1) I think I may have fractured my foot over the summer and not really realized the severity of the incident until now, given I have had chronic foot pain ever since and my foot cracks in a way it never used to prior to the “Got-my-foot-slammed-into-the-heavy projection-booth-door-with-the-giant-air-sucking-fan-making-it-close-that-much-faster-than-a-regular-door” incident of 2011.
2) I think I’m losing my hearing. What? Either I need to get my ears drained, or everyone else should just SPEAK UP for Pete’s sake!
3) I have to be fitted for “contact lenses for lamewads with astigmatism” next week. What the hell? Like I’m not already blind enough, I have to have a funny-shaped eye? This isn’t fair, life!
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!
My good friend from way back, Anne Cayer, via her amazing blog, (which I only just realized I had not created a link to from my blog, thus making me a terrible friend…) drew my attention to something that I think might interest you, readers.
It appealed to both my appreciation for art and for comedy. It highlighted your and my… and everyone’s affections for the great Bill Murray.
Some things just can’t be the same the second time around, but, you make of them what you can. This was my second year volunteering at the Canadian Comedy Awards. This was its 12th year and was originally supposed to be held in Ottawa. I have no idea why they decided to bring it back to Toronto, but hey, who’s complaining?
I volunteered by checking in award nominees when they arrived to the Delta Chelsea hotel in Toronto. I got to meet a lot of fun performers just sitting at a table, handing out sweet swag bags.
By chance, a man I had met last year, who organizes the Stand-Up gala portion of the Awards weekend recognized me and asked me to help out at the gala. I turned him down, obviously. What? No. Of course not, I went and met Shaun Majumder, who was hosting (and was a super nice guy!) and some of the other featured performers for the evening.
By virtue of my selfless acts of volunteering, I was allowed to attend two nights of after-parties, which were both very fun.
Was it because the Kids in the Hall were there last year? Some of my heroes? That I actually got to see the Awards show? That it was my first time surrounded by such talent because I hadn’t been up that often performing yet? Was it the booze? I don’t know, last year’s party just seemed a bit crazier, a bit more exciting.
But it was still a great time and I’m excited to even have been allowed into an “industry-only” event. I’d encourage any of the Humber students to volunteer, except, then I might not have got my spot and would have had to fight more people off to get into the after-party. So. Yeah, stay at home and watch TV, kids!
Holy Crap. I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything since the Moneyball review. I have been BUSY, ladies and gentlemen! Time feels like it keeps speeding up. I’ve been completing assignments the day before they’re due, staying up past midnight, despite having to work super-early in the morning at the Career Centre.
It seems in each class, we’re working on major projects. There isn’t really one in which we’re working less hard than the other. It’s crazy! The workload is by vastly greater than last year, but folks, I am loving it.
I’m working on a chauvinist male “bro” character called Brian for my Acting class. It’s both liberating and challenging to portray the type of male I absolutely despise.
I’ve written and submitted the first draft of a 10-minute play (more dramatic than comedic) play about a soldier of the First World War who visits a French brothel. Apparently, I’m feeling very nostalgic about my time spent in France. Like it or not, talking about hundreds of thousands of dead guys for 5 months straight two years in a row really gets into your head.
We’ve completed our clown pieces in physical comedy and are now moving onto different techniques.
In sketch writing, we’ve been working on two major projects: a parody of a TV show (I chose Star Trek, obvi) and a monologue script based on a person we know upon which we’ll be building characters.
In stand-up, Larry’s teaching us what it would be like to work in a writing room, working on a late-nite host’s monologue. The humour is very topical, news-related, so it’s been helping us with the LaughDraft news as well (which we will be filming this week after a long hiatus!)
Finally, we’re working on writing a sit-com. I won’t reveal too much about that at the moment, in case anyone reading this blog decides to steal my class’ ideas and prevent us from ever working on this project in the ‘real world.’
And then there’s all the ‘outside school’ stuff… and work…
I wanted to try writing amusing film reviews. This movie came out too long ago to try to send to any magazines or newspapers, but if you’d still like to take a look, you can check it out at:
Little did I know, turning down that offer would lead to one of the most overwhelming culinary experiences of my life.
…..
My friends refer to me as a “supertaster.” This term refers to people who like to pretend to have an over-sensitive pallet preventing them from eating spicy or overly flavourful foods. What it comes down to is that my Dad was a “meat n’ potatoes” kinda guy and I adopted those qualities, not venturing beyond “Chinese” as ethnic food until I moved out of my parents place to go to university. Even then, the first year I was there, I tried pho and sushi.
“Meh.” I thought.
Upon moving to France, I was forced to change my eating habits, because food options were different there and I lived with many people with varying appreciations for different types of food.
“Let’s go to the Carpe Diem!” I would say.
“Brie, we’ve been there twice this week already. We’re going somewhere else!”
And that’s how I discovered Moroccan food. (That, and I went to Morocco.)
Back in Ottawa, I discovered an Indian restaurant down the street, which I frequented often and miss dearly.
Despite having traveled around Israel, I didn’t get into shawarma until moving to Toronto, just a few months ago.
But today’s adventure is about Thai.
I’ve been watching The Big Bang Theory. So naturally, when my boyfriend asked me what I wanted for dinner last night, the thought of take-out thai food was at the tip of my brain. He said he knew a place. I ordered a cashew chicken meal (having tried a similar dish at other Thai restaurants in the past.)
It was delicious. Hands down, best Thai food I’ve ever had. (Not that that says much, I’m still very much a beginner.) It was just spicy enough. A little more spicy than pre-France Brie could have handled, but Mmm mmm mmm it was tasty.
And what else? Leftovers? Somebody up there likes me! Or does He?
I brought the leftovers to school today and decided, despite having been asked to go out for lunch, to stick to my leftovers and to stay on campus. I microwaved the dish and got pop as a drink.
“Mmm. This is tasty!” I said to myself. “I wonder what this black thing is? It must just be a burnt onion or something.”
No.
It was not.
What happened next is somewhat of a blur. All I remember is thinking: “Crunch! HOLY SHIT that’s not an onion! Do I… do I eat it? Do I spit it out?”
Quick scan for a napkin.
No napkins in sight.
“Bite the bullet Brie.”
I bit one more time and swallowed, knowing any more chewing would only result in further pain.
I tried to continue eating my meal, but CRIPES was that spicy. The pop wasn’t helping. My eyes began to water. I got up and went for a drink of water out of the fountain and headed directly for the washroom because my nose was running. I wondered if I would make it. I was feeling faint. Suddenly, the room was spinning and I felt like I was in some alternate universe where I could see myself suffering the pains of that god-forsaken pepper. It reminded me of something out of the Johnny Cash episode of The Simpsons.*
Finally, I snapped out of it. Slowly, I began to regain control of my tear ducts and nasal passages.
My only hope is that the pepper doesn’t entice such a painful reaction on its way out.
*
Also, watching this scene is different languages has been illarious:
Brie Watson 