Tag: funny

Just over two weeks now until Water Wings hits the Montreal Fringe Festival.  I can’t believe it.  The show is coming along well – got most of the lines memorized.  And dance moves.  What?  That’s right.

I’m super excited about my first Fringe experience – as a performer, that is – I tried the spectator role, as well as the volunteer role, but something tells me I’m going to like this role a whole lot more.

In the meantime, I’m trying to get as many people as possible to attend the Toronto Preview of the Water Wings.  Since we won’t be able to perform at the Toronto Fringe Festival this year, we’d really like to give our friends, family – and sketch comedy fans in Toronto a taste of what we worked hard to put together.  So, if anyone reading this is available, come on down to:

Comedy Bar: Thursday, June 6th 2013 @ 10PM.  

Erin promises treats!

-3

I wish to complain about the service I received at the Sobeys on the Queensway this evening.  I stood in a line behind two people, because the line next to me, where there was only one person in line, had a sign on it indicating the register would be closed after the last customer.

So, I waited in the other line.  The man in front of me began checking out and stopped the cashier (Barbara) because he did not believe he was getting the right price for the 4 cans of tuna he was purchasing.    (I got to hear the whole story – I was there long enough!)

Barbara, unaware as to why the cash register wasn’t showing the appropriate discount, took all the necessary measures to try to help the client she was serving.  While I waited.  And while a line behind me began to form.

The register next to me re-opened and took two more customers, both of whom had been BEHIND me in line. And then she closed again.

Many people were called to try to assist the man in front of me with his tuna crisis, and I continued to wait patiently.  (well, MOSTLY patiently) <— added for the blog

While I was waiting, it seems they opened up a few registers at the self-checkout aisle, where I would have been glad to go in the first place except, when I got in line, they were closed.  And nobody came to tell me they had opened up any additional registers.  It would have been nice to know.

I know you can’t help it when a customer really wants his discounted tuna, but it would have been great for someone, the cashier or ANYONE else to take notice of the other people in line, who have had long days, and who would like to get home, and who do not want to wait in line at Sobeys until 11pm.

The cashier even went out of her way as to offer the tuna-complaint man a free chocolate bar.

But I was waiting longer than him.  I had no complaints holding up the line for a half-hour.  I had 8 items or less.  So where’s my chocolate bar?

It’s hard to believe a year has past since I shared a stage with Dave Foley.  Not just any stage, the main stage at the Second City.  But alas, here we are, one year later, watching my successors have their moment in the limelight alongside another Kid in the Hall, and a most royal queen, Scott Thompson.

God Save the Queen
God Save the Queen

The show was really good, I was super impressed by the performances, a lot of the writing, but mostly the sheer joy on the faces of the performers as they showcased  what they worked really hard on, ans what they learned over the past two years.

…and I can only IMAGINE the infinitely more positive environment these kids had to work with in the writer’s room and in rehearsal.  They were having fun.  And being creative.  I bet they were encouraged to create, explore and push a couple boundaries.  And you could tell all that by the performances.

It was also nice to bump into some fellow alumni and other industry folk for the evening.  🙂  (Including the good news I heard about a sponsorship for Water Wings – but more on that to come…)

I left the Main Stage feeling pretty encouraged and motivated to work hard on my own stuff.  Nothing like a bunch of kids graduating and entering the world of what you want to do to motivate you to make sure you keep at it yourself!  But first, I must rest… because I’ve got this nasty  cough that just started out of nowhere and I’ve got a busy week (month, life) ahead of me!

Congrats Humber Comedy class of 2013!   Y’done good.  Now keep up the hard work and I’ll see ya on the circuit!


Last night I was asked to attend and “evaluate” the second night of a stand-up comedy showcase exercise put on stand-up guru Larry Horowitz, for half the graduating class of the Humber College – Comedy: Writing & Performance program.  An exercise I recall a little more than I would like.  In fact, when I went back to my blog posts from last year to see what I had to say about my own performance in the showcase, this is all I was able to extract:

 If at first you don’t succeed…swear & curse a bunch, have a good cry, insult others who did better than you then immediately regret your bitterness, jealousy and resentment, wallow in self-pity, do harmful things to your body and mind… and try, try again.  – April 5th 2012

url

Suffice it to say, I wasn’t pleased with my performance. Nor was I please with the results I’d got back from the evaluators who, like I tonight, had watched the showcase. And therein lies the beauty of time and experience. Oh how the tables have turned! Get ready, class of 2013, to feel the wrath of …the evaluator; someone who is taking your art and judging it on a completely subjective basis.   And watch out! I’m gonna be REAL subjectiv-y!

In all honesty, there were a number of strong acts last night. A cut above the rest was Darren Springer, whose mix of the wonderful and the absurd is just such a delight.  The bit about his father’s tone as he’s been trapped in the trunk of a car in Columbia is the perfect contrast of the ordinary in extraordinary circumstances. A classic comedy convention, but so well-delivered with such ease and comfort; you get the sense Darren really loves being up on that stage.

Other great sets tonight included the closer for the evening, Ryan Dillon – who’s got storytelling embedded in his genes, I’m sure. (Ryan’s a Newfoundlander.)  Sitting on a stool, he took us on a sad, sad, hilarious, but very sad journey growing up without a father – with a little insight into the airline industry.  (Did you know that if your parent is an airline employee, and they die, you get a free trip to DisneyWorld?!) Sarah White knocked the crowd dead with her sexy Star Wars switcheroo.  Colin North also had me giggling about his dead dad.  Come to think of it, dead dads were a bit of a recurring theme tonight.   Dead dads, and being a socially-awkward, ill-at-ease, unable-to-maintain-relationships-with-the-opposite sex, relatively dysfunctional human being.

That and masturbating.  There was a lot of talk about jerkin’ it.  It was a Humber show, after all.

I was impressed by the variety of voice work – lots of fun accents by Samia Darkazalli, Liron Jacobs and Jay Freeborn, who went into an elaborate bit about Pokémon, which normally I would care less about but because of the energy of the delivery and the fun wordplay, it stood out to me.  I’m a sucker for wordplay.

Ben O’Neil and his musings on the Kraken fit perfectly into the realm of the ever-increasing market share of nerd humour/culture.  Love it or hate it, you can thank (or curse) BBT for that.

It’s no surprise that I wasn’t a fan of the comparing women to dogs elements of the show or the multiple bits about racism, even the ones that were meant to call racists out on their shit, it’s just… I didn’t see a fresh take on it, and until then, I’d rather stick to what the pros have already said on the subject, rather than the not-so-deep musings of early-twenty something suburbanites.

That being said, it’s no surprise the acts that stood out to me can frequently be found performing in dives around Toronto to work on and improve their craft.  There is such a striking difference in quality and in confidence between those who perform stand-up regularly, and those who maybe memorized their set a few hours before last night’s showcase.

So, for those of you who do work hard, and practise a lot, and still didn’t get the grade-result you were looking to achieve in this exercise, don’t worry.  Even if you don’t end up performing stand-up in the Industry Show, don’t worry.  I said Don’t Worry! If you work hard you can totally get in Fresh Meat, have a live and professional taping of your set available to pitch to festivals, get an agent, book a Fringe tour and get a full-time administrative position at the CBC.

Trust me.

Sleep deprived driving is dangerous, you guys.

I guess there’s that moment when you realize, as a motorist, that you probably shouldn’t be on the road. Like, for me yesterday, it was about 6:30 pm on my way back from the FedEx depot because apparently my ROE is so important it can’t be sent by regular mail.  It came when I realized I felt dizzy with each push of the accelerator and as I stared out, without blinking at the road ahead and it seemed to widen and retract with every breath I took.

It was starting to feel a little like this:

When my eyes start playing tricks on me, that’s normally a sign that I’ve gone to too much sketch comedy for one week.

I’ve been (trying) to see as many shows at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival (henceforth known as TOsketchfest) as possible because a) I’ve been deemed the social media coordinator for the event and b) sketch comedy in Toronto is great and the line-up this year is fantastic.  BUT, I just started a new job, and the process of doing both right now is seriously impeding my health and well-being.  And what I mean by that is, holy crap I’m sleepy!

During my FedEx excursion (FedExcursion) I fought with myself for a good long time about whether or not I check out more shows, or go home, take a nap and see what happens.  The nap won, except it sortof turned into a 2.5 hour snooze, a drowsy phone call, and a return to sleep the rest of the night away.

And when I woke up… I WAS STILL TIRED!

Luckily, it’s Friday because:

  1. No boss at the office today;
  2. I don’t have to work tomorrow;
  3. I don’t have to wake up super early for work tomorrow;
  4. I don’t have to drive tonight

…so I can go out and see as many shows as possible until I pass out in the audience and have a member of some big-time sketch troupe (oxymoron?) staring at me disapprovingly after having been prodded awake by an audience-member disgruntled by my noisy snoring.

So far, the Festival has been fun, but I really wish I was currently more awake and alert so I could be blogging about how amazing Bruce McCulloch’s show was, or how it was dang nifty to meet Eugene Mirman…

602722_10100433967842976_1093589017_n
I swear I was going to my car and NOT following him, OK!?

…or how much of a blast it was to perform in Nerd Off, even though I’m not in a sketch troupe participating in the festival this year, but I have a buddy who likes to look out for me! (Thanks Erin!)

I’d love to rave about it!

But I’m so tired.

New jobs, eh?   The worst…

/The best.

Yay for work!

See you tonight @TOsketchfest!

A new year – a new CatChatz.  Managed to get the new one edited in one day – Thanks Snow Day!

This episode has Melanie and Shelley making up New Years Resolutions for their cat friends, Peanut and Indy.  We’re also joined by guest-star Dina Senior, my all-time truest-non-blood-related friend in the world, who is ready to pump you & your kitty up this year!

Check it out:

 

Go on, give it a click!

Meow! Meow!

It’s been a nice, quiet Friday, brightened up by the fact that:

  1. I spent most of the day listening to Mark Andrada play show tunes on his Internet radio show and was consoled by the fact that there are many other musical theatre geeks in the comedy community.  (The show is for reals dope – don’t let the whole musical theatre thing dissuade you from checking it out: Way Too Early… with Mark Andrada) and;
  2. I found out I get to help out again with this year’s SketchFest!  (I think I mentioned that in my last post, but I don’t care – I started doing some actual stuff today for it and so shut up.  It counts.)
  3. We begin filming the next episode of CatChatz tomorrow!  Hooray for cats!  Meow! Meow!  (On a similar note, it looks like Peanut’s starting to feel better, so hopefully she’ll be in ship-shape for the shoot.)

OK, back to point #2 (hehehehe, #2…) anybody excited about SketchFest should attend this event right here:

i-love-tosketchfest
Drinks, fun and oysters – sounds like a party to me!

 

Last night, I produced the first ever edition of Geekomedy, a show intended to incorporate aspects of media & technology into works of comedy.  I myself made a silly intro with the Voice Plus voice-changing app on my iPhone (my BROKEN iPhone!) and later incorporated the technological element of the George Foreman Grill to my show, by making an audience member a panini.

See what a difference technology adds to humour, folks?  Paninis!

The wonderful and dynamic duo Laura Bailey and Josh Bowman improvised a conversation on Facebook chat for a segment they called “IM-prov.”  Proof that some of the funniest writing people can produce is at home in front of a computer screen IMing to friends/family/ex-lovers recently escaping the confines of the closet.

I heard a comment from someone who walked into the segment late, about how strange it was to walk into a dark space lit only with a screen, to complete silence, and to still be entertained thoroughly simply through the act of reading a comic scene take place right before their eyes.

See kids, reading CAN be fun!

Next up was a PowerPoint presentation by Ashley Moffatt – hilarious as usual, Ashley incorporated elements of her regular routine, but added some flash to it with amazing photos of her famous plant wigs and, dogs.  Dogs everywhere.   I think PowerPoint stand-up is such a great idea, similar to the way SNL’s Weekend Update’s jokes are amplified by silly graphics, or Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert’s stuff – it adds to the joke.  The joke itself is funny, but with the right animation, it can take a chuckle to a full-blown guffaw.

Camille Côté was up next, regaling us with the tale of an incredibly awkward textual encounter she got in after meeting face-to-face and talking to him for a whole of 10 minutes, who later make very bizarre assumptions about her in txt form.  She made a good point about how some guys can be really brave, but only behind some form of screen.    Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go back to eating my bagel now.  (wink wink)

Finally, the fabulous physical comedy of Jorge Viveros brought to the stage a real-life Angry Birds game, where members of the audience could throw Jorge, the angry bird, into stacks of cardboard boxes for FUN!

Many thanks to the audience members who came out to support the show, even though right off the bat, the host told us we all stunk.  (Thanks a lot, Bob Banks!)  It’s OK though, he was referring strictly to our hygiene and not to the quality of our comedy, which makes it better, right?  Right?…

Anyway, here’s hoping there’s more interest in tech-themed comedy down the line.  I think the next logical step would be installing a transporter directly in the Comedy Bar,  saving time AND the need to dress according to the climate. (And allowing for an easier stumble home post-alcohol-consumption.)

Robo-Brie OUT!