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

Update blog!

It's been a few days, and it's time for an update!

Red hair update: 5 days have passed since I dyed my hair red. The 'new' factor has worn off and it's time to be critical. I still like it, but I've encountered a few problems. I can see my roots already, mostly around my forehead. My friend who dyed my hair was careful not to dye my skin, but in doing so has left some fairly noticeable roots. The other issue is that I own a fair amount of red, pink and orange clothes which don't go with my new 'do, including my coat. It is fun and looks great if I'm wearing black, and I've done my makeup, but doesn't work so well every day. On the plus side, it makes my green eyes really stand out.

TYSIC update: I looked at my resume today for the first time since September. Within a few moments of reading it and trying to update it I've gotten anxious and worried again. But in the spirit of facing my fears I booked an appointment with a career counselor to go over my resume together on Friday. By making an appointment I have made it impossible for me to back out. I'll probably make a few more appointments there in the near future.

Comedy update: If you're following me on twitter you'll know that over the past few days the idea of flying to London in mid-May for comedy goodness has crossed my mind. A financially stupid idea, yes, but I was tempted by the idea of seeing Git, Fat Tuesday and Derren Brown!!! (not to mention a bunch of friends). I looked at flights but was waiting to book until I found out my work schedule.
However, this morning I found out that Craig Ferguson and Eddie Izzard are both performing in Toronto in the near future (Craig on the 23rd of April and Eddie on April 30th-May 2nd). This would make more financial sense, and even two round trips to Toronto on the train and more expensive tickets would be more financially sensible and less time-consuming than a week in London. I've never seen Craig or Eddie live before, so this'll be great!
The idea of going to London is still really really tempting (I really want to see my friends, and Git), but I think I'll opt for comedy in my own country instead. I'll try and bring some of my 3D friends along too!
This is giving me a little more hope about lasting till Edinburgh without going insane. I'll have comedy to look forward to at the end of April (twice) and once or twice in July (with Just for Laughs festivals in Montreal and Toronto) before going to Edinburgh in August. Seems like I've got myself set up for comedy in the summer. It's the drought from September till March that I'll need to work on next year.

Red Hair

So, as I mentioned previously, I tried, but failed to dye my hair red. I tried again last night, this time with a lot more success. It's definitely red now. It's a little more orange-y than I was hoping, but I still rather like it. So there it is. My first TYSIC goal done.
I'm not sure if I'll keep it for very long, but at least I've done it. I've dyed my reddish tones before, from a purple-y brown to a gingery blonde. I'm not sure why I love being a red head so much, or why I find that it suits me more than my natural colour (a sort of light ash brown) but it does. I think it's my the scottish blood and the few freckles on my nose so kindly donated to me by my Granny.
I figured that this would be a last kind of crazy thing I do with my hair before retreating back to the world of the natural, but I quite like my red hair. Sure it might be high-maintenance and look kinda shitty when I inevitably don't bother to take care of it, but there's something special about being a red-head. Something nice about being different and standing out from the crowd.
I was thinking this as I walked down the street, 5'11" plus 3" heels, shiny faux-leather jacket and flaming red hair... maybe all I want is attention.