Tag: comedy

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!

 

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?

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

It’s hard to believe we’re currently rehearsing for our end-of year sketch show!

It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in the audience as the second years from last year gave it their all one last time before graduating and/or moving on to the Industry Show. I’m so excited to see everyone’s sketches, the remount of some people’s plays, but most of all — I am stoked to FINALLY see our parody videos we filmed all last semester ago!

  (See: Parody Shoots.)

And, I’m excited to actually put on our show, obviously.  It really is going to be a good one.  We’ve really extracted some of the funniest written scenes, with some of the funniest characters from over the past two years for your viewing and laughing pleasure.  And everyone on the team gets a few opportunities to shine! (…)

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to perform sketch comedy, and as repetitive as I’ve been in saying it, I really miss doing it.  Paige & I also get to showcase some of our dance experience in this show – in two numbers.  So hey parents, all those 15 years of lessons are paying off. (Not literally.  I don’t get paid for this.  But maybe one day it’ll actually pay off.  In this case, it’s just paying off because I’ve been cast in two scenes because I can dance and sing simultaneously.)

Maybe I’m too tired to be posting today.  (Maybe that’s why everything’s in brackets.)

Maybe that five hour rehearsal for 10 minute’s worth of (terribly flawed) stage time really wiped me out.

Maybe it was working til midnight yesterday.

I’m finally caught up with Mad Men.

I need an oil change.

And to do laundry.

Zzzzz…

This past Tuesday, Humber’s Comedy program held its’ first Stand-Up Gala at Yuk Yuk’s – to be aired (perhaps) (eventually) on Sirius XM satellite radio.  We had a special guest host, Levi MacDougall, who you probably recognize from all those Rogers commercials, but who you should probably learn more about because he’s a lot more impressive than the dude in those commercials.  ANYWAY,  it felt good to perform that night, because I hadn’t had the strongest set in our showcase the week prior, (the one in which a bunch of Humber alumni and other industry people came to evaluate,) and yet I was still asked to participate.  And, I believe I had a better night on the Gala show than I did on the showcase, so Win 1 for Brie!

I’d like to say I’m over the relatively shitty feeling you get when a bunch of people you hardly know tells you what they didn’t like about your performance in the form of a numerical grade, but I’m pretty over it.

Some people had better Showcase nights.  Some people had better Gala nights.  There are good and bad nights & good and bad sets.  I am uplifted that my Gala night went better, because it encourages me to want to go out more, to write more and to keep at it.  Life doesn’t end at the showcase.

Obviously.

It ends at the Industry Show.

No.  Not really.

That being said, we are currently hard at work on our end-of-year Sketch show, which has been TREMENDOUS fun!  Our director, Gary Pearson, is so profesh, organized & on the ball.  I’d aim for an attitude like his if I was ever to be back working in a sketch troupe.  And I am SO stoked that two of my sketches, one black-out and an improv-come-sketch (with help from the very funny Brandon Trainor,) were selected to be part of our show.

There’s something about the collaborative nature of sketch comedy that makes upcoming performances more exciting than the nerve wracking excitation of stand-up.  It’s probably because you have others to play with and fall back on.  It’ll also be a moment to take in because it’ll be the last time us 02s work together as a collective.  Unless we’re all chosen for the Industry Show.  (Fingers crossed.)

Maybe it’s the cough syrup talking sentimental, but I’m sure gonna miss thing gang when clown college’s is all over. 😦

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?)

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.