Montreal, Day 3 - Tom Wrigglesworth, Tim Key, AMP'D

Another day, another 3 comedy shows! My friends Mike and Sacha (both recent Tim Minchin converts) came in from Kingston to join me for some shows.

Tom Wrigglesworth – An open return letter to Richard Branson

I should give my background here. I had a ticket to see this show in Edinburgh last year. I even queued up for the show. But I had really awful food poisoning that day and couldn’t face an hour in a hot room without the very real possibility of vomiting on someone. So I went home and slept off the food poisoning. I was kindly informed by my friends who did attend the show that it was amazing and that I had really missed out. So I was very happy to find out that it was made into a BBC Radio 2 programme. I listened to that, loved it, and still regretted having missed out in Edinburgh. Needless to say, I was delighted to hear that Tom would be performing the show in Montreal! The fact that I had already heard the story did not detract at all from the night. Tom’s storytelling style is wonderful! He paints a beautiful picture with words and adds wonderful little details for extra comic effect. Some things didn’t quite translate to a Canadian audience. After the show Tom asked me if we used the word ‘bell-end’ here... we do not. He also inquired about the concept of ‘health and safety’. I’m familiar with it because of the amount of UK-based comedy I watch, but it’s not called the same thing here. And I can’t figure out what we call it either. The concept translates, but the wording doesn’t. Despite the story being rather UK-centric, the audience really enjoyed the show! It was great to hear a proper storytelling show rather than the series of jokes that I’ve been seeing recently! Tom also won over my friend Sacha who had to run from the bus station to get to the show on time. I briefly said hello to Tom after his show, he was a lovely man who asked what else I was seeing and decided to tag along to the AMP’D music show later on.

Tim Key – Slutcracker

Tim was in the same venue as Tom just half an hour later, so I took back my front row centre seat and got comfortable. I hadn’t seen Tim perform live before and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I loved the show! The first thing I noticed was that the stage was littered with things; books, toy cars, a typewriter, a cake, a violin case and a massive fridge. If you haven’t seen Tim live, his character is a shambolic poet, he recites poems and shows little videos as well. Tim came out on stage in a track suit jacket and trainers, so his first order of business was to change into his suit and shoes on stage. He then poured himself a beer into a large glass, took a sip, then handed it to me. Front row centre made me the beer bitch. Throughout the show he would just look at me and hold out his hand... that was my queue. Key started the show by reciting a few poems which he was ‘reading’ from the various notebooks that were in every pocket of his crumpled suit. The poems ran the gamut from silly to strange to downright terrible but it was all brought to life by Tim’s delivery and commentary. Part way through the show, during one of the videos that he played, Tim disappeared into the audience. When the lights came back up he was standing on a table in the second row. He was going to try to get onto the fridge without touching the floor. He had brought up the idea of this game a little earlier, but it was still fairly silly. He commented that this is usually harder cos the tables near the front were meant to be filled with people (the audience was a little sparse for the show, and those who were there cowered at the back instead). He climbed over chairs onto the stage and made us decide between standing on a book, and standing on a cake. Clearly the cake was the popular choice. It always is. So he took off one shoe and the sock and stepped onto the cake, then with his other foot onto the typewriter. Then he looked over at me. He asked me to come up onto the stage and that was when I started to worry. I was expecting to get cake on me. Instead he simply asked me to hold him up while he put his sock and shoe back on his cakey foot. He must’ve trusted me cos I ended up supporting most of his body weight. Good thing I’m strong. I then brought him his beer. He asked if I’d just carry him to the fridge, but I’m simply not strong enough for that. He got a rather stronger man to do it instead. While Tim and the man were scrambling to get up the fridge Tim grabbed the empty wine bottle on the fridge and tossed it at me. Luckily I can catch and wasn’t too drunk. I wonder how often Tim gets dropped or the wine bottle gets broken. After this little interlude of madness Tim read some more poems from atop the fridge. I also forgot that his cup of beer wasn’t mine and took a swig. Oops... The show ended with a few more poems and some videos. I loved it! It was my favourite show of the festival so far! I will definitely be booking my ticket for Edinburgh (and maybe try not to get stuck as the beer bitch again). Tim came out after the show and I said hello. I apologised for potentially weirding him out in the bar the previous night and reminded him that I was the one who made the 24 hour show book for Mark. That seemed to ring a bell. He thanked me for being the beer bitch and for supporting the show... literally. After a brief chat I went back to the hostel to meet my friends before we went off to our late night show.

AMP’D

AMP’D was described as a musical comedy show and I thought it was going to be just Beardyman and Minchin. I was wrong. Beardyman was the compere of the show. He is an amazing freak of nature! An unbelievably talented beatboxer the entire audience were in awe of his skills. He did some beatboxing just with a microphone, then went behind a mixing table where things got really interesting. He took suggestions from the audience for 2 different kinds of music, then with the aid of layering from the mixing table, he created a fusion of the two. The man has amazing skill. So I was a little surprised when he introduced Axis of Awesome. I like them, so I was happy to hear them play. They did ‘Four Chords’ everybody’s favourite! Sadly, they wimped out on including ‘Canvas Bags’ like they usually do since Minchin was on later in the bill. After Axis of Awesome and another Beardyman interlude another act was introduced. I don’t know or care what their name was. It was a double act, who had quite good vocal skills but did a tedious song about the ‘shocker’ (two in the pink, one in the stink for those who aren’t familiar). It’s generic groups like them who give musical comedy a bad name. The woman who was next was even worse. She was a larger lady and came onstage in a ‘dress’ that was so short you wonder if it’s a shirt. She basically sang about being a bit of a slut and flashed her see-through black thong at the audience. Her act was showing her minge on stage. Classy. To make matters worse, for her second song she had 2, 10 year old girls come out and accompany her. It was the worst thing I’ve seen in a long time. Poor Beardyman had to get back the amazing party atmosphere that was happening before she came on stage. Luckily the man’s fucking brilliant, so he did, then introduced Bo Burnham. This was the 3^rd time in the last week that I’ve seen Bo do that same 10-15 minutes and his stuff doesn’t hold up to that much repetition.. I seized the opportunity to go for a wee. As I popped out of the room I spotted (and probably freaked out) Jarred Christmas by saying ‘Hi Jarred’ quite excitedly, but continuing on my beeline for the bathroom doors. I rejoined my table for the rest of Bo’s set and some more of Beardyman’s brilliance. Last up was Tim Minchin! At this stage I will just say, to anyone reading to PLEASE GIVE MINCHIN A PROPER PIANO!!! He was on a keyboard again for this show. His first song was a half-improvised duet with Beardyman where Tim was self-deprecatingly saying how hard it was to follow really great acts. After that, Tim fully improvised a song about the construction going on in Montreal. I love improvised songs. It’s such an impressive skill. Then Tim played the ‘Pope song’ encouraging lots of audience participation. Last up was ‘You Grew on Me’ again. Either the house lights were up higher than I realised, or Tim had seen where I was sitting before he went on stage, or a freaky coincidence, but he directed most of the song right at me. To the point where the eye contact started to freak me out a little. What can I say about ‘You Grew on Me’ that hasn’t been said? I love it. The show ended to lots of rowdy applause and I went to try and sneak my friends backstage to find Minchin. That didn’t work. Then we somehow ended up in the upstairs bar where Tom Wrigglesworth, Tim Key, Jarred Christmas, Jim Jeffries/Jefferies and company were all hanging out. I seized the opportunity to briefly say hello to Tom and have a bit of a longer chat with Key. Sacha and Mike (my friends) were standing slightly awkwardly to the side so I introduced them to Tim Key. When Jarred Christmas came over I said hello to him again and explained that I knew him (and Key to a fair extent) off Jon Richardson’s show. I didn’t stay for too long as my friends wanted to go see if Minchin was outside. We waited outside the doors for a bit, but we never saw the big ginger hair so I assumed he had snuck out. Instead we went to a little pub nearby for another drink (a water for me... I was quite intoxicated by that stage) and then home to bed.

I’ve got 3 shows to see tonight, then I have to leave this beautiful city and the amazing comedy times tomorrow morning. Tonight I’ve got the ‘Down Under’ show with Jarred Christmas, Rove and Minchin followed by the solo shows of Jim Jeffries and Jamie Kilstein. It’s gonna be a good night!

Montreal, Day 2 - O'Comics & Harland Williams

I must preface this blog by saying that last night was one of the strangest, most surreal (although not to Adam Hills’ standards) and exciting nights of my life. There will be some squeeing (I’ll try to keep it at a minimum) and a LOT of name dropping (especially for mental comedy fans like myself). I get to see great comedy/comedians so rarely, that I will happily seize this opportunity to brag and rub it in your faces. You have been warned. But first, a few words about the shows I went to see!

O’Comics – PJ Gallagher, Andrew Maxwell, Des Bishop

I arrived at the venue, a bit sweaty, but very early so grabbed myself a front row seat. I was joined at my table by a couple, who were quite lovely and who bought me a beer ‘for saving their seats’. I was a little distracted by Maxwell who kept running up to look through the only semi-opaque backdrop before the show. That’s right Andrew, I saw you! The show was compered by PJ Gallagher, who immediately won me over. I’d not heard of him before, but I will be keeping an eye out for him from now on. I found him charming and funny, with a lovely impish quality that only made me like him more. First up was Andrew Maxwell, the man I was there to see. I’ve seen Maxwell’s solo shows in Edinburgh 2008, 2009 and will see him again this year. I like the man and what he does. And he did it well. I thoroughly enjoyed his set, he had some really beautifully crafted new routines which were interspersed with less structured chat. An excellent set from Mr. Maxwell! PJ came back on for a short set, which included asking where the single people were. I was one of few who cheered, so I got asked the charming question ‘Are you happily single or bitter?’ I didn’t have a recent breakup story (single for 4 years! Hurray!) so I went with happily single... It’s mostly true... Next up was Des Bishop! I was a bit surprised when Des came out with a noticeable New York accent (it was billed as an Irish show after all), but he addressed this, and the fact that he’d lived in Ireland for a long time right off the bat. He talked about how he came to live in Ireland, and quite a lot of more personal material, testicular cancer among other things. I forget how this came about, but Des picked up on the fact (probably from PJ’s bit) that I was single and at the show on my own. So I was the go-to girl every time he touched his crotch, or talked about sex. I was assured that he wouldn’t push my head if I gave him a blowjob, and that he’d only had erectile difficulties 4 times in his 34 years... so ‘when we have sex, it’ll work’. It was slightly awkward (made more so by the fact that I really needed a wee for the last 10 minutes of his set, but couldn’t get up as I was sat at the front, and definitely wasn’t offended), but very funny. I don’t understand why people are scared of sitting in the front. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the show and I’ll see if I can find a spot in my Edinburgh schedule for Des’ show... although at this stage of planning it’ll be fucking difficult.

Harland Williams

Harland Williams’ show was in the same venue as the O’comics show, so I hung out in the lobby in between, I got another front row seat, this time at a table with 2 lovely girls, Natasha and Lori. They were great fun! We spent the night from 8am-3am together, so I’m happy I sat with them! Harland’s warm-up act was called Justin Schlegel. He did a short set and was excellent! I might be biased, but I think he got bigger laughs than Harland did! The premise for Harland’s show was that the first half was scripted, and the second half would be improvised. It might be my love for spontaneity in comedy or it might be that my preference in comedy has shifted a bit since I first discovered Harland, but I enjoyed the improvised part of his show much more than the scripted bit. I wasn’t sure how the improvised bit was going work, but he took suggestions from the audience and improvised a bit of material around that theme. Things that came up were masturbation and Tim Horton’s (Canadian doughnut chain) among many others. Once again, sitting in the front row got me attention. I was given a line to say after Harland improvised for a while. My line was ‘he had it coming’. Maybe I was too worried about remembering the line or maybe I was missing something else, but to me anyways, my line didn’t make sense after what he had said... The audience seemed a bit puzzled as well. Ah well, improvisation didn’t always work. But I did get the microphone thrust at me a few minutes later as well for another ‘he had it coming’. Thank goodness for short term memory! I remembered and didn’t get humiliated. Although, hearing my voice in the microphone was pretty bad. Anyways, the show was a good night out, and seeing one of the first comedians I ever liked 5 or 10 years later really put my shifting comedy tastes and expanded comedy knowledge into perspective. I went out with Lori and Natasha to meet Harland afterward, as Lori is a massive fan (to the point where Harland knows her name). He was lovely, thanked me for ‘he had it coming’ and gave me this very memorable photo.


The girls then pointed out that Tom Green was standing outside. I should mention that I never got into Tom Green, but (at least in Canada) he is very famous. He came inside to talk to Harland, and gave me a flyer for his show out of his jacket pocket. That was too weird. I like getting flyered for shows by the person in the show... but it just struck me that Tom Green is way to famous for that! I’m keeping the flyer though, it was a slightly odd start to what ended up being a very strange night. While the girls were having photos and chatting with Harland and Tom, I spotted Justin, the warm up comic outside and wanted to congratulate him on his set. It must be odd warming up for a solo show, and I thought I should acknowledge that he was great! There was another girl talking to him when I came out, but he was lovely, thanked me for being the strange comedy nerd that I am, gave me his business card and invited us (well probably just the cute blonde he was talking to... but I got in on the offer anyway) to the bar in the hotel across the street. He said it would be where all the comedians were. Fuck me he was right! As we were chatting, Mike MacDonald (a veteran Canadian comic or someone who looks incredibly like him) sped down the hill by us on a scooter (not a powered one, essentially a skateboard with 2 wheels and a handlebar). Add another tick to the ‘weird’ column.

Justin, Harland and Tom all made their way out and Lori, Natasha and I had to make a decision. To go to the bar or not? Would it be weird? Would we be allowed? Eventually, Natasha made the executive decision (thanks so much!) and we went. We grabbed ourselves a table and ordered food (for me, it was late and I hadn’t eaten since 4:30pm) and drinks (for all). For your information I am pretty much a rolodex of comedians (do those still exist?) and I have excellent facial recognition. I spent the entire night catching glimpses of awesome comedians out of the corner of my eye and over the shoulders of whoever I happened to be talking to. I even looked over the shoulder of Tim Minchin while we were talking. I am a cunt. So if I did that to you last night, don’t take it personally, and I’m sorry. This bar was my ‘kid in a candy store’ moment. The empty table we found was next to Glenn Wool and Pete Johansson for a start. Harland, Tom and Justin were on the other side of the bar as well. As the night went on, I saw a ton of people pour in (these are the ones I didn’t talk to); Tom Wrigglesworth, Bo Burnham, JJ Whitehead and Jack Whitehall to name a handful.

Just as the girls and I were finishing our food, Des Bishop walked by. I gave him a smile and a wave and he came right over. He had remembered me from the show and apologised for picking on me (sorta) for the evening. We made introductions and he eventually pulled up a chair. We chatted a bit about the show, how the crowd was very hot and cold (they were, it weirded me out), how he didn’t like the high angle of the stage, how he recognised me from my tan lines (you’d think the purple hair, but no). He then told me that after Des had gotten me involved in his set, Andrew Maxwell had mentioned that he recognised me from twitter and that either he, or both of them, read my blog backstage after the show. Add that to the list of weirdness. I’m aware that this blog is on the internet, and that it’s public, but I always thought that the only people reading are the 30 or so people who subscribe, all fellow comedy nerds who I am aware of through twitter, or forums. To find out that the subjects of my blog, first Minchin and now Bishop are reading it, freaks me the fuck out. I’m just a fan. I have no power, no pull in the comedy world and no public presence. Thanks to all of you for reading, but at least comment when you do so that I know you’re there...

Sorry. I got a little distracted. Yes, so Des sat at our table for a while. Maxwell came over for a short while as well. I mentioned that I was a bit creeped out, and retaliated by commenting on the nice outfit he was wearing at Fullmooners on the weekend. He didn’t seem phased, but Des seemed impressed by my comedy connections. We played the ‘who are your favourite comedians’ game and had some lovely chat. I then saw Jamie Kilstein standing nearby so I went over to say hello. Jamie and I have met on multiple occasions now, so it wasn’t as weird as approaching a stranger. It took him a split second to recognised me (I think the hair might’ve done it) but I got a lovely big hug, and asked to see his wedding tattoo of a penguin. It was a lot smaller than I was expecting, but very cute. Then a photographer friend (who is responsible for some of the lovely artwork on Jamie’s websites) came over. Shortly after that, Jamie got pulled away from the conversation. I asked the photographer for his name (which of course, I don’t remember) had a little chat, then went back to my table where Des and the girls were still sitting.

Not long after that, Tim Key came into the bar and came over to chat to Des. Introductions were made, I mentioned that I’d be seeing his show tonight and in Edinburgh. He got taken aback by the mention of Edinburgh, but I explained that I was going and mentioned that Mark Watson told me it was worth seeing twice. He said ‘oh, I was his best man, that’s just loyalty’. He’s far too humble. Tim was lovely, if a little frightened by me. Next we chatted about what to do/see in Montreal and Natasha (who’s from here) got lots of questions from the rest of us. I got up to go for a wee and on the way back walked by Minchin.

Minchin and I chatted for quite a while. The man is lovely! We talked about the Toronto gigs, he asked where I live, and how far that is from both cities (assessing my general creep factor), we talked about Linzy (again), Kirsty, Yvette and Shell. We talked about Mark Watson, and their kids (Mark and Tim’s kids with their respective wives... not with each other). Tim showed me a very cute picture of Caspar and Violet on his phone. They are adorable with big blue eyes and lovely blonde hair! I forget what else we spoke about, but he’s a charming man. And I got the title of ‘stalker’ last night. I thought that was reserved for Yvette... but apparantly not. To be fair, I am the most stalkerish of his Canadian fans.

Soon after I got back to our table, Justin came and sat down. We shared some overly personal stories and talked about the comedy industry. When I said that I had come to Montreal for the festival, on my own he seemed genuinely touched. He said on multiple occasions that ‘we need people like you’. I don’t know why I find it strange when comedians genuinely appreciate dedicated comedy followers, but it’s something I’ve come across fairly often, and I’m glad that I’m appreciated. Once we realised that it was 3am, we decided to call it a night (last call at the bar helped). On our way out Minchin walked by. I introduced him to Natasha, Lori and Justin and he called me a stalker. They seemed quite confused, since none of them knew who Tim was, and in the elevator on the way out said ‘Who was that guy with the weird hair?’. Me: ‘Oh him? He’s Tim Minchin, my favourite comedian.’ So yeah, that about sums it up really. Sorry for rambling, but last night was very exciting. I’ll leave you with this. My walk home at 3:30am was terrifying. But totally worth it! Tonight and tomorrow are gonna have to be fucking incredible to top this!

Montreal, Day 1 - Donald Glover and Noel Fielding

So, after a brief 48 hours in Kingston, I hopped on a bus to Montreal for yet more comedy. After finding my (quite nice, but unairconditioned) hostel and deciding what to wear so I wouldn’t be a sweaty mess all night, I headed off to my first show.

Donald Glover – Gross!

I didn’t know much about Donald Glover before this show, I’d only heard him on one of the podcasts I listen to, Citizen Radio. But after Phil Nichol cancelled his show, I decided I’d go along. I was slightly tentative because I’m not a massive fan of gross-out comedy, but I arrived an hour early and got myself a front row seat anyway. Donald Glover was excellent! His show wasn’t unnecessarily graphic or unpleasant, it was very funny. He talked about his foster family, his friends and girlfriends. There was one especially good story about one of his new foster brothers taking a shit in a toilet at a hardware store. The story was more about peoples’ reactions than a gross-out tale, which is why it was so good. I’d definitely see Donald again, it was a solid hour of comedy.

Noel Fielding

I’m glad I left Donald’s show so quickly, because, even 55 minutes in advance, there were already people queueing for Noel Fielding’s show. Soon after I arrived the queue stretched quite far down the street. I met some people who had been sitting right behind me in Donald Glover’s show, and another girl who was a massive fan of Noel’s. We all sat at a front row table and had a comedy nerd chat. Then Noel came on. His hair was (thankfully) black again, he was wearing a smock covered in multicoloured frogs, and his signature silver boots. His set was pretty much exactly what I’d expect from Noel; lots of strange, whimsical abstract pieces and a fair amount of improvising. I really can’t describe much of it. He did have a 5 minute story about a blue-bottle where he discovered that we call them house flies here. I enjoyed Noel’s show, but his style doesn’t get big laughs like well-honed jokes, it gets lots of titters and confused looks sometimes. Still, it was well worth it. I was going to wait around after the show to see if he was signing/doing photos, but by that point it was midnight, I hadn’t really eaten supper yet and there was no discernable stage door. So instead of waiting around getting progressively grumpier, I grabbed a sandwich at Subway and walked home. I’d still quite like to meet Noel, but I have a feeling that his fame and obsessive fans might make him pretty guarded.

So that’s day 1 of 4 in Montreal. Tonight I’m seeing the Irish comedy show (tactlessly called O’Comics, compered by PJ Gallagher, featuring Andrew Maxwell and Des BIshop) and Harland Williams (a Canadian comedian, who happens to be my brother’s favourite). I’ll blog about that tomorrow. It should be excellent!

Comedy Fun Times (Minchin/Burnham duet show, the second)

I’m so glad I went to the Tim/Bo duet show again! Last night was amazing! I was walking up to the venue (nearly an hour early) and while looking with dismay at the already large queue for the show a man shouted ‘are you Sarah?’ at me. I was slightly confused, and fairly surprised, but tentatively answered ‘yes’. Turns out this man was Julianna (the angry-feeter I was meeting up with)’s Dad. I was a tiny bit worried about being able to find her, so that made it easier. I gave Julianna a big hug and spent some time chatting with her and her parents in the queue. Julianna showed me an amazing pencil drawing of Tim! It’s so beautiful! I wish I had talent...
Anyways, then I decided to get a drink at the bar and took Julianna (yep, she’s 13) with me. I felt a little bit creepy. Especially since Julianna is 4’10” and I was 6’2” thanks to my heels. We had a great chat, mostly about Tim and comedy, and Edinburgh, she’s the coolest 13 year old that I’ve ever met (and she puts 13 year old me to shame).

The delightful Julianna and me!

Anyways, we got quite a nice table, 2nd table back right in line with the piano (WHICH WAS A REAL PIANO TONIGHT!!!!). I was really happy with our seats! They switched things up for the second show and Tim came on first. He was noticeably perkier and more energetic tonight, as he tried to climb the fake staircase on the Second City set. He then climbed back down the real stairs and landed up on top of the piano. There was quite a bit of awkward faffing about on top of the piano (to jump or not? Where to put the beer?) Before he jumped down to a round of applause. He kicked off the show with ‘Rock and Roll Nerd’. What can I say? He did an excellent version, with my favourite line ‘but the bitch is always fine, at half past 9 when we go to bed’. He then found a 16 year old lesbian couple in near the front (surprised he didn’t see tiny, 13 year old Julianna looking young) and talked to them for a bit. This sparked a story about his daughter who told him that she wanted to marry her friend, for which he improvised a beautiful punchline (after telling us that the story didn’t have one).

I love his jeans! I didn't just take a shameless photo of his arse... *shifty eyes*

Next up was ‘Inflatable You’. He seemed very surprised that we all knew the song and made us sing the words ‘masturbate at at all’ to his great amusement. After that he played the opening riff of Confessions, but when it received a massive cheer he said ‘well if you all know the punchline it doesn’t work’. He then asked the young looking girl if her name was Sarah as he introduced his next song, which was ‘If I Didn’t Have You’. It wasn’t, but he asked if there were any Sarahs in.. so I cheered. He looked disdainfully at me and told me my name was common. As someone in the audience pointed out, that’s a bit rich coming from a Tim. Anyways, ‘If I Didn’t Have You’ was excellent and the wiggle has really progressed since I last saw it. Next he played the Pope song. My suspicion that Tim is a fucking genius was confirmed as, with a proper piano, he managed to create a beautiful oompah feel completely on his own. Just excellent! Tim didn’t know what to play for his last song and people were shouting lots of stuff out (I wanted Phil Daoust). Then he looked over at me and said, I know Sarah likes ‘You Grew on Me’. I’m really glad he overruled my desire for ‘Phil Daoust’ because, on a proper piano, ‘You Grew on Me’ brought tears to my eyes. That really really is my favourite song of Tim’s. Absolutely beautiful! After a passionate and emotional performance, the crowd (myself included) couldn’t help but give him a standing ovation.

Tim signing my keychain (which has Tim on it)

The keychain (and a tired, bespectacled, me)

And Bo had to follow that. The pair didn’t do any of the drunky/tired banter from last night and Bo did his set. It was the same as last night and while this meant that some of the jokes lost their shine, it also meant that I caught some jokes that I missed last night due to super-speedy-fast talking. Bo seemed pretty aware that the crowd were mostly Tim fans tonight, but again, I thought he was excellent. After his set, Tim came back on stage and I thought, just for a split second, that they might do a duet. They didn’t. Not fair to tease me like that.

Bo is 6'6". Julianna is 4'10". I HAD to take this photo!

I brought Julianna over to the green room (I wasn’t sure where they’d be tonight) but was told that they’d be doing signings/photos at the stage door out back. So we went there. Tim was lovely as usual, and was much more awake this time round. I introduced him to Juliana, she got the picture she drew of him signed. Her parents took soooo many photos of her, Tim and me in various combinations. I got a lovely hug (or two) and kiss on the cheek from Tim.

Hugs!

He chastised me for saying that I was Sarah K on the forum, but not saying that I was @h2osarah on twitter, which is how he recognises me. He even said that he read my blog about yesterday’s show. So, if you’re reading this again Tim, stop wasting your time with my stupid fangirling, and thanks for reading!

My newest, most prized possession. This picture. He’s smiling!! (and yes, I know that I look like a twat, but it doesn’t matter, I’m happy)

Last night was brilliant! Julianna and her parents are amazingly good company (I'm mooching a ride back to Kingston with them today), Tim was on top form and (most importantly) there was a proper piano! I’m so happy! Roll on Montreal!

Comedy Fun Times (Minchin/Burnham duet show, the first)

With just 1 month to go before the Edinburgh Festival, I thought it’d be a good idea to drop everything and spend some time at the Toronto and Montreal comedy festivals. I started off last night seeing the Tim Minchin & Bo Burnham ‘duets’ show (which I’m seeing again tonight... which is why I must blog today so I don’t mash them up... shut up. Stop judging me!).

The audience was an interesting mix of people there to see Tim and people there to see Bo. That’s kind of a weird feeling to start with (especially) as I was sitting behind a table of girls who shrieked and squealed when they saw Bo WALK INTO THE VENUE. I have no time for these people... Anyways, I was lucky enough to find some cool people who I hung out with for the evening and shared a table with.

Bo was introduced by a suspiciously Australian man backstage and kicked off the show. I’m not a massive connoisseur of Bo’s work, but I did see his show at the same venue last year, and there was no repetition. As he’s doing an Edinburgh show this year, I’m hardly surprised. I find it very hard to describe Bo’s stuff since he always seems to be speaking/rapping so fast that you have to focus on the words otherwise you’ll miss it. All I will say is this, his stuff was excellent, beautifully nerdy and incredibly fast-paced. I liked his half far more than I was expecting and if you get a chance to see him in Edinburgh, or on tour, do it! I’m looking forward to his Edinburgh show even more now!

At the end of Bo’s set, Tim came out on stage and the two bantered for a while. It was clear that they were trying to out-do each other, but both seemed to be loving it. I think that Tim was at a massive disadvantage, cos, as he said, he’d just flown in from London at 5am, spent the day doing sound checks and then done 3 shows (of which this was his last). It was nearing midnight by the time he got on stage, which was 5am in his jet-lagged head. Either way, he held his own and the pair just sort of messed around (clearly this hadn’t been rehearsed) on stage for a while.

After that, Tim was left to his own devices on a really terrible electric keyboard. Bo had used it as well, but that’s more his style. We spoke about this after the show yesterday and he wasn’t happy, but apparantly there will be a proper piano delivered for tonight’s show. Tim spent a fair amount of his set talking to a man with ‘trust me I’m a doctor’ (the lying cunt) written on his t-shirt and his friend who looked like Philip Seymour Hoffman ‘with the talent bred out’. His first song was the Pope song. I’ve only seen the youtube video, but it’s very interesting live! I emphasise again that the electric keyboard was shit, but on a proper piano (like tonight) it will sound awesome. I was wondering how he was going to make up for the feel of the oompah band, and I think he’s done it (to be confirmed after a proper piano is acquired). Then more banter with the ‘doctor’, who we discovered was not a doctor, and has 2 degrees but wouldn’t tell us which. Then Tim didn’t know what song to play next, so made us sing a little song while he ran to get his set list (up the stairs that were on stage). He promptly ditched the set list and just asked for requests. I yelled ‘You Grew on Me’ and got my wish. I fucking love that song. Once again, shit piano, great song! When he started the opening bars, my eyes started tearing up. I’ve not heard that live before. After some more crowd banter, Tim sang his last song, ‘If you Really Loved Me’ to a girl in the front row who was very impressed. Beautiful.

After the show, my table and I stuck around to meet Tim and Bo. The girls I was sitting with had driven 9 hours from the USA to see this show, so they wanted to say hi to Tim. Despite being massively tired, Tim stuck around and had a chat with us, and the table containing the ‘doctor’ and Bo signed autographs and had pictures taken. Tim wasn’t happy about the lack of a piano, but was really lovely. I managed to tell him that I was an Angry-Feeter, and we talked a little about Linzy and Kirsty (I should’ve brought a Kinder Egg... I might tonight), Jamie Kilstein also came up in conversation. It was great! I also managed to have a chat with Bo, where I mentioned that I’d be seeing his Edinburgh show. I wasn’t aware that he’d never done an Edinburgh show before. I’m guessing he’ll walk the ‘Best Newcomer’ award.

Oh right, and then we did this:

Jealous? X

It’s an amazing start to my summer of comedy! It’ll be hard to top this, but I’ll try my best!

Comedy Funtimes!

I went to Toronto last weekend, and the weekend before to see some awesome comedy at Massey Hall theatre. It's a big, beautiful and old venue that, while seating 3000 people, still feels cozy. I saw two shows, the first was Craig Ferguson, the second was Eddie Izzard.

Craig Ferguson - April 23, 2010 9:30pm -

While at the Massey Hall website to book for Eddie Izzard, I saw that Craig was doing a show, so I booked myself a ticket. Craig Ferguson is a Glaswegian comedian who has now immigrated to the USA and hosts the Late Late Show. I was in row K and quite giddy for comedy since I hadn't seen any live standup since Jamie Kilstein in October. The opening act, Randy Kagan, came on and did about 15 minutes. Decent, but generic standup, getting the best response for jokes about Ferguson. Craig came on stage with two characters from the Late Late Show, for a short musical number. I was a bit surprised that he brought characters from the show to his gig, but they got a great response from the audience. The first thing I noticed was that Ferguson was wearing tight, white jeans, a rather unusual look for him. They were a bit blinding under the stage lights. Shortly after coming on stage, Ferguson said that he was going to 'try something new' with us by telling us a joke. He was delightfully sweary, talking about sex education, his (newest) wife & Tiger Woods, with the largest audience response coming from talking about celebrities who had been on the Late Late Show. Throughout the delightful stories he kept coming back to the 'joke' which he was going to tell us. After about an hour on stage, Craig finally revealed that the joke was from one of his comedy heroes, a comedian by the name of... Bernard Manning. The 3000 people in Massey Hall didn't respond to this name. Except for an audible 'awwww' of disappointment that escaped my lips. Craig Ferguson had built up to the climax of his show, which this joke:

I bought my wife a vibrator and a pair of shoes for her birthday. If she doesn't like the shoes, she can go fuck herself.

The joke is fine, but it's no way to end a show. And saying how much he liked Bernard Manning certainly left a bad taste in my mouth. After that, the two characters from the Late Late Show came back on stage and the trio left us with a dance to 'Oops, I did it again' which is apparantly a callback to this part of the show (minus the puppets). I guess I just don't watch his show enough to have appreciated that. For a more positive review of the show, and pictures, from a diehard Late Late Show fan, go here.

I came to the show expecting 2 hours of great standup from veteran standup Craig Ferguson. Instead, Craig relied on the fact that most of the audience watched his TV show on a nightly basis, and did a more sweary version of that.

Eddie Izzard - May 1, 2010 8:00pm -

After what can only be described as a disappointment from Ferguson a week earlier, I was super excited to see Eddie Izzard live for the first time! I brought my 2 friends this time, and we all had a great time! Eddie came out on stage, with no warm up act, and did what he does best for 3 hours (with a tiny 15 minute interval). A marathon show! I have seen lots of Eddie's previous shows on DVD and on youtube, but his style is something that takes some getting used to live. He came onstage to a standing ovation (we're big on those in Canada), and seemed to ramble aimlessly right from the start.
This is him discussing the ancient egyptian hieroglyphs. He talked about everything from the correct pronunciation of 'Toronto' to the Queen, to the UK election, to the ancient Egyptians, to the appendix, to Noah's ark to dyslexia, to speaking french to atheism. But over the 3 hours, the show built up characters and recurring themes. My favourite recurring theme was how to end a scene. You just blow up the character with a bazooka. He used that one many times throughout the evening when he improvised himself into a corner.
The audience took part too, creating this great atmosphere of intimacy. It also helped that I was in the second row and couldn't see the thousands of people sat behind me. I will admit that there were short sections where Eddie lost me, either by making references that went over my head, or simply because I zoned out a bit. However, he always pulled me back in. That is Eddie's skill. His standup is very loose and he goes wherever he wants to with it, but even if he loses you, he always gets you back. It was a brilliant show. I enjoyed it immensely and finally got that dose of fantastic live standup that I needed. Both my friends enjoyed it as well, my best friend took longer to come round to Eddie's style than her boyfriend, but the second half had her convinced.
I was pretty tired after the show, and really wanted an autograph for the beautiful programme that I bought, so I got keys to my friend's apartment and my two friends left to go to their friend's party. I hung out by the stage door for about 45 minutes waiting for Eddie to appear, but the people I met were brilliant! Unlike the previous week's "omigodilovehimsomuchhesontv" fans, the people waiting at the stage door for Eddie were friendly, smart, and really really great people. I met 4 in particular that I happily talked comedy with for the time. Eventually, Eddie finally made an appearance and despite being rather tired (he's still on UK time after all), happily signed my programme and even let me have a picture with him:
What a brilliant end to a brilliant evening. In my post-comedy glow on the subway home, I met a guy who had seen Eddie's show the previous evening. We had a lovely comedy chat the whole ride home. I love comedy people. They are so friendly and interesting. Bring on Edinburgh!

April 2010

Hello readers! It's been far too long since I've updated. So here goes,

The hair - It's fading at a ridiculous rate now. I got asked by the dentist 'what colour was your hair originally?'. Charming. I might have to switch to a more manageable gingery brown later.
The resume - I finally fixed up my resume completely. It's done. Ready enough to send out to people.

Miscellaneous - I'm thinking about booking a counseling appointment as part of my 'being happier' section of TYSIC. I've been fairly apathetic about life recently and have thought that I might be depressed. I tend to get a bit depressed in the winter, what with horrible cold and no sun. The clocks have been forwardly sprung for about a month now (in Canada) and the weather's been lovely, but I still feel down, and can't be bothered with anything at the moment. It's been a year since my old job started going really badly downhill and about 6 months since I quit that job. Despite getting out of the situation that made me feel horrible, my desire to do work hasn't started up again and I feel almost completely apathetic toward my degree. I just want it to be over. Anyway, that's enough whingeing, but I hope that counseling might help me piece together my shattered self confidence and get back on track. Plus, it's free through my university, so I won't waste any money.

If anyone has any feedback on counseling experience, or any of the other things, please comment! Thanks for reading!
x Sarah