Go to your troupe’s Facebook “Page”.
Wait. Your troupe doesn’t have a page?
Make them a page. Right now.
Good, your troupe now has a page.
Now, go to your troupe’s “Page” and click on the “About” tab.
If not all the members of your troupe are listed in this tab, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN DOING WITH YOUR LIFE?
Sincerely,
A producer who books improv and sketch troupes
I’m a little behind in my blog-posting. Probably because I started a new job, the whole waking up at 6:30am, driving an hour and a half to get to work by 8:30am in Richmond Hill, then driving BACK for an hour after work, not getting home til like 5:30-6pm, then going out & doing comedy or otherwise is shall we say, a little time consuming.
The JokeBox Comedy Lounge is a weekly comedy variety show put on by the wonderful Deanna Palazzo and James Dalzell. (For more information about Jokebox, see my previous post: Say Goodbye to Your Case of the Mondays) This past Monday, CODPIECE, my new sketch troupe, made its official debut. We were one member short, but all in all, I think it went over very well. We received compliments on some of our sketches, and though the four of us are very busy employees of the Second City FOH staff, I think we’ve got lots of potential.
This is what potential looks like.
CODPIECE isn’t booked for another show until November, but in the meantime, we’ll be working on bringing you what you want most: more creepy Chapters employees and Snuits.
In the meantime, please Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!
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
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!
Today is an exciting day. This evening, I will be performing with my new sketch troupe for the very first time. They are called Getting Even with Chesapeake and are composed of Ashley Moffatt, Paige McIntyre, Matt Surina & myself. Ashley, Matt & I had been talking about working together for a long time and we brought Paige on board because she’s a great writer and she and I have been working together on Cat Chatz – so it all made sense!
Consequently, this will be my first time performing in a sketch troupe since the decomposition of LaughDraft earlier this year and the subsequent denial of my entry into the troupe that formed out of the dregs that was LaughDraft – so, I think it’s fair to say I’m pretty damn excited to get back into the swing of sketch comedy with this awesome group of people! 🙂
Getting Even with Chesapeake is making its debut, performing as part of the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival’s Sketch Com-Ageddon competition with many other awesome troupes from around town as well as a lot of newbies.
It should be a fun time – so feel free to come check us out. The sketch-dule is RIGHT HERE!
See you tonight!
I’ve been down a bit lately with regards to our sketch troupe falling apart. I had all these ideas for sketches. Even when I didn’t have any ideas, I knew that if there was a show coming, I could sit in front of my computer and come up with something funny for the show.
But now, without a sketch troupe with which to perform, I’ve decided to turn my sketch ideas into short stories. The first one I’m working on is Christmas-themed, which is good because there’s no way I’d be able to stage it on time before Christmas. Once we start school up again, people will have moved on from the whole Holiday thing. (Ah, How fleeting is our time?…)
I don’t know if the humour I wish to depict on stage via sketch performers will translate as well onto the page. Maybe it’ll be more difficult when it’s not possible to see the reactions on the actors’ faces.
Hopefully readers’ imaginations are still capable of visualizing such emotional responses in their minds…, if the piece is written well enough!
Ooooh. New challenges!
Extremely Short Story
What a week!
We’re in the midst of rehearsing for two days of 3-camera shoots (a la SNL) of parody sketches we’ve written. We’re filming next week. I can’t wait to see my Star Trek sketch come to fruition on screen. I’m a bit nervous about playing a prostitute, primarily for the protection of my own self-esteem. Perhaps I should consider forgetting the concept of self-esteem entirely for the rest of my second year at Humber and just go with the flow, as qotsa would say. Perhaps I should give up eating.
I performed a stand-up set as a dog sweater in class. It went over terribly, although I still stand by my jokes. Particularly this one:
“I’m not saying you have to be dumb to buy a sweater for your dog, I’m just saying I’m sorry your barren.”
Another big development – the sketch troupe I’d been performing in, LaughDraft, dissolved this past week, for several reasons. It’s too bad because we actually experienced some modest success at our shows, ie: people came to them. We got ahead pretty quick in the game, what with our entry into this year’s Sketchfest – and we were starting to be asked to perform with other Toronto troupes around town, but I guess, ultimately, it was not meant to be.
I hope it doesn’t take too long before I find people to sketch with.
Oh November – getting dark at 4:30 does not do good things for one’s personal motivation or morale. Good thing I already put up my Christmas lights! #livingalonerules #imsimultaneouslylonely
clown college confessions 