Growth Spurt

So new Comedy developments lately.
A small group (4) of us decided to put on a Comedy night at our local community theatre - the Guild Hall - but we decided that it would be pretty sketch centric. We collaborated on pretty much everything in the show, and each had a solo piece to ourselves.
It was a refreshing experience - we all got along really well, and put together a great show - during one of the busiest times in the Yukon. So we only had 20 people in the audience - but they were warm and the laughs were plenty and genuine. Which, in a small town with people who know you in the audience almost all the time - genuine laughter is great.
And now our little community is growing - with some notable folks added to the mix. Logan Larkin is my new hero. The guy has a lot of theatre training and experience, but he's a great comedian. He stole the show with a very simple premise, and turned it into a clowny masterpiece. We also happened to be making fun of the Pivot festival at the same time - so - Wheee!
I can't voutch for how much effort Logan put into his preparedness beforehand, but I think it's pretty minimal. Not that it's a bad thing - he does very well - but he could kick some serious comedy ass in this town - easily. Hopefully he will.
We've had some newcomers to the Coasters Comedy stage as well - Stephen and Brendan have come up twice now to play a few funny tunes (some Flight of the Conchords, Adam Sandler, etc.) and they are eager to be back for more every two weeks - huzzah.
We are in a sorry state for female comics though. I know a few in town how would kill on stage, some already have, but don't show their faces anymore. Which is really too bad - it was a sea of guys out there last night. (Except for one woman - who I pandered to for a small bit - which I appreciated, cause otherwise it would have fallen pretty flat.)
More comedians also helps me flesh out material a little more - as now I'll actually have acts. I try anyhow to make sure I have at least about 45 minutes of stuff to talk about, just in case. We start the Coasters' nights around 9:30 - and I don't finish the show till around 11. That's the goal anyway.
So now instead of blathering, I can take time to refine.
Though a wealth of material will help me in the long run - when I skeddadle outta here in the summer for different climes.

What's Up Article: Scrap the Farce!

Attention CBC Television fans: Stop watching Royal Canadian Air Farce!
Please.
I’ve long felt the need to clearly and confidently state, with the utmost of sincerity that Air Farce is a terrible show. I say this with a truly noble intent my friends. Whereas most of us consumers of comedy media know fully well that Canada has an excellent knack for bringing the funny, a show like Air Farce has been pushing our comedy stock value down for a couple of decades now.
Trust me, I don’t say this lightly. I’ve sat through long half-hours of tired sketches, extremely lame jokes and truly awful impersonations to arrive at this conclusion. Air Farce just isn’t funny.
I’ve given the show more chances than it really deserves, and only by virtue that it is a Canadian comedy show – and that the show has an obvious venerability. But being around for a long time doesn’t make one funny, and aging hasn’t done anything for Air Farce but make Luba Goy’s character choices less believable.
I want to be proud of Canadian comedy.
I remember the good ole days of being glued to set, ready to have my brain altered by the SCTV gang. Codco and This Hour has 22 Minutes (only while Greg Toomey was on), The Frantics had some great hits, and I still love catching re-runs of the highest watermark of Canadian comedy TV – The Kids in The Hall.
So what happened to Air Farce?
I’d posit that Air Farce jumped the shark as soon as we could see them. Having been on the radio since 1973, they made a jump onto television via a special in 1992, then 5 years later they were regulars on the CBC TV line-up.
Performing on radio and television has some obvious differences. While the Air Farce members could easily bring the charisma when our imaginations filled in the blanks, seeing them on air changed everything dramatically. The dynamic was completely different, and certain things radio could forgive were garishly pointed out. A good voice actor, doesn’t make a good actor. Watching Luba Goy impersonate Wendy Mesley made a part of me die inside – the part that had a crush on Wendy Mesley.
Look at what happened to Double Exposure. They were extremely popular on radio, but the jump to television pretty much buried them.
It was Air Farce’s venerability that has been saving them so far, but as their jokes get more tired (seriously, I swear the writers are phoning it in), shouldn’t we just cut our losses?
Television comedy is a tough battleground, so naturally CBC is going to rely on Air Farce’s history to keep them afloat. It’s a safe bet, and I don’t blame them for it.
What disappoints me, is that people might look at Air Farce as a standard of Canadian comedy, when there are so many other astronomically better Canadian comedy shows.
And you’ll have to pull yourself away from the Mother Corp. to catch some of these – I know – heresy!
There’s the fantastic History Bites, created by Frantics alumnus Rick Green. While personally not an impersonation fan, History Bites has some of the best. Trailer Park Boys is certainly a niche – but it covers it extremely well. Same goes for the new Jon Dore Television Show. Shows like The Newsroom and Twitch City knocked it out of the park with style and creativity. Though sometimes hit or miss, I can also recommend Comics and Comedy Now, which feature new and upcoming Canadian stand-up comedians.
So, since we all know that Canadians can make a superior comedy product, we need to acknowledge when something isn’t funny anymore.
Feel free to keep the memory of their past glories intact, but it’s time now to retire the Air Farce. If you need a supportive hug, I’ll be around.

Titles suck

But they're the hallmark of the clever blog aren't they.
Fingers poised over the keyboard, dangling pupetteer-like, ready to show the world how creative you are. Sometimes it comes easy, other times your ready to let gravity take charge of the dead weight your head is, and allow it to make a dull thud onto your desk. Or maybe a "Wackle" kind of sound when yer noggin hits the keyboard.
So, the Coaster's Comedy nights have been moved to Wednesdays. Thank freaking Jesus!(figuratively of course) We've always been lacking for audience members, and I know there are people who would enjoy coming on a regular basis. The Monday evening thing was a difficult hurdle I fully understand. I'm a recluse to begin with, and Mondays are just so condusive to staying in, it's practically law.
Plus, people might have shown up in the past, and then watched some serious floundering on stage, and decided to never come again. I can't really argue that, I mean, I'm never going to attend anything that goes by the name "Pivot" ever again.

So now I've been going through reams of material, for a few reasons. I have about two dozen Word documents on various computers with jokes, sketches and ideas. This likely isn't the most efficient way to organize the funny. I've lost track of a few bits, and things I've wanted to work on, get lost in new messes that pop into my head.
For example, for the show I'm taking to the Fringe, in between the sketches, I was planning on performing some stand-up vis a vis religion, etc. Except now ideas are starting to consume me regularly, and I have no idea how I'm going to squeeze some of the stuff in. I should be taking what I want to do, likely the best stuff, polishing that - then rehearsing the shit out of it. Every time I go to polish, I find something new - then that thing needs polish.

You'd think that was a good thing right?

Ice Foggy Bottom

Yeah, it's cold - but how much is there bitching about it, when you clearly choose to live in a place that has a regular tendancy to completely freeze over for a good portion of the year. Trolling Yukon blogs, it's all about the cold - with only a few people noting the obvious - that's what the Yukon does - it gets cold - really cold - something you can count on. Ah well.
I've been avoiding writing these days, taking a nesting sort of attitude. The cold and lack of fiancee will make one sink into geeky pleasures with vivacious abandon. I do get up to go pee though - I have some retstraint.
But I'll have to hit that writing board soon enough. Comedy Night was cancelled due to the chill, so I'll have material for the next one, but we're putting on a sketch comedy night at the Guild on Feb. 23rd. There are some sketches we've done before, that we really could improve on. In a "I know these are funny people, they just got fucked up in the performance" kind of way.
I've been trying to osmose as much as possible, watching sketch comedy shows on DVD and TV. Sometimes the simplest ways are best for sketch - case in point - a British show called "ManStrokeWoman". Almost all of their stuff is great, fresh, but follow a pretty simple pattern. It's some smart stuff.
Sketch comedy is a lot easier to depend on than stand-up. Even the fact of having someone on a stage, "acting" out a character, gives the audience all the set-up they need to wait for something funny. That anticipation will wring laughs out of the simplest of stuff. Not that it's easy - it's just way more dependable than stand-up comedy.
Mike Ellis is on board to do some writing, which is great. He's a very funny guy, and comes at things differently than I do. His sketch "Dutch Oats" has all the hallmarks of being a "classic" - and if I can convince him to perform it again, that would be great.
I just really want to do a show that's way more organized than Guild Comedy Nights in the past. I put my trust in people before, to bring the funny - and a lack of desire to work bit me in the ass. They were successful nights indeed, people had a good time - but man, the professionalism was certifiably absent. I'd like that to change.

And with a theatre, and all it's facilities at our disposal - the tools are there.

Pivot Schmivot

This year, Nakai Theatre decided that instead of the usual Comedy Fest they usually put on - they would replace it with something called "Pivot" - an extreme theatre event. From the press that touted this new festival, words like: "Groundbreaking, extreme, and out-of-the-box".
From Tara McCarthy's article in the Jan. 25th issue of What's Up Yukon, David Skelton mentions that Nakai was finding that Whitehorse audiences: "were moving away from being as satisfied with the stand-up and sketch comedy" and that one of Nakai's responsibilities: "is to expose Whitehorse audiences to a high quality of professional theatre"
That's some pretty bold statements there, and if you're a regular Yukon culture vulture - you might agree that Pivot would have to be pretty impressive indeed for all that pomp to ring true.

I'll admit, I only went to one evening of the Pivot festival, but I saw the bulk of shows that were being offered. And honestly, I felt a little guilty for having comp tickets, only because I felt so damn sorry for the few people who paid. Let me stress the "few" part of that statement.
It's not my intention to point a finger at Nakai and laugh, but boy, Pivot certainly added to the Hindenburg-like qualities that Nakai has slowly been building.
The shows at Pivot were pretty much the exact kind of fare anyone could see at any Fringe festival in North America. The difference being that one has much more choice at a Fringe festival - so you're likely able to see something you like.
There was nothing likeable about the shows at Pivot (mind you, I didn't see "This is Cancer - Live" and I'll go out on a limb and say it was probably good - Bruce Horak has some cred). David Bateman's monologues were so disjointed, obviously unrehearsed and pretty dull. Gay guys talking about their mothers and comparing them to glamourous stars of the past - it's actually kinda cliche. I did make a good mental grocery list during his show though - so thanks.
He couldn't handle his props, and didn't seem to have a grasp on where he was going. It was pretty unprofessional seeming - not unlike a crappy Fringe show.
"Lounge" was better, but that's not saying much. It was split up into two acts, and the second certainly killed what little momentum the first had.
Neither show was groundbreaking, extreme or thought-provoking.
Taking a look into the crowd, you could see the usual folks who go to Arts events in Whitehorse. We've all seen stuff like this before, and we've seen it done better. I've seen more entertaining things done at Homegrown.
This festival had no heart, and no drive. Just the fact that there were so many free tickets handed out should be telling.
Last year, me and a little group of like minded amateur comedians put together two nights of sketch comedy. We had the Westmark ballroom filled with people, and we put on a pretty decent show. While we certainly had some low moments, this was relatively new to us, and we had a lot of room to grow.
Nakai couldn't even fill one third of the ballroom, which was their main venue.
Just add that to the growing list of things Nakai has lost money on.
While I'll completely agree that Nakai should be the last people to run a comedy fest in the first place, at least they were trying before. Now - not so much. If they can pull people like Ron James and Cathy Jones up here for fundraisers (that they lost money on by the way), one would think these people would be perfect anchors to build a comedy fest around.
Pivot was a pretty uninspiring festival, right where we needed somethign bright in our dead of winter. This has me worried about Homegrown, and if Skelton will have his hands in what shows will be put on.

Then again, as they say, if you want something done right...

Family Ties kicked Growing Pains' Ass.

Just needed to get that out.
And c'mon, Tom Hanks as the drunk uncle - drinking vanilla and marashino (sp?) cherry juice - priceless.
But as usual, I digress.
This past Monday saw the return of Comedy night at Coasters. I not-so-sneakily parlayed the leaving of my partner (she's gonna get some edumacation) into getting more people to show up for some laughs. Thankfully, it worked.
It was a good night, with a lotta laughs, and some great comics. From where Chris McNutt started, yelling over people talking to their beers at the Whitewater Wednesday Open Mic Jam nights - to where we are now is pretty nifty.
There are now comics who are close to on par, and occaisionally better than us *cough* pros. There's Logan, who on his first time on stage, blew everyone out of the water with his presence, and his material. We have Rob, who really is a nautral, as long as he can get over his nervousness and the trend to mimic popular comedians. Though, we should worry, cause once he finds his own voice - he's going to kick all our asses.
And then there's Scott. This guy has his own thing going, and it's going very well. He's a natural at the mic, although he usually mentions how nervous he is. When I say he's a natural, I mean he has a presence that says: "This is who I am." Whereas, most comics will come on to the stage with some proto-persona of themselves, Scott is wholly real. And watching him - you can see the power of coming from such a real place.
So those of us that have been doing it for a while, our days might just be numbered. We'll have to make sure we step up our game once in a while. Not that I plan on being competitive, far from it. We need new, good comics to keep this thing alive. Our audience is one fickle sonofabitch. So the more, the merrier. It also keeps everyones brains churning for new material - and that's always good.

The Waiting Room

Fairly recently, I had come to the conclusion that I had wasted a lot of my life.
This was a firm realization, as in this was indeed a true statement, but it also didn't bother me all that much. Regret and guilt and emotions I try to avoid, in continuing to be a more honest, altruistic kind of fellah.
So that's all well and good, and I've been working steadily towards future goals. I still have the regular Coaster's Comedy nights, and I have plans for a couple of shows in the near future.
My big project is a fringe show I'll be touring next summer, hopefully to Winnipeg, Edmonton and Saskatoon. I'm just waiting to hear from the first two.
So while I'm busy working on this, and continually developing more material, I keep on reminding myself that fairly soon, I'll be leaving the Yukon.
I had a great conversation with a friend last summer about living here. We've both been here about ten years, and we've come to the same conclusions.
The Yukon is not unlike a womb. It's a very safe place to be, and there's a freedom here to do practically anything you want to. It's very difficult to fail in any endevour here, but there seems to be cap on how far you can go. This is a very insular place, which lends to the general feeling of safety, but closes off a lot of growth.
Basically, we both realized that we had gotten just about everything we needed from here. It was a particualrily long lesson, but now that we're done learning - it's time to move on. I'm sure there's more I could gain from living here, but not as much as if I went - Outside.
Outside - it's a bizzare term. People use it proudly to show how insulated they are from the rest of Canada. It would make sense if the Yukon were truly a unique place, but it's capital has become frighteningly homogenized.
So now I wait.
This summer will be a chance to explore other areas in Canada, places where Erica (my fiancee, partner,etc.) and I might move to. So at least while I wait, I can build some excitement. And do some fun things here before I go.
This life is all I have, I plan on enjoying it.