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July 24, 2009
By Sara Faith Alterman
The trouble with most sketch comedy is that it's built around a joke as the premise, with no real resolution. So, usually, there's a funny setup, a bunch of jokes, and then...it just kind of peters out. Perhaps you're familiar with this storytelling shortfall -- you should be, if you've ever watched Saturday Night Live.
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July 24, 2009
By Sara Faith Alterman
The people of Montreal love their festivals -- that much is clear from the omnipresent Just For Laughs paraphernalia that festoons the city. I've been pretty busy flitting from show to show, but, in between giggles and overpriced wine in plastic cups, I have had a chance to snap a few photos of a fraction of the fun stuff.
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July 23, 2009
By Sara Faith Alterman
While, for the average festival goer, it might not hold the same calibur of appeal as the A-list comedians, the New Faces show is highly anticipated by industry folks, comedians, and journalists, because it showcases the potential A-listers of the future.
In other words, it's a big f-ing deal to get on a Montreal New Faces show, and Boston had a chance to represent.
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July 23, 2009
By Sara Faith Alterman
As part of the festival's Videotron Gala series -- and let me just interrupt myself for a second. When you hear 'Videotron Gala series," doesn't that make you think of a bunch of a shows that are featuring video, capped with a "hip" name that marketing douches came up with? Maybe I'm the only asshole in Montreal, but I honestly thought that there would be video involved.
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July 23, 2009
By Sara Faith Alterman
I was incredibly excited for this show, featuring host John Cleese, one of my comedy idols and,
if you want to know a weird secret, one of my biggest childhood crushes. Even then, I liked 'em dorky.
Everything inside the Theatre Saint Denis was awash in this weird neon glow; lime green and Jolly Rancher red lights flashing and swirling everywhere, like a Christmas-themed laser show.
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July 23, 2009
By Sara Faith Alterman
How can I give anything but love to my boy Napkins? Lord knows I've written about him enough times, for The Phoenix, and for Stuff, (plus, I skeeved a ride here with him, so...it's not in my best interest to hate, unless I want to rely on lonely transnational truckers to give me a series of lifts towards home.
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July 22, 2009
By Sara Faith Alterman
As previously mentioned, there is nobody quite like comedian Reggie Watts. Hobo meets hip-hop meets Emo meets Emo Phillips is the best I can come up with to describe him.
He's hosting this weeks' series of Amp'd Music Comedy shows, and doing a perfect job of it. The problem with most comedy show hosts is that they're mostly comedians -- or wannabe comedians who own comedy clubs -- and they don't know when to get the fuck off the stage.
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July 22, 2009
By Sara Faith Alterman
I hit the Amp'd Music Comedy show at midnight last night, at a trippy space called the Cabaret Justs pour Rire - blue lights, fog machine, disco balls, the works. The show was hosted by the incomparable Reggie Watts, whose glorious afro is its own one-man show. Remember Michael Winslow from the Police Academy movies, the guy who could make all those crazy whizzing and beeping sounds? Reggie Watts is what would happen if that guy took a bunch of acid while studying at Julliard.
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July 22, 2009
By Sara Faith Alterman
When I heard that "Dance Animal" was a comedy dance troupe, I felt a lot of things; Excitement. Curiosity. Skepticism. Sure, dancing can be funny, especially when it involves white dudes in khakis and The Phoenix Landing. Yet, I feared for Dance Animal. Feared that they would come across as a ragtag band of dorky neighborhood theatre kids, who spend their free time after Guys and Dolls rehearsal choreographing dances in someone's backyard.
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July 21, 2009
By Sara Faith Alterman
I stopped by the press office to make sure I'd actually get INTO comedy shows tonight. You know. Because that's why I'm...here...
Allegedly, I'm cleared to see the Best of the Fringe, featuring Dance Animal ; the New Faces show (which is quickly becoming the bain of my professional existance); and Amp'd, the musical comedy show featuring MC Mr.
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