Tag: Toronto

 

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

If I don’t get a job and start paying off my loans, I’m going to have to move back to Welland.  I can’t do that.  I love Toronto and I want to do comedy.  I can’t fulfill my dreams in Welland.

With that in mind, I started applying for jobs to keep me alive financially while I wait for my proverbial “big break.”  So yesterday, I had an interview with a post-production company, to be an office administrator, where the interviewers gave me some straight-shooting advice that, though financially a bit worrying, was the most honest commentary I ever received in an interview setting, EVER.  They basically told me that Arts, Entertainment, Media; they’re “pay-your-dues” industries.  And if you’re going to start at the bottom (ie. Office Administration,) you might as well do it somewhere you’d eventually like to end up.  (ie.  Not at a post-production company, as I do  not want to be an editor – ) but rather, a production company for TV, film or otherwise, a Literary Agency, etc.  And because turnover is high among the lower echelons, odds are there’s something available.  All I have to do is find it.

Easy.  Right?

Also, the interviewers said “fuck” a bunch of times.  In no government interview I’ve ever had, has someone ever said “fuck.” It was fucking fantastic.

What a weird and wonderful series of days I’ve just had/coming up.

This past weekend, I had my first ever audition for an acting part.  I don’t think I did very well, given I messed up the simple lines I’d been assigned to read due to extreme nervousness even though I was only mildly interested in playing the part of “Friend/Family Member.”  I was in and out in less than five minutes and I met some interesting nice and some pretentious people along the way.  (For the record, if you introduce yourself to me by telling me you went to a “Triple Threat Academy” I will, without a doubt, hate you forever.)

Well, at least I got my first audition out of the way!

I’m sure you’re sitting on the edge of your seat right now just dying to know how the debut performance of Getting Even with Chesapeake turned out, so I won’t keep you in a state of suspense.

Or will I?

HAHAHAHAHAHA Blah blah blooooooooo lalahfjdhfkdakda.

No, I won’t.  It went fine.  We didn’t move on in the competition, but it was fun to be performing sketch comedy again in a non-academically-obligatory kinda way.  It was also great to perform in an non-entirely Humber-based audience.  Helps to shed some objectivity on life in general, as a whole.

Buuuut that being said… congrats to troupes Sketch & The City, Jape and Parker & Seville for moving on to the next round of the contest!

I’m going to go back to Sketch Com-ageddon tonight to catch more of the action because I loooooove sketch comedy! (And because performers get a 4-free show pass.)

Good luck to all you bloodthirsty troupes!

…or a mud hut, for that matter.  This was certainly well proven tonight in the National Theatre of the World‘s May 30th edition ofThe Script Tease Project, which I thought was brilliant!  Now, I’m pretty stupid, because I’ve only seen NTOW twice since moving to Toronto (if you don’t count the multiple times I’ve seen them on various TV commercials & in a bunch of the photos lining the walls at The Second City.)  I saw them do Carnegie Hallin the first few months after I’d started at Humber and it completely changed my understanding of what improv could be.  They are the outstandingly talented improvisers and ever since I first saw them, I have had the strongest desire to learn to emulate their skill and technique.

I also saw Naomi Snieckus and Matt Baram perform together in November’s Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival – which, if you’d like to take a step back in time, you can read about HERE.

BUT ON TO THE MATTER AT HAND!  It was my first time seeing them perform @The_NTOW’s #ScriptTease format.  If you haven’t heard anything about it, well… who better to explain it than the cast itself:

The Script Tease Project ’12 – YouTube

Tonight, the playwright responsible for penning the first few pages was Anusree Roy, award-winning playwright and performer.  And, well, since Glenn Sumi moderated the Talk Back after #ScriptTease tonight, I’m just going to direct you to his feature in NOW all about Anusree so you can find out more:

OK – so you know how the show works and you who the playwright is – good?  Good.

Anusree Roy’s play:  Starving

The play was set in a mud hut in Calcutta. Naomi is Babui, wife of Gokul (Matt), but she is pregnant with the child of Gokul’s brother, Komol (Ron.)  To feed his starving wife, child and himself, Komol has killed a cow and it is lying outside in the village square.  But they are Hindu and cows are sacred.  The stakes are high and…

You know what, if you want the play-by-play of the play, you really should read what the live Tweeters were getting up to during the show ->  Here check out the feed, it’s hilarious: @The_NTOW

What I will do is tell you about how amazing an experience to watch these guys and lady live.  The moment the scripts are put down and the lights come back up, you’re truly taken into their universe.  Even though there’s not but a rug, a stool and a tiny bag on stage, you’re right there in that hut – and those seemingly meaningless objects become the funniest rug, stool and bag you’ve ever seen in your life.  They seamlessly flow in and out from dramatic and deeply emotional moments into the silliest nonsense:

  • “Please! Let me have a fun fun barbeque!”    (This is Calcutta, remember – after two years of drought!)
  • “There is no fish curry.  Eat the rug.”

No!  There are too many of these…  Just read the Twitter feed!!!! DO IT!!! Read it!!!  Or better yet, go see one of their shows.   This run goes until June 3rd, so you still have plenty of time.

THEN you’ll see how amazing they are at character work – I imagine South Asian accents are probably pretty tough to pull off – but then again, I’m still new to Toronto.

THEN you’ll see what good chemistry looks like.

THEN you’ll see what truly great improv is.

“It’s Jazz.”

Seriously.  Go see this show.  Call 416-504-7529 for tickets, or get them by e-mail at info [at] passemuraille.on.ca.  (Comedy nerds might be happy to know that Scott Thompson’s Script Tease play will be performed on Saturday, June 2nd @ 8pm.)

I’d been meaning to go for a long time, but I finally got around to attending Toronto’s Indie Comedy Hour, a fun monthly half-booked, half-lottery open mic on College Street hosted by two awesome babes; Catherine McCormick and Arleigh Curran.  Annnnnd it pretty much restored my faith in humanity.

I had a great set, the crowd was amazing, the other comics were fantastic – a lot of whom I’d never seen before, which was also refreshing.  If you’re a comic in TO and you haven’t tried this room out, you’re just wrong.   And if you’re not a comic, and you need something to do on a Wednesday night once a month, you should definitely check this show out because I guarantee you will laugh.

I was asked to come back next month and perform on the booked portion of the show, which was amazing and I’m honoured.  Yeehaw!  Bring on Spring and Summer nights of comedy around TO.  It’s gonna a good Summer.

I’m being temporarily optimistic!

But speaking of the summer – I would like to organize a small road trip to Montreal to finally attend the Just For Laughs festival.  I’ve never been before and though I don’t have the money to afford it at this point, hopefully by July I’ll have made enough to sustain me in Montreal for at least 2 or 3 days of the festival.

Also, preliminary plans are in the works for a Fall tour with some fellow comics.  Stay tuned because that might be really awesome!

In the meantime, you can catch me tomorrow night, I’ll be performing at the Theatre Elusive with my pals The Young Geologists.  For more information, check out the Performances section of this blog!  Doooooooo it!

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)

Just when I thought the universe was giving me a little break, I complained about it and somehow the universe found a way to take a shit in my mouth.

What a nice treat it was to find out just before the Holidays from the City of Toronto that my rent was going down!  Not a huge decrease, something like $8 and some cents.

Instead of being happy about it, I complained about how much more difficult it will be to write all those extra numbers on a check instead of the nice rounded amount I paid initially.

“It’s just easier to write BLAH-hundred”   But here I was writing “Blah-blah-blah hundred and blabitty blah cents.”

As the fates would have it, (or more like the capitalist pigs who own this property would have it,) they’ve jacked rent up an extra $20 and some.  So now, not only do I have to write out an un-rounded amount every month, but it’s also a fair chunk more expensive than it was in the first place!

That’ll teach me to complain.

With the launch of Facebook’s new Timeline and, as time, in the real, non-social-networky world goes on, I’m beginning to realize I have a bit of an obsession with time.  Let’s add the word “time” in here one more time for good measure.  Time.

I'm making it easier and easier for you to find out everything you need to know about your next victim.

I’ve never been the greatest at managing time.  I used to sign up for many extra-curricular activities, (dance, piano lessons, army cadets, sports, improv, taxidermy, etc.)  I was out so often that some of my fondest memories are of my parents and eventually my siblings rushing me from one place to the next.  It was a regular occurrence for the driver to brake especially hard at red lights and stop signs when I was trying to put on my cadet dress uniform over top of my ballet tights in the back of the moving car.

In university, I became a bit better at managing assignments, but not until third year.  I’d had enough of all-nighters because I worked.  I needed to be (somewhat) conscious to up-sell popcorn to miserable suckers.   I began to recognize patterns in the professors’ assignment-schedules, knowing I would be given a certain amount of time to write a certain amount of essays that were all going to be due within the same week so, I’d begin writing them well in advance. By fourth (and fifth) year, I had pretty much managed it.  And if I still couldn’t finish on time, there was always bribery. Sexy, sexy bribery.

I finished school and moved to France and there, time sped up.  It started to feel as though it was going so fast I was spinning. (Note:  it might have been all that wine.)

When I came back state-side, (province-side?) I was obsessed with seeing people; staying in touch with friends I’d made in France and re-connecting with school and work friends – booking and often over-booking myself,   throwing parties at which I would try to combine all of my social circles at once in an attempt to save time and thus, kill several birds with one party-stone.

Who spiked the punch?

It is impossible to combine everything in one.  Comedy in Toronto is helping me to realize this. On any particular night, there are at least a dozen performances I can attend, either as a performer, or (more commonly) a spectator.  I can’t see them all.  I can’t do it all.  And  there are parties.  And there are other meet-ups.  And there are joke-jams.

Then, there are nights in.

Nights. In.

Sometimes they’re the simplest and the most meaningful.