Friday, February 27, 2009

Return to the Horse

I've decided that the Yukon is very much like the island from Lost.
I'll take a chance at frustrating people, cause I'm not going to bother to go into details, cause I think more people should watch the show. Suffice to say, there will always be a pull to go back North.
I've tried to explain to people what makes the Yukon so interesting. It really is one of those places that you need to see for yourself, to fully understand. Like Vegas - I don't care what kind of Earth Mother friendly kind of person you are, forgo thoughts of your carbon footprint, and land them feet in Las Vegas at least once. It will be impossible to regret.
See Vegas and Whitehorse, there are comparisons. Plus I've heard a lot of stories of the mob having ties to Watson Lake and a certain hunting lodge outside of Haines Junction. Not so far-fetched of a comparison perhaps.
And heed the call back North I certainly did, for Rendezvous no less.
Coasters were putting together a big re-launch of the Comedy Nights, followed by three nights of Sweet Soul Burlesque, returning for the third time to Whitehorse. All during Rendezvous.
Indeed, there was no way I was not going to be a part of that.
I flew up on a Monday, and by Tuesday, the roller coaster had started. First, Erica and I spent a great evening hanging out with Howie Miller, the comic hired by Coasters to headline the re-launch. That was the first of some very long nights.
The comedy night re-launch went over extremely well, having an entirely new audience. Chris McNutt, Al MacLoed and Tristan Hopper each had great sets, and I worked my pasty white arse off to bring a great night, culminating in a marathon of laughs from Howie.
We ended up leaving him in the room across from his, at around three in the morning, watching a long-time Rendezvous volunteer hump a rubber chicken.
Then I get a call around nine am, from Mr. Miller, asking me to come hang out in his room. Figuring five hours of sleep was enough for me, I headed over and we watched Star Trek (the original, natch) some of the Obama visit, and what I was sure was stoned people doing the Global Edmonton news.
Howie and I will meet again soon enough, he wants me to open for him when he's in Saskatoon in a couple of weeks. I'm very much looking forward to the opportunity.
The next three nights, I was a happy little worker, all for the Sweet Soul Burlesque crew. These are some fine performers, and really really genuine people. The shows were pretty epic, including performances from the MacLean sisters (a band), some dancers from the latest Varietease show and of course the evening wouldn't be complete without the Sourdough Rendezvous Can-can dancers.
This was a three-hour burlesque extravaganza. And a very classic one at that.
It was a celebration of female sexuality, but also a carnival of cheap lewdness and debauchery.
Not a lot of people can handle a real burlesque show, and what that truly entails. This was readily apparent from the person that came up to me after the show on Saturday, to tell me about how she was offended by things I said on the Thursday night. I was a little taken aback, as everything I had said, while certainly being lewd, was all a part of the show. These were lines I had rehearsed with, during the Varietease act, in which I say these lewd comments, then get summarily punished for it by the Varietease dancers. It was a pretty simple set-up, with a righteous kind of pay-off.
The funny thing was, the exact same act had been performed before at the Guild Hall, which the complainant had seen. If she wasn't offended then, why did she feel the need to say something now? Is it because it was a friend of hers saying the "offensive" comments during the Guild Shows, and now it was me?
Compounding the ridiculousness, she then told me that she would never be attending another performance of mine. This was quite funny to me, as she has never been to any of the comedy shows before this, and she very well knew that I didn't live in Whitehorse anymore.
An audience I never had, is certainly one I'll never miss.
I wasn't necessarily diplomatic about it when I shouted: "Like I *%$@ing care!"
But, I had a few Chilkoots in me, and my buzz was being killed in front of my eyes.
It certainly deflated my fun balloon that night. And what made it a little worse was feelings of sympathy I had for my verbal assailant. The sympathy came out of my re-telling of the incident, to pretty much everyone involved with the show. Now there's a large group of far more intelligent, and far more secure women, who think she's a complete idiot. That's what a self-inflated sense of importance gets you gang.
Someone who doesn't like my stuff, that's easy, there's a lot of them out there, but someone who completely misses the point of something so obvious - it makes for a teeth-grinding kind of evening.
I got back on that fun horse though - enough that by around 5am, my liver walked out of my body and slapped me in the face.
We balanced all this Rendezvous crazy time with some great quality time with our nieces. These are two great kids, who we've had the pleasure of knowing since both their infancies. One is almost two and the other is four, both fun developmental stages to watch. And influence...
We caught up with as many people as we could, but with such a short schedule, we couldn't fit everything in.
But we came up with some interesting theories:
1. Whitehorse is a unique place in Canada, because there are no "buffer" people. While pretty much every other major urban centre has a large part of their population that live pretty basic lives (work, eat, sleep, etc.), even the nine-to-fivers in the Yukon are some pretty kooky people. There's no buffer zone between normal folks and the colorful ones - they're all pretty darn colorful.
2. We'll be back again - whether months or years, doesn't really matter, we'll always be a part of the Island.

There - now go watch more Lost.

No comments: