Tag: Toronto

You think it’s over.  You tell the cashier at Shopper’s Drug Mart that this is it.  The last item on your Christmas shopping list.  You go home to celebrate.  You begin wrapping everything up and realize…

Nope.

I still need to get a basket to put all this person’s stuff in, because it’d be weird if they opened them up individually.  Individually, it’s a weird gift, but in a basket, it makes sense.

This person’s basket looks to empty, I should go buy more chocolate to fill it up, or something like that.  Maybe a candle?

This person didn’t get as much stuff as this person.  They’re going to think I like this person more than them.  I’d better go buy them something else so they don’t get that impression.

I hope I don’t see this person until this time, because I won’t have a gift ready for them in time.

Oh shoot, I keep forgetting to send those Christmas cards I’d written at least a week ago.  There’s no way they’ll get them on time for Christmas now.  Should I even bother sending them?

It.  Never. Ends.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve everybody!  I need to go find more baskets.

Christmas shopping in Toronto is Satan’s nephew.

Why are the stores in the Eaton Centre so small?  That mall is gigantic!  You could maybe expand the space for the good gift-buying stores, and leave out the waste-of-space stores (ALDO Accessories?  Just sell that shit at ALDO, wtf!  The money’s going to the same place at the end of the day anyway!) AND, those stores that do have a shitload of space normally, just cram the aisles filled with pre-fashioned-together box sets of crap in bulk.  (I’m looking at you, Body Shop.)

How pathetic is HMV looking these days?  I know you have eight million copies of Nickelback’s new album, but would it kill you to have the one album I’m looking for in stock?  Seriously?  I’m glad you’re going bankrupt, HMV. Those “Best Deals of the Year” fluorescent signs all over the place isn’t hiding that from my sight.

Dumb HMV Lady:  “Oh, I’m sorry… We’re all out of that particular product.  We’re getting a huge new shipment next week though.”

Me: “Next week.  You see how that isn’t particularly helpful for me, don’t you?”

Dumb HMV Lady: “Oh… is it a Christmas gift?”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

And shame on you, Sherway Gardens.  Shame on you for SUCKING so hard.  Not a single toy for kids under the age of 3 at the Sears there.  That’s ageist.

There are stanchions in every store in Toronto.

Every. Store.

Stanchions.

That’s how many people go into EVERY STORE in Toronto.  They need crowd control devices EVERYWHERE.  In Hallmark.  For crying out loud.  I love Hallmark, but normally only old ladies shop there.

The idea of the personal bubble evaporates during the Christmas-shopping season in the big city.  I’ve never accidentally bumped into so many people, or had to shout out EXCUSE ME so loud, or been hit by so many shopping bags in my life!  It doesn’t help everyone’s wearing their bulky winter jackets (even though it hasn’t properly begun to snow here yet, so really there isn’t the need for them quite yet)…

And after a days’ shopping.  You can count on the TTC for a most pleasant trip back home.

Pfft.

Well, my gig as one of the “Humber Interns” at the 2011 Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival is over, and what a ride it has been!

If my calculations are correct, I performed in 1 show with my sketch troupe, LaughDraft; I saw 12 shows, during which I was able to check out 23 sketch troupes; and I attended 3 workshops – 2 free and 1 that was supposed to be paid, but because of my “intern” status, I was able to check out for free. (Thank you to whoever made that possible, by the way – it was great to meet/work with other amazingly talented people from various other sketch and improv troupes.)

It helped that I was working on the Troupe and Video of the Day posts leading up to the festival, because I was able to get to know some of the troupes before I saw them perform.

Working with the producers with the fest, the other staff members and alongside the many volunteers has been such a fun experience.  I met and worked with so many great people.  What a treat!

Also, I’m not surprised but very happy for my buddies Vest of Friends, as well as for Falcon Powder and Peter n’ Chris for the awards they picked up.  All extremely well merited, if you ask me.  They all really did stand out this year!

I’d give honourable mention to CBC’s This is That & Two Kids One Hall for really knocking my socks off.  These two shows, part of the headliner series, even though I had to watch them on the sidelines, were so great, they were inspirational!  Scott & Kevin from the Kids in the Hall are icons in Canadian comedy.  To see them continue to work their stuff and that it’s funnier than ever says great things about comedy in Canada, I think.  That it exists?  That it’s here to stay?  Whether you like it or not.  (I don’t know?)

And This is That, I’d never heard the broadcast before, but the mere concept, to me, was hilarious.  And believe me, I will be listening from now on.  They were fantastic!  A CBC faux-broadcast taken completely seriously in all of deadpan’s splendor!   I’m still in stitches!

****

Other moments or troupes that seem to stand out during the fest to me were:

Charles were so funny, so witty, so smart!  The reference-levels and knowledge they possess is quite impressive.  And that they demonstrated this knowledge in their sketches is something to aspire to.  I’ve made a note of that for my own future-sketch writing.

Fratwurst‘s sketches were super clever, but their Barbershop Quartet song really set them apart! (And the post-balloon make-out sess.  Way hot!)

Ninja Sex Party‘s video about the couple hooking up at a party.  Holy crap that was funny! And unexpected!  Bam!

Inside Joke Film‘s energy was out of this world! Seriously, they must be some kind of crazy-energy-robots.

Punch in the Box took physical comedy to a whole new level performing an entire scene topless, using their hands to cover their boobs.  Grown women, people.  This was hilarious!  (Don’t worry Mom, I don’t intend to try this out in any of my sketches any time soon.)

The Queer Comedy Collective’s “Dyke Moments in History” about the Invention of the Purse was ridiculously funny!

She Said What’s Napoleon sketch was probably the funniest sketch in the entire festival.  There, I said it.

Shoeless‘s banana bandana and celery cap have still got me laughing spontaneously on the bus, making other TTC riders uncomfortable.  And their Twilight scene?  Oh man.  Too much!!!

The National Theatre of the World, their professionalism and their chemistry was truly phenomenal.  I want to see EVERY show they do from now until the end of time.

****

That wasn’t it though.  So many sketch troupes.  So much hilarity.  This list could go on for days!

What I’m getting at, I think, is that it was such a great experience to be a part of this festival, both in the role of intern and performer.

The only thing left to say, I think, Thank you Julianne & Paul (and Andrew).  And bring on TOsketchfest 2012!

I am currently overwhelmed by the amount of talented performances I had the honour of witnessing this evening. (Which is great, because I was having relatively poopy day in class prior to the evening’s festivities.)

I saw sketch troupes that made me want to work so much harder and get so much better at performing as part of a sketch troupe!

Here’s a silly piece I’m working on in stand-up.  (It’s not really stand-up comedy — it’s an exercise in writing for radio.)  Probably one of the most bizarre parodies I’ve written.  It’s short because it’s supposed to fit into a 30 second time-slot.

Borkin – Cash For Bunnies

Daughter:        Mom, what’s wrong?

Mom:       I just have all this silly gold lying around and I don’t know what to do with it!

Daughter:      Duh Mom!  Just take it to Borkin!

Mom:                  Who?

Daughter:      Jeez Mom, don’t you watch the TV?  Borkin!  He’ll give you the most bunnies for your old gold, jewelry, diamonds, and used sports equipment!

Mom:      What about my collection of novelty Clark Gable busts?

Daughter:      Borkin will sell those on consignment for even more bunnies!

Mom:      What’s consignment? Oh well, I love bunnies!

Daughter:      I told you Borkin’s the best!

VO:      Located in the back alley behind your nephew’s drug dealer’s parking garage.

OH… for those of you who live outside the GTA… it’s a parody of this terrible commercial:  Oren

 

 

 

Great news!  I get to do more than perform for the Toronto Sketch Comedy Fest, I’m also now officially one of their 3 Humber student-interns.  I’ll be working on some social media updates, some organizing, some helping out here and there, and other exciting interny things!

Like the Comedy Awards, I’m glad Humber sets us up with these neat ways to meet & work with the big shots and little shots in the community! 😀

Check back often to see how this new adventure turns out!

Yay!

"Don't point that gun at him. He's an unpaid intern."

I’m excited about all this stuff happening for LaughDraft and I’m simultaneously frustrated.

There’s lots to be excited about.  For one, there’s the upcoming Halloween show at Comedy Bar:

 

This is exciting because:

  • Its’ the first time we perform at Comedy Bar;
  • It’s the first time Humber contributes to our troupe (Free Food, anybody?);
  • We’re performing ALL NEW sketches;
  • It’s Halloween!
  • One of my sketches got in;
  • We might make some money if enough people come, which will help us with future projects, etc.

We were also selected as the one troupe from Humber to be submitted into the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival (which my class friends and colleagues are quick to point out is only due to the fact that we are currently the only performing-sketch troupe in the program so far this year.  To which I say: Default performance in SketchFest is better than no performance at all.)

Why this is exiting:

  • Two of the Kids in the Hall are performing in this festival. OMG!;
  • Other AMAZING sketch troupes are performing in this festival;
  • Our program coordinator at Humber, Andrew Clark, likes us enough to recommend us to the organizers;
  • We get to showcase 15 minutes of our best material to date (none of which was written by me… sigh.);
  • We get unlimited access to see all the shows in the festival;
  • Vest of Friends got to do it last year, and this year they might make it to Just For Laughs… just saying…;
  • Etc.

For everything there is to be excited about, it’s difficult because there are always some people ready to downplay the achievement, however meager it may be in our just-beginning careers and for what purpose?  I simply do not understand.  Are they still in that “it’s cool to be apathetic” stage?  Do they simply not want to be a part of this but feel obligated to stay on?  But again, for what reason?  I just don’t get it.

I wonder if it’s to do with the fact that I’m older.  Or  that apathy has naver been in my nature. I crave DOING.  I crave things to give a shit about!  Maybe it’s relative to what you put in.  I put a lot into LaughDraft, creatively and professionally.  I do a lot of the organizational aspects of it, I try to keep our meetings on track.  I often meet with Andrew to discuss Humber’s involvement and have done since the very beginning.  Because of that, I expect the same enthusiasm from all the others.  Here’s the problem.  It’s not them. It’s me.  Maybe I just have unrealistically high expectations. When something excites me, I expect it to excite the others in the group.  And it does some.  And others not.

And who cares, at the end of the day?  It’s no big deal.  But I do.  That’s the problem.

Some things just can’t be the same the second time around, but, you make of them what you can.  This was my second year volunteering at the Canadian Comedy Awards.  This was its 12th year and was originally supposed to be held in Ottawa. I have no idea why they decided to bring it back to Toronto, but hey, who’s complaining?

I volunteered by checking in award nominees when they arrived to the Delta Chelsea hotel in Toronto.  I got to meet a lot of fun performers just sitting at a table, handing out sweet swag bags.

By chance, a man I had met last year, who organizes the Stand-Up gala portion of the Awards weekend recognized me and asked me to help out at the gala.  I turned him down, obviously.  What?  No.  Of course not, I went and met Shaun Majumder, who was hosting (and was a super nice guy!) and some of the other featured performers for the evening.

By virtue of my selfless acts of volunteering, I was allowed to attend two nights of after-parties, which were both very fun.

Was it because the Kids in the Hall were there last year?  Some of my heroes?  That I actually got to see the Awards show?  That it was my first time surrounded by such talent because I hadn’t been up that often performing yet?  Was it the booze?  I don’t know, last year’s party just seemed a bit crazier, a bit more exciting.

But it was still a great time and I’m excited to even have been allowed into an “industry-only” event.  I’d encourage any of the Humber students to volunteer, except, then I might not have got my spot and would have had to fight more people off to get into the after-party.  So.  Yeah, stay at home and watch TV, kids!

I need to go to bed now.

It has been a busy week.  Most of the week was spent rehearsing and memorizing lines, leading up to LaughDraft‘s first live performance since our Launch Show back in June.  All this, while trying to keep up with school work!  You’ll be pleased to know that the show went very well!

The next day, I’d been offered a chance to check out a taping of the Ron James Show at the CBC building by my Sketch and Improv teacher, Robin Duke.  I figured, though he’s not necessarily a comedian targeting my demographic, what the hell!  Why not?  It’ll be cool to see a live taping of a comedy TV show and I’ve never been to the studios at CBC, so shooo, let’s go for it.

As such, this blog entry will analyse certain of the differences between these two shows; the LaughDraft SEASON OPENER and the taping of two of the episodes in Ron James’ 3rd season with his own show on the CBC.

Ready?

OK.

The Venue

Have you ever been to the CBC building?  That place is COOL!  We were up on the 10th floor in a studio not unlike those I visited during my tour of NBC Studios in New York.  The sound was crisp, the equipment was pro.  The set was very cool.  The air flow was very comfortable.  The seats were nice.  They had to bring more in to accommodate everyone who had come to the show that evening.

The Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts & Culture’s performance space is in a basement.  The sound was muffled by a perpetual talk-radio background for some unknown reason, the mics, not strong enough.  Some of the actors could not be heard at the back of the room.  The equipment had just been installed that day.  The lights, put up by our “crew” aka Joey, who had the day off.  The air flow was, wait… what air flow?  It was hot and humid as sweaty balls in there.  The seats were from IKEA.  If anyone else had come, they would have had to stand.  The pipes were dripping on spectators and performers alike.

Advantage Ron James.

The Crowds

Upon arriving to the CBC building, there were many security guards who directed us to where we needed to go to pick up our tickets.  Then we stood in a massive line in the CBC building’s main atrium? (Is it an atrium?) and waited for ushers (not-uniformed, I should specify) to bring us up the fancy scenic elevator, down the hall and to the left and finally to our seats in the studio.  The joint was packed.  Average age was probably 50ish.  Get ready for jokes about people who don’t know how to  use Twitter everybody!!  Consistent laughter, even when RJ had to repeat the joke over and over again to get it right for TV.  Which is weird.  Imagine going to a stand-up show and hearing the comic tell the joke, and then come back at the end of the set and say: “OK, apparently I messed this one up or you guys didn’t laugh hard enough, so here we go again!”  Stand-up would be an easier business if that were the case, methinks.

People drizzled into our show.  There was no gigantic line-up.  The outside was poorly lit, so I’m surprised people were able to find us in the first place (Thank you Paige and Ron for drawing the crowds in!) They’re just as good as ushers, and better looking at that!  AND, they actually looked happy to be here! BUT people could go right in when they arrived.  None of this standing around and herding people like sheep business.  No, not for us.  Although there was a bit of a cram as many of them in as possible like those evil chicken farms where they all poop on one another and get sick and stuff. Our venue had a nice amount of people in it, not completely packed, but just about.  Average age, probably 22?  (A much younger crowd than our Launch Show, which was interesting – Thank you first years!) Good laughter!  Absolutely no chance for telling the same joke over again.  If we fucked up or missed a line, we just kept going because we don’t have the luxury of an editing room.  This is LIVE people! People actually got excited for our stuff though, it didn’t seem so generic, laugh here, clap here. I think there was a bit more surprise to our show.  Not that stand-up monologues and sketches really compare in the kinds of laughter you get out of them, but still, ours felt good.

The Show

It was really cool to see a live taping of a television show and it was super cool that Ron James made a plea to get people to go check out live comedy.  I guess he feels like he owes it to his brethren.  He knows what it’s like to be working the circuit.  He’s made it, it’s easy for him now.  He has a team of writers, make-up, wardrobe, professional everything, GOVERNMENT FUNDING!

US?  We had fun.  We have the satisfaction of having put something together, worked our butts off at it, and performed.  No network censors.  No elaborate spending.  Just pure, raw comedy!!!  We’re just getting started.  We’re at the opposite end of the career-spectrum as RJ, and it’s an exciting place to be.

Advantage LaughDraft.