Comedy Festering
… in the category of Most Times Being the Butt of Local-Reference Jokes From Festival Comedians:
The Palomino Club! — which turned up in monologues, show intros and debates at least a dozen times, mostly in one-liners that also involved the word “cougar.”
Congratulations. I’m sure the veal is excellent there, too.
Debaters the Second produced just as many funny fireworks as the radio-recorded effort’s first show did on Saturday. Sunday’s matchups included the much-anticipated chest-thump-off between Bruce Clark and Mel (Dan Licoppe) Silverback, the tuxedo-clad mountain-gorilla mouthpiece last seen swinging southward during 2007’s Last Comic Standing semi-finals. Their topic: whether zoos should be closed. Arguing for the proposed ban, more-or-less-upright-walking Elmwood product Clark: “Opponents would argue that zoos are artificial, and created only for the entertainment of humans. Well, so are Pamela Anderson’s breasts, and that doesn’t make THEM wrong.” Zoo-closure advocate Mel’s response: “Let me say, Mr. Clark, that if I had some feces right now, I would fling it at you.”
Mike Wilmot and Kate Davis argued about whether kids today receive too much praise. A cleaned-up-for-radio Wilmot, who actually might be as crusty as his trademark rasp makes him sound, offered this life-lesson nugget: “Try your best, or, at least, SAY you tried your best — then you can be a hero among stupid people … and that’s where the money is, anyway.”
Rick Currie, filling in for the absent A. Whitney Brown, took on fest A.D. Al Rae; the topic: whether lawns should be outlawed. Rae’s grim position: “Every drop of sprinkler water is a spit in the face of a starving child;” and “Lawns create unhealthy competition; your neighbour gets a leaf blower, you get a leaf blower; he gets a tractor mower, you get a tractor mower; pretty soon you have to nail his wife just to keep your dignity.” Currie’s approach was a bit more HANDS on: “I have the best-looking lawn on my block. It isn’t hard to achieve — all you have to do is water it in the morning, mow it in the evening, and then late at night, spread salt on your neighbours’ lawns.”
Simon Rakoff and Ray Hanania managed to wring some laughs out of the touchy subject of whether Canada should do more for Palestine; Sabrina Jalees and Erica Sigurdson found some funny wrinkles in the fashion industry, and in the main event, Wilmot and Derek Edwards traded shots like Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed in a shout-off over whether it’s big cities or small towns that are the heart and soul of Canada. All funny stuff, and it was also impressive that it was a sold-out house on a Sunday afternoon when the sun was shining outside and there was a whole lot going on, sports-wise, on the teevee. During a re-set between radio-taping setups, host Steve Patterson encouraged the crowd to keep its spirits up. “Are you guys still with me?” he asked. After the expected wave of cheers subsided, one lonely, let’s-wrap-it-up-inclined voice was heard from the back of the seating area: “We’re missing the curling final!”
Didn’t make it to Sunday night’s fest-finishing panel/Desi-Show combo, or to the waning-hours schmooze at the GST, as the sniffles had descended in full force and The Masters was on the tube. And as anyone knows, missing the first major of the televised golf season would NOT be funny.
So, that’s about it. Hope this was fun, despite that unexpected lull in the middle. Sorry the vid-clip thing didn’t work out as well as we’d hoped. Until next year, then…..
“A few years ago, Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to KFC. A spokesman said, ‘It’s because the word ‘fried’ might make us seem backward and out of touch with the times.’ Uh, no — that’s the word ‘Kentucky.’” — Big Daddy Tazz
Giggle, chuckle, chortle, sniffle, hack, COUGH… I wake up this morning wondering if CF is the only place where a fest-delivered cold is setting in. Spend four days in close quarters with people with whom you’re constantly shaking hands and inevitably engaging in Seinfeldian close-talking, and germs are gonna be passed. I’d be curious to know how many on the fest roster are coming down with something phlegmy as a result of WCF socializing. And just who the hell Comic Zero is, too, for that matter.
“Last November, I got my nipple pierced. Don’t do that. Yeah, that’s the last time I let the old guy pin the poppy on me.” — Rick Currie
Saturday’s double-header gala (and the more of them I see, the more convinced I am that the efficiencies produced by the new format aren’t worth the weakening of the theme explorations it entails) was something of a hit-and-miss affair, I thought. The Animal Show got good mileage out of improv/sketch guy Roman Danylo as host (including a pretty funny audience-member-assisted improv bit later in the show), and the featured comics (Rick Currie, Don Kelly and Tazz) were all very solid. Act 2, The Medicine Show, took full advantage of the built-in irony of booking Mike Wilmot — who’s pretty much the poster boy for body-compromising behaviour — as host. Middle act Brad Muise was understatedly brilliant, as usual, but infarction survivor Lou Eisen and traditional-medicine-exploring Darrell Dennis had a harder time connecting with the sellout crowd. Late addition Simon Rakoff, with a stream-of-consciousness recollection of a recent run-in with the medical system (cast-iron pot lids stored on a high shelf, indeed!), was pretty cool.
If the gala was a mixed bag, however, those who followed it up with the later-on Best of the Fest at the Warehouse saw a show in which nothing was left comedically in question. Given the pre-booked nature of these so-called “Best of” shows, the truth is you never quite know what you’re going to get. Late Saturday, the audience got it ALL. Everybody on the bill — host John Wing, Brad Muise, Steve Patterson, George Westerholm, Erica Sigurdson, Kevin McGrath, Tim Steeves, Mike Wilmot and late add-in Derek Edwards — knocked it out of the park.
In my recollection, this was very likely the best of The Best of the Fests.
More later…. if I’m not completely seduced by Round 4 of The Masters.
“I’m not saying that my upbringing wasn’t confusing … I was watching Bambi in the living room while my mother was frying deer steaks in the kitchen — which made me both sad and hungry for Bambi’s mother.” — Dawn Dumont, during The Debaters, on growing up on the rez.
There’s always a lot of talk about how the WCF’s themed galas are its signature element, and it’s true that they provide a hook that audiences can identify with and a motivational tool that forces many of the comics involved to create brand-new material for their Winnipeg jaunts. But the fest’s braintrust should be equally chuffed about the evolution of The Debaters — that taped-for-radio thingie that happens on weekend afternoons during the WCF — as a reliably memorable part of the schedule.
Saturday’s edition — hosted by Montrealer Steve Patterson, who proved to be a MUCH more than adequate replacement for the now-L.A.-bound Shaun Majumder — threw out some interesting topics and provided some great matchups. The thing that makes The Debaters so much fun is that its format allows the participants to put in the advance work required to prepare solid, smart, sharp opening statements and final summations, but then requires them to be quick on their feet for the middle portions of the debates, which call for free-for-all arguing and spontaneous answers to well-crafted, topical questions.
Sports-inclined antagonists Harry Doupe and Tim Steeves faced off over the issue of steroids in baseball (Doupe: “The irony of steroids is that they shrink your testicles at the same time they turn you into a bigger dick”), while the Darrell Dennis/Dawn Dumont showdown (Patterson: “Our first pair of double-D’s at The Debaters!”) was an amusing fan-vs.-fave exchange rather than much of a debate. Teresa Pavlinek and John Wing got personal, to full comic effect, in their discussion of motherhood’s relevance, and the Alan Park/Carrie Gaetz head-to-head over Arctic sovereignty was both weighty and witty. Dean Jenkinson buried Brian Stollery under a barrage of corporate-sponsorship puns and won an inevitable home-ice victory. But the show-closing matchup of hometown pals Irwin Barker and Bruce Clark produced the razor-sharp exchange that trumped all the hard-researched and eloquently delivered banter that preceded:
Clark: “You’re stupid.”
Barker: “Shut up.”
Clark: “No, you shut up.”
Barker: “No, YOU shut up.”
Clark: “NO, YOU shut up.”
Barker: “No, YOU SHUT UP.”
Honest, it worked. Maybe you had to be there.
More later.
BTW, in case you read this in time to reassess your Sunday plans, the second stab at The Debaters (1 p.m., Warehouse) has some sure-fire showdowns in the mix — most notably, Clark vs. Mel Silverback (Dan Licoppe) on whether zoos should be closed, and longtime collaborators/comic rivals Mike Wilmot vs. Derek Edwards on whether it’s cities or small towns that are the heart and soul of Canada.
“I went to Victoria’s Secret to get fitted for a bra. They took my measurements and sent me to Home Depot.” — Mrs. Hughes, during Friday’s Raising Cane gala.
This no-loooooooooong-overdue (started it Saturday, finishing it Sunday because of unexpected company of Sat. afternoon that FORCED me to watch the third round of The Masters….) post-mortem of Friday’s fest fun is written from a mixed-feelings perspective — while it was totally be fun to be part of the performers’ roster on the thrice-SRO Big Daddy Tazz & Friends show at the GST, the act of DOING comedy put a serious crimp in the CF effort to cover the comedy and the fest. Still, a few things worth noting about BDT&F: Tazz, as always, brought it, and was gracious in curtailing his own stage time toward the end of the show in order to ensure that the lesser-known locals (and very welcome surprise guest Simon Rakoff) got to do their thing. Despite spending most of his time writing these days, rather than performing, Dean Jenkinson seems more polished onstage than ever. Ever-more-professorial shrink-wrapped comic Warren Persowich — he of the power-point-presentation comedy set — got a big response with his comical/academical presentation; and Winnipeg has surely found one of its next rising comedy stars in Chantal Marostica, whose upbeat alt-attitudinal, pop-culture-entangled, “what-ev’”-inclined set provided some of the evening’s brightest moments. Genuinely a fun show to be part of, and reaction in the lobby, on the street and in a saloon down the block afterward did nothing to disturb the feeling of having been part of a job well done.
Being in the show, and the self-absorbed focus required therefore, did, however, prevent CF from accumulating any vid clips from BGT&F and, more notably, meant NOT being able to attend the Friday gala at the Playhouse, which had EVERYONE buzzing afterward because of the way Dennis Hull brought the house down. Truly sorry to have missed that.
I did return to the GST in time to catch part of the, uh, shall we say, slightly un-clean Dark and Stormy Show, in which Rick Currie ventured waay outside his clean-and-proper usual territory, Tim Steeves took full advantage of the no-boundaries-on-sexual-content-and-profanity framework, and host Mike Wilmot was, well, Mike Wilmot. Very funny, but from an mainstream-newspaper-website perspective, not the sort of thing that required any video recording…. which is fine, given the limited success CF is having with this whole video-embed experiment.
More later. Sooner, actually.
