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:
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’d like to thank everyone who participated in and supported “Standin’ Up To Cancer: A Stand-Up Comedy Show in support of Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto”
Because of your generous support our little-comedy-show-that-could raised $500 for Gilda’s Club – Greater Toronto last night at the John Candy Box Theatre.
This was our first attempt at organizing a comedy fundraiser and we’d like to thank each and every one of you for making it such a fantastic success!
HUGE thanks to every single person in the audience for your warmth, your generosity, and for your laughter.
To each and every performer last night, thank you. You were all wonderfully entertaining and I cannot wait to perform alongside each and every one of you in the future. You’re all hugely talented!
Thanks to Sarah White for helping us with tickets and to Paige Turner for designing such an awesome poster – (and to your Dad for letting us print them for free!)
Thanks to everyone who donated gifts and prizes for the raffle. I don’t think anyone went home empty-handed last night! (I know I don’t have a degree in Commerce from Humber College, but my mug says I do!)
Most of all, thank you all for your compassion and support for an organization that provides so much help and empowerment to all people impacted by cancer. For more information about the services offered at Gilda’s Club, or to make an additional donation, please check out: http://www.gildasclubtoronto.org/
Thank you all so very much!
Brie Watson
& Nola Cooks
The Toronto comedy scene can be quite competitive. On any given night, you can be competing with several other comedy shows. I’m only in year-two on the scene and I regularly get bombarded with Facebook invites to attend multiple shows that conflict with each other time-wise.
Comedy can also be very selfish. Your buddies could be putting on the show-of-a-lifetime, but if you’ve got even the remotest chance of getting some stage-time somewhere, you’re going to bid them good luck and be on your merry way.
This can be a bit discouraging for those just starting out – it’s hard to break into a scene that’s already saturated with show after show after show of more of the same. But it warms me to know that one troupe in town will always make time for the newbies.
Humber alumni sketch troupe Vest of Friends canceled two of their regularly-scheduled weekly open-mic nights this month alone to discourage competition and encourage student and alumni attendance to both the second years’ Ten-Minute Play Festival and the first years’ ongoing Archival Show.
The Vests host an open-mic every Wednesday night at Celtes Pub in the Junction and it is, in my experience, predominantly attended by current and former Humber students. It’s a great room to try out material amidst a group of people who truly support each other.
The room continues to thrive even after the Vests have left the hallways of Humber behind them and move on to greener pastures. (Keeping my fingers crossed that they get a spot at Just for Laughs this summer.)
When I was in first year last year, I couldn’t help but be grateful every time the second year students attended our performances, knowing they didn’t really have to be there. They’d been there in their first year, knew the score and had taken it upon themselves to support the newbies. But that the Vests (and the few grads who attended the Archival Show tonight–notably Steph) attended a performance for people they rarely see and hardly know, is really awesome — I think anyway. I mean, at least they saw us in the hallway from time to time last year!
I’m going to do something that all of you in first year, and those of you in second year should do — out of respect for their support, because they canceled Sirens to see you and us, and because they’re just a damn funny sketch troupe — I’m going to go watch the Vest of Friends shows as often as I can.
Don’t forget! The first year Archival Show performances continue tomorrow and Friday night, 7pm @Alumnae Theatre on Berkeley.
Also, the Vest of Friends are performing at Comedy Bar on Friday Feb 17th – so… yeah. Remember what I said about “conflicting shows” Uh, oops.
As you may have gathered from the last late-night post reflecting my predictions of the inevitable discovery of my colleague’s talent by Hollywood or what have you, and the subsequent benefits of that association/friendship I shall reap, her play went rather well. As did all performances Wednesday and Thursday nights. Thus, our second year “Ten Minute Play Festival” and most of ours’ first attempt at play-writing comes to successful completion.
There were some neat ones, some serious ones, some non-verbal ones and it was always fun throughout to ask “which one of my colleagues wrote this one?” and to be pleasantly surprised at the answer.
Anyone who knows of my history as a tour guide at Vimy Ridge would not be surprised to discover I was the playwright of “the one about the WW1 brothel.” It turned out well! It was serious against a backdrop of ridiculousness; drunken and horny soldiers, Brandon in drag as the “Madame” of the establishment, Ron successfully pulling off a full “under the slip” boob grope to an unsurprised and perfectly-deadpan French whore, Ashley. And my two leads, Kyle & Paige, keeping the romance and escape plan serious and honest while all this other nonsense is going around them.
It’s so rewarding to see the words you’d written and rewritten and rewritten performed on stage with the help of a seasoned director who can make your vision appear, and extracting emotional responses you hadn’t even considered in the writing process. There’s also some interesting feeling about seeing the actors work hard at memorizing their lines and becoming these characters; putting in the effort so that they too, can make your vision a reality.
I hope I was able to do that for the two roles for which I was cast – one as a middle-aged strict Russian dance teacher, propositioned by two jocks who just really need to pass their ballet exam to make the football team, at whatever cost. 😉 – and Gracie, the teen dog who’s getting too old to play pretend with her dog-brother and her human mother who wants nothing more but to create the most beautiful Dog Wedding in history.
Whether it was that or Romeo learning to appreciate his wing-man, or an English teacher getting his funk back. Getting past St. Peter into Heaven or curing his son from his own online game persona. Buttoning down and finally applying for that first job at No Frills, or watching the Tooth Fairy struggle to get the job done…it sure was nifty to see the talent and creativity of my colleagues’ brainboxes come to life.
Bravo, all!
Our director, the fabulous Mr. Shawn Campbell has announced the schedule for our Humber College’s Ten-Minute Play Festival!
See: 10-Minutes in Heaven
If you’re interested in the details, here they are:
Wednesday, February 1st & Tuesday February 2nd 2012
Join us for a formidable festival of 10-minute plays written and performed by the second year students of Humber College’s Comedy Program!
This is a free event and we encourage anyone to attend! Friends, family, family-friends, co-workers, ex-lovers, craigslist randos, etc.
Invite whoever your heart desires!
THE PERFORMANCES:
First Night – Wed. Feb 1st – Curtain 7pm.
1. At The Gates – by Avery Edison
2. Facebook Is Ruining My Life – by Carolyn Nesling
3. The Talk – by Blake Finnie
4. PTA Games – by Jim Crone
5. The Adventures of Procrastination Man and his Sidekick Gentle Reminder Boy – by Andrew Barr
6. The Shaft – by Adam Parlette
INTERMISSION
7. All For Nothing – by Nola Cooks
8. Ballet For Beginners by Paige Turner (<—– I’m in this one, as a Russian ballet teacher. Awesome, right?)
9. Pre-Wedding Jitters by Steve Di Cecco
10. Tourist Season – by Kate Barberio
11. La Maison Bethune – by Brie Watson (<—- I wrote this one. All my Vimy peeps:it’s about a brothel in WW1 France, the male lead, you guessed it, a tunneller)
Second Night – Thurs. Feb 2nd – Curtain 7pm.
1. Romeo And Reality – by Archi Zuber
2. Fatherly Advice – by Rob Jodoin
3. The Decision – by Brandon Mohammed
4. Hypothetically Her – by Matt McAllister
5. Harlequin – by Rachel Moore
6. Team Work Works – by Sam MacDonnell
INTERMISSION
7. The Contract – by Kyle Woolven
8. The Train Ride – by Eli Terlson
9. Dog Wedding – by Ashley Moffatt (<—— I’m in this one too!)
10. Eric The Hapless Knight – by Charlie Shanbaum
11. For A Few Teeth More – by Jorge Viveros
Ladies and gentlemen, the founder of modern planking: Mr. Tom Green:
Every couple weeks at Humber, we have guests, people who have achieved a recognizable amount of success in the comedy industry, come speak to us about their experiences in the business.
See:
Last week was no exception. What a treat to find out Tom Green would be taking a break from his stand-up tour to come talk to us Humber comedy geeks! #fun, right?
Now let’s be honest, I’m not the #1 hugest Tom Green fan of all time. BUT, as a friend (and former girlfriend) to some pretty huge TG fans, it’s fair to say I’ve been following his career for a long time now, I guess since he had his show on MTV. I feel like one of the few people in the Humber crowd that remembered his marriage to Drew Barrymore and his battle with testicular cancer (two issues that were, to my surprise, NOT brought up in the Q&A!) In fact, I’d even met him before, in his hometown of Ottawa. He was doing a book-signing for Hollywood Causes Cancer at the Chapters on Rideau. I told him he had a nice suit. It was pinstriped. I should probably read that book.
ANYWAY. Let’s rewind. Tom Green, Mark Breslin pointed out, is one of the founders of shock humour, reality television (of the non-sociological-research-based-variety) & comedy-rap. He was so influential in Canada that Macleans once had to decide between featuring Tom Green or Jesus as a cover-story! (They went with Jesus, btw.)
He’s like the precursor to Ali G-type stuff in that he started subverting what TV is and going places TV hadn’t gone before. (Humping a dead-moose, WHAT?) Tom Green tapped into the American zeitgeist and started doing stuff that set the precedent for stuff like Jackass and a bunch of other crazy MTV stuff. And for what? Because he’d consciously taken note of the funny that comes from unsuspecting people’s reactions to bizarre situations.
Right? We love that shit! That’s one of the reasons shows like The Office are as funny as they are!
Sidenote: The main reason I’m writing this is so I can use words like subvert and zeitgeist.
Tom Green encountered some pretty significant difficulties seeing eye-to-eye with the higher ups in Hollywood, who didn’t really understand his vision. One of his bits of advice to us was to know where to draw the line between keeping your vision intact and handling the bureaucracy of the industry. (Presuming we ever get that opportunity. Fingers crossed)
Another was to separate yourself from the rest with your hard work.
Green admitted he never wanted to be a big-shot movie star, that he was given creative control of Freddy Got Fingered and that that’s why the movie is how it is. His ambition was to be a Letterman-style talk-show host, and now he interviews celebrities on his Internet TV channel at tomgreen.com.
He’s also returned to his roots, touring the world performing stand-up comedy. (Tom started doing stand-up at 15, performing at Yuk Yuk’s in Ottawa!) I probably should have gone to check out one of his sets, but I was performing one of my own last weekend and I wanted to make sure I was prepared for that.
(It went really well, btw.)
Another great experience with an influential comic, thanks to Humber College. (If this is the kind of stuff my tuition pays for, it’s totally worth it!)
Stay tuned, as one of my future posts will tell you the tale of the exclusive performance of Andy Kindler for us Humber kids at Comedy Bar!
I suppose a great way to stick to my New Years resolution of writing more/all the time, is to write more in this blog. I know it’s supposed to be behind-the-scenes confessions about my time at Humber (Clown) College, but well, it’s the Holidays still, we don’t go back to school until Monday, so in the meantime, please excuse my non-school-based rambles.
My cat’s in heat.
(Why do I always talk about my cat? I don’t mean to. I don’t think any cat-owner means to talk about their cat(s) as much as they do. They’re just so adorably distracting.)
Last night we cuddled and spent the evening catching up on hours upon hours worth of Glee. Hey! I don’t care what you have to say! That TV show, love it or hate it, is bringing more and more children into the performing arts. I wish Con had a glee club when I attended school there. We had an improv team that couldn’t afford to go to the only improv competition for French schools in Ontario. It was all the way in Timmins. That’s pretty damn far from the Niagara Region.
We couldn’t even put on plays. We tried to once, but interest and enthusiasm among the cast was so low we had to cancel it (AND I’d nabbed the lead! #unfair) Trying to compare my high school education with high schools on TV is impossible. They don’t write shows for 300 or so French Canadian public school children, most of whom’s ambition remains “staying a live to deal pot to the next generation of Wellanders.”
I think small-town Franco-Ontarian culture does have a place within pop-culture. Somebody get me on the phone with TFO!
I should probably have written that last bit of rantiness in French.
Eh bien. Peut-être la prochaine fois.
I’m in an article that also mentions the Kids in the Hall. 16-year-old Brie is losing her shit:
Check out the article:
Humber EtCetera article – Toronto Comedy Festival Invites Humber Comedy Group to Perform
Brie Watson 