Tag: The Second City

“The Tim Sims Encouragement Fund (est. 1995) and The Second City are pleased to present ‘Fresh Meat 2012’, a showcase of the hottest fresh new faces on Toronto’s comedy scene. On Monday, September 10th, 2012 at 8pm, Toronto’s best up and coming comedians will strut their stuff at this exciting annual comedy event.”

I woke up to the announcement of the line-up for this year’s Fresh Meat showcase, and was excited and pleased to see yours truly listed on a line-up of otherwise exceptionally talented funnyoids, which is what I call comedians.  Or at least, will begin to do henceforth.

They are:
Templeton Philharmonic
Steven Boleantu
Danish Anwar
Jess Beaulieu
Two Weird Ladies
Ben Beauchemin
Josh Infald
Pink Slip
Christi Olson
Jamie O’Connor
Lwam Ghebrehariat
Lance Byrd
Joshua Elijah
Vincenzo Giovannini
Robert Keller
Rulers of The Universe
Cash Grab
Troy Stark
Natalie Norman
Michael Jagdeo
Brie Watson

 

They idea here is that we’re competing to continue onto the next round of performances entitled: “Cream of Comedy” and the winner of CoC is awarded the prestigious Tim Sims Encouragement Fund – a scholarship to the Second City Training Centre – and a whole bunch of other awesome goodies too.

For more information about the Fresh Meat show ticket-purchasing process, go here – and for more details about the Tim Sims Encouragement Fund, click here.  Go forth and exchange knowledge of this event, because it’s gonna be a good one.

 

There it is folks; shaking the President’s hand as I walk off with a brand-spankin’ new college diploma. The end of an era; an era filled with ups, downs, highs, lows, rape jokes and more uses of the c-word than I’d ever thought possible.  Yesterday, at the Toronto Congress Centre, along with a handful of my fellow colleagues, my parents & my man in attendance, I completed the final element of the Humber CollegeComedy: Writing & Performanceprogram.  And no.  That does not mean you get to stop reading my blog now.  Because as the title suggests, the end of my time at Humber is, just that; an end. An end to the daily classroom routine, an end to 9am stand-up & improv comedy classes, but I think most notably an end to one hell of a LOT of stressful social scenarios.

Phew.  Breath it in, readers.  Closure.

That being said, it also marks the beginning.  The beginning of a life devoted to humour.  From here on in, the performance and the quality of my work is in my hands alone and will not be judged or criticized by the same group of 11 others day in, day out.  (Until/if I get a job in a writer’s room.)  It’s the beginning of new sketch troupe potentials (Cumin Rice Violation, anyone?), the beginning of spec script writing, story writing in general, play writing, book writing, writing writing, the beginning of job hunting for something in the biz, as lame as the job may be.  The beginning of a life in which I received a hug from Andrew Clark. (Victory!) Also, very excitingly (ALMOST as exciting as the hug,) it’s the beginning of my improv training at The Second City.

I had my first class today with instructor Brian G. Smith who, I’m told, is an excellent teacher.  (So far, this stands true. :P) My classmates come from all sorts of different walks of life; journalists, mothers, actors, tradespeople & they all seem super nice/fun/cool.  Many of them took Level B together last term, so they’re all very tight & familiar with one another, but they’re quite warm and welcoming, so you don’t get that sense of high school cliquerie.

It’s also the beginning of my life with an air conditioner. (Better grad gift than a frame, I’ll be the first to admit.)

Beginnings.  Lots of them.

I intend to take on these new beginnings with poise, dignity and of course, humility.  Oh hey?  Did I mention I got top of my class at Humber?  Yup.  Honours Award for Academic Excellence.  No big deal.  What?

I’m actually really super excited about this. #nerd4life

Maybe I didn’t get to perform stand-up in the Industry Show this year – but tonight, I did get to perform on the Main Stage at Second City along with some amazing local comics.  Check out this line-up:

  • Blair Streeter!
  • Chris Roberts!
  • Mark DeBonis!
  • Erik Bamberg!
  • K. Trevor Wilson!
  • Hosted by Jim Kim!

 

Sometimes things have a way of working themselves out.

 

 

 

 

Thanks Chemika for the sweet pic!

I just (/finally) signed up for Improv classes at The Second City.

This would be cause for celebration… except I’m broke.

It’s OK though.  I can survive on laughter.  Right?  Right?!?!?!  PLEASE TELL ME I’M RIGHT!!!!!!

The roller coaster ride of the Humber Industry Show ended at the Dog’s Bollocks in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

We spent all day on Monday at the Second City, so for me, it felt like work, which is a good thing, even though I wasn’t getting paid.  It’s just that, I work there… you see.  So, it was nice to be able to consider the performance element of my time at the Second City as work and not have to rearrange chairs and clean up after people afterwards.

I haven’t written much about the process of preparing for the Industry Show, other than a few snippets here and there, but now that it’s over, and I’m no longer writing and re-writing Greece or Ma & Pa Brothel, I have time to reflect.

Reflect upon  how unfair the process was to many of us and how were were told to suck it up because hey, that’s showbiz.  And on my end, it sucks, because who’s going to recognize the girl who wrote the piece but only had one line and spent the rest of the time in the chorus?

Two events took place at the Dog’s Bollocks that metaphorically represent my feelings about the show and its process:

  • Dave Foley bought me beer and;
  • I got a parking ticket.

(OK, he bought beer for the whole table, but that lessens the metaphor, so stay with me here.)

This business, this school has been a series of ups and downs, wins and losses and, I guess all I can do is wish myself and my classmates the best of luck at braving the storm.

(Photo credit: Becky Moore)

(Photo credit: Becky Moore)

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?

Why not start this evening’s writing process with a little procrastination?  I need to re-write one of my sketches from the end-of-year sketch show (which was a LOT of fun, but I don’t think I got to write about it too much, other than about Steve’s injuries) AND begin writing a new sketch to be table-read either tomorrow or in the next few days because, well…today, we began the second day of a two-week process leading up to the anticipated/prestigious Industry Show.

(I made it in!!! OMG OMG OMG!  YAY! I’m so happy!!! And honoured!!! AND STOKED!)

The Industry Show will be taking place Monday May 7th at the Second City Main Stage, (where I have been working for the past 3 weeks) and will have an audience of many  industry-types checking it out.  Some previous Humber grads have gone on to be signed by agents as a result of performing in the show and though I may not be that optimistic/delusional, I see it as being an excellent opportunity (one of hopefully many to come) to be seen, in action, by some key players in the industry.

We’ve been issued a schedule of “10am – ?” for the duration of time leading up to the final rehearsals the weekend before the 7th, which makes having a job pretty difficult – actually, it makes me feel real guilty about having to ask for time off work.   I haven’t seen the people at the Career Centre in what feels like ages and I only started at the Second City not too long ago, so I feel like a real dink asking for this much time off.

Anyway, the atmosphere in the room is really interesting.  We’ve got a bunch of tables forming a square and all 26 of us sitting around the tables, pitching sketches, contributing ideas and being relentlessly mocked by Lorne Frohman, the showrunner who, by the way, keeps telling me I’m loud.  If he thinks that’s loud, he should meet my grandmother on cleaning day.  It’s really interesting because throughout the program I’ve been commenting on how great it would be to get to work with other people from other sections who I didn’t have the chance to work with yet, and now here we are, all collaborating in one room.  It’s a pretty neat environment.

Well, I’ve gone on long enough about this.  Time to get back to work.  No.  Time to eat lasagna, then get back to work.

It’s been another one of those crazy-busy weeks where I haven’t had time to post too often, but last night – Friday – I was at Comedy Bar, where I’d been invited to read a monologue as “Thinking Woman” The Panel Show, a monthly show put on by (a bunch) of the guys from the awesome sketch troupe Shoeless.  (Seriously – any chance to see one of this troupe’s shows – leap!) – followed by a delicious tasty gelato with my best pal from the olden days Dina & her sister Jess.

Another big deal of the week was that I was hired to start working at The Second City as a host – which is a totally huge deal.  I know in the past I’ve been like – meehhh, I don’t know if I want a job in the evenings because it’ll interrupt with my abilities to go out and do comedy.  Yeah, ok BUT… working in a comedy club – not just any comedy club, the fucking Second City, seems like a pretty smart move, I’d say.  So many big comics got their start at the Second City.  And, I heard through the grapevine that if you work at SC, you can get discounts on improv classes, which is great, because I was planning on taking the A-E levels after completing my program at Humber.  Anyhoo – I start on Monday and am totally and completely stoked.

I also interviewed for and was asked to help out as an intern on a new show soon to be shot for the Oprah Winfrey Network.  I don’t know that I’m allowed to talk about what it is or whatever, but they were looking for interns and a pal and I from Humber went on down to the Corus Entertainment building down by the lake on Tuesday morning and got ourselves some good old-fashioned unpaid internships!

In addition to that, we met with and pitched sketches to our director, Gary Pearson, for our end of year Sketch show, taking place at the Comedy Bar mid-April.  I’m happy to say two of my sketches were selected to be put into the show – so hooray for that.  Consequently, Gary is the first person to make a comment about the high-concentration of sex-themed pieces the people in my class write.  No big surprise there.  But he’s the only person in this two year program to say: “Uh, enough.  Talk about something else!!”   There go my next three sketch pitches.

Tuesday was Round One of 2nd years’ Stand-Up Showcase at Yuk Yuk’s and HOLY COW was it a great show!  Solid 4-minute sets put on by half the people in my year, in front of alumni, other comics and a few big wigs.  It was great to see some people who don’t go out too often – sometimes they really surprise you.  You think, jeez!  Where have you been all this time?  Why haven’t you been doing this more?  My hope is that Round Two goes just as well, if not BETTER… because that’s the show I’ll be on, and it’s happening on my Birthday, so if it doesn’t go well, somebody’s going to be drinking away her sorrows instead of celebrating that night.

Why you scared?

Also – and nothing really do to with comedy school, Wednesday was “jab Brie in the arm day” at the doctor’s office.  Apparently my veins are difficult to find when I’m dehydrated due to mandatory fasting.  This was the result.  Bask in my pain.

Back to Comedy -> Saturday was the culmination of a project some of my school colleagues have been working on for the past little while.  They were to transform their 10-minute plays into radio plays with help from a pro from the CBC.  After much learning, editing, re-writing and other stuff, they finally recorded the pieces yesterday at Humber’s sound booth.  I still got to play one of the dogs in Ashley’s Dog Wedding: Rated Radio so what better way to spend a Saturday than trapped in a soundproof extremely warm booth?  No, but seriously, it was a lot of fun, even though my 10-minute play didn’t get picked to go on the radio.  Totally not bitter about that.  It’s really not a big deal.  Nope.  Not even a little bit. It’s cool.  I’m cool.  Everything’s good.

So as not to end on a (totally not) bitter note, last night I had somewhat of a high school reunion.  It’s fun to just hang out with people you’ve known from a simpler time – good ol’ Welland high school/cadet friend days.  Except…instead of MT Bellies, now we meet at Okrutny’s upscale downtown condo on Queens Quay and eat baked Brie.  Consequently, that is also my DJ name.

Cheers all!  Bring on next week!