It's Like Moviephone for Your Eyes!

More details about Saturday's show:

The Cuban Missive Crisis

Despite my less than stellar performance with The Blue Margarets last month (see last post), they've invited me back for this month's show: Saturday, March 31 at 8:30 PM at The Charlotte Room (12 Charlotte St., between King and Adelaide). Want to see some high-octane side-splitting improvisational comedy? Well, Second City is just down the street. But we're so much cheaper (pay whay you can) -- in every sense of the word.

In other performance (i.e. desperate for attention) news, I was asked by co-worker and IBBY Canada president Susan Shipton to emcee at last week's Hot Hot Cuba! fundraiser. The International Board on Books for Young People is a non-profit organization that works to bring children and books together around the world. The biennial Cuban-themed party raises money to send books to kids in the land of Castro. This year's shindig was held at Toronto's Lula Lounge and featured salsa dancing taught by a smoldering Venezualan, the passionate rhthyms of Lady Son and her band Articulo Veinte, and, er, me.

It seems that a higher-profile individual with stronger ties to the Latin American community was unavailable. I can only assume that all those hours of watching I Love Lucy as a child are what got me the gig. So, I took the pre-written announcements, grabbed the mike, and gave it my Presbyterian-white-boy-from-London-Ontario all. In spite of this, there was an impressive turnout and a good time seemed to be had by all.

On with the Show

I see by the ol' calendar that it has been almost a month since my last post. I started this blog to keep family and friends apprised of my cancer situation. Although I'm unspeakably grateful that the threat has passed, I now face the daunting possibility that my non-diseased self is less interesting than my cancer-facing self. In the interest of keeping myself (and, by extension, this blog) interesting, I will be wrestling sharks on a weekly basis and posting the photos here.


Okay, not really. But I will continue making regular posts about the goings-on in my life that I hope you, dear reader, will find interesting and entertaining. Today: two quick updates on my fledgling hobby as a comedian.

1) The Tongue Was Willing, But the Brain Was Weak

This past Saturday night, I once again joined the improv troupe The Blue Margarets for their monthly performance at The Charlotte Room here in Toronto. It was my first performance since the surgery and although my reduced tongue hasn't impacted on my speech, I was nevertheless nervous. Turns out it was my brain that I should have been worried about. Four months without improv has left my skills a little rusty. I was slow on picking up other performers' offers, forgetful about key elements of scenes, and generally sloppy about keeping the audience entertained. Nevertheless, I was grateful for the chance to shake off the rust. Hopefully I'll be all the more prepared for the next show, assuming the Margarets ask me back...

2) Sure, It's Funny in Practice, But Is It Funny on Paper?

Last fall I joined a group called the Book Publishers' Professional Association. The BPPA puts on an annual cabaret of sketches and songs poking fun at the year in publishing, and I've volunteered to contribute some scripts. This will be my first time scripting comedy since my internship at YTV in '98-'99 and the first writing I've done since studying improv. I've found it fascinating to feel my improv skills kick in while I was writing, especially concepts such as advancing the scene, upping the comedic stakes, and the benefits of strong characters. I've already submitted three sketches and will be interested to see how they come to life (or not) when performed. The cabaret committee met last night to firm up the set list and I think it's going to be a fun show. If not, I'll go back to wrestling sharks.