Tag: Toronto comedy

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)

It’s cut.  It’s re-cast.  Re-write this.  Re-write it, but make it like it was before you re-wrote it.  This is where we’re at in Industry Show preparations.  It’s terrible and wonderful all at the same time.  And I wouldn’t give it up for anything.

Well…. maybe money.  Lots and lots of money.

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!

 

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.

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 time to light the lights.

It’s time for #cliché – Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire: A Humber Comedy 2nd Year Section 02 End-of-Year Sketch Show.

We performed the first of our two-night run and, it what seemed like the blink of an eye, it came and went.  An incredibly fun blink of an eye, but it seemed like it went by real fast, is what I’m getting at.

The highlight of the evening was probably the fact that le petit Steve Gignac was actually punched in the face on stage, by accident, by Robit Kyle Woolven.  As they say in show biz, “it’s all fun and games until Steve’s nose is bleeding in the green room.”

Steve is Beavis in this situation.

We perform again tomorrow night at 7pm & you should be there.  Because our show’s hilarious.  Like, really really great.  And if you don’t like it, we’ll sick Kyle on you.

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. 😦

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!