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.