being inspired by people who are experienced and who do it well.

The following night, I welcomed and met some people in the sketch comedy world as there was a VIP event for those involved with the festival.  It was great.  I mainly stood outside the door all night, but I got some free fruit as a result (that’s pretty much all that was left by the time I was allowed in.  Oh, and cheese.  Mmm.)

That was followed by some more excellent performances – Kevin McDonald and Scott Thompson of the Kids in the Hall were performing stand-up together, taking turns performing and then finishing up together at the end.  These guys are amazing.  It’s too bad not all the guys could get together to tour again, as I’d seen in the past, but it was very fun and interesting to see them both take on this different style from that which we’re all used to.  Except Scott, I’d seen him to stand-up before, and he took the piss out of Humber students.  It was great.

That show was followed by performances by an American duo called Inside Joke Films.  They had so much energy it was insane!  Ah to be young again.  I then saw the Vest of Friends (former Humber students and friends of mine) as well as The Imponderables (of which my sketch teacher is a member.)  I’d seen both these troupes before, but I think it was the best performance I’d ever seen of VOF, they were wicked-on that night.  And the Imponderables, well… they’re the Imponderables.  What else can I say?  My laughter said it all.

Yesterday, I participated in a workshop run by Kevin McDonald about improvising as a means to write sketches.  It was like two months of Humber improv and sketch classes rolled into 3 hours, it was that useful. Probably moreso!  I can’t wait to try out these new techniques.

Yesterday, I caught performances by Fratwurst, The Majors and Kerpatty! followed by a quick, brisk walk over to LOT to see Falcon Powder and Charles.  I was so sleepy, I couldn’t stay up for Uncalled For, which is unfortunate because I’d seem them perform improv before and they were fantastic!  I’ve also seen some of their hilarious videos online.

Now do you see?  Do you get it?  That’s a LOT of comedy to watch in a very small period of time.

Even writing this blog post is tiring me out.  I wish I could figure out how to work Twitter on WordPress, so you could see all the fun photos I’ve been posting of all the different troupes. But in the meantime, follow me: Brieford and check out my social medianalysis of the festival so far!

Tonight, I saw my first-year sketch comedy teacher in his underpants.

#clowncollege

This would never have happened in university.   Unless I really REALLY wanted an A.

* Teach was performing with his troupe The Imponderables at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, just… to clarify.

I am currently overwhelmed by the amount of talented performances I had the honour of witnessing this evening. (Which is great, because I was having relatively poopy day in class prior to the evening’s festivities.)

I saw sketch troupes that made me want to work so much harder and get so much better at performing as part of a sketch troupe!

You know those times when a piece of information is revealed to you in confidence and it makes you want to murder someone in cold blood because it’s insulting, offensive and disgusting?

I don’t want to keep pretending I can tolerate this.

The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival kicked off today, and as luck would have it, the troupe to which I belong LaughDraft, got to help get things started.  We played at Comedy Bar and shared the stage with two other troupes, Touch My Stereotype and The Hooligans, who we were not able to watch because the shows were sold out!  Can you believe it? Not a bad way to start off a festival.

Our 15-minute set went well, I think.  We noted the differences between having just 15 minutes, and producing our normal 90 minute variety shows, but at this stage of the game, just starting out as we are, we were just grateful to be a part of such a cool event.

Despite not being allowed in to see the rest of the show in which I performed, I stuck around to catch the following show; three other sketch troupes – The Regulars, who I’d seen perform before at Fresh Meat, Beautiful Losers & A Classy Affair, which I didn’t realize at the time, but it was a “solo” piece, except for the guest she had come in to facilitate the process.  These were some great troupes!  Really top-quality stuff.

I can’t believe I missed this event last year, especially as someone starting to get involved in the sketch world.

I am SO looking forward to tomorrow night.  I’m hoping to be posted at the LOT to intern-away & hopefully catch some great shows!