June 17th, 2004
December 22, 2004
There is so much going on right now, my biggest concern is making sure everything gets the attention it deserves.
I am currently working on my new clown show, FLOOD, with my lovely director/co-creator, Sonia Norris. She is great and we just realized that we have now know one another for ten years. That happens.
But more to the point, FLOOD will premier at The 27th Annual Rhubarb! Festival February 2 - 6, 2005.
Also, I have been accepted into the 2005 Groundswell Playwright's Unit at Nightwood Theatre to continue work on my play, Anorexican. It looks like an amazing group of women and I couldn't be happier to be continuing development of the play with Nightwood. Feminists are pretty cool.
As if all this wasn't enough, Mr. Levi MacDougall and I have launched our new cabaret series, Comedy for the Snobs, and are always working on the side to book the most amazing line-ups we can dream up and bring them to a nice, normal venue in Parkdale. Really, you should probably be seeing these shows.
The other big announcement is the catch23 Tournament of Wonders, which is a week-long improv tournament and showcase presented by all us fine folks at catch23. I am particularily excited because we are managing to bring some of my favorite improvisers/human beings to town including Crumbs from Winnipeg and members of Dad's Garage Theatre Company from Atlanta.
The tournament runs March 7-12, 2005 at the Poor Alex Theatre and Clinton's Tavern.
Other than that, I am mostly booking myself into cabarets where I can do clown again and remind myself what that is all about.
Oh, and IRON COBRA's lone gig for the next few months is at Did You Hear the one About Cancer?, an annual fundraiser for the Cancer Society presented by Mike Balazo and Mark Forward. That is near the end of January. Look here.
November 4, 2004
So many shows, so little time.
September 22, 2004
Much has transpired.
A bit overwhelming.
The staged reading of my play at Groundswell (as read by Teresa Pavlinek under the direction of Cathy Gordon) came off beautifully. Teresa and Cathy are both amazingly talented women and it is hard not to gush. They worked on the script in such a playful and unrelenting manner even in its most horrifying passages. I was kind of in heaven. The growth of that piece will owe so much to them.
Graham and I took IRON COBRA to the World Domination TheatreSports Championships in Atlanta. We had an even better time than at their improv festival, I believe, and had the chance to work with a bunch of other improvisers this time. Also we won. I think that is funny.
In the two weeks after we got back to Toronto we also got news that I have been nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award and IRON COBRA has been nominated for the Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award. I will not be able to attend to Comedy Awards as Graham and I will be in Winnipeg at that time but the Tim Sims Award gauntlet seems to include a few performances. In that undertaking we are glad to be in the company of some good friends and fellow nominees including Katie Crown, Knock Knock. Who's There? Comedy! and Mike Balazo.
In other news, I am currently wading through paperwork in many seperate attempts to make great things happen. On the agenda: beginning work on a new clown show under the direction of Sonia Norris, trying to book a Fringe tour for next summer, the further development of my play, a small tour for IRON COBRA and of course all the mania associated with the Tim Sims Award.
I also have a few other shows coming up including a clown appearance at the Hysteria! Festival with Helen Donnelly and some fundraiser Graham and I have agreed to host.
David "Digital DDP" Dineen-Porter and I have also teamed up with a dude named Andrew to work on some radio projects.
It seems the sun never sets on my great sleepy empire.
I feel like I could split it about twenty directions right now and they all hold promise.
June 17th, 2004
As always, much is happening.
I just finished a little stint directing the Distractions (Levi MacDougall, Tim Polley & Paul Schuck) in their best of 03/04 show at the Rivoli.
Ms. Katie Crown and I also managed to get the wee puppet show we made up and running in time for Bob Wiseman's CD Realease party. It was a magical evening complete with stained glass windows and a lightning storm. Bob has since filmed the puppet show and premiered it last night opening for John Southworth at the Rivoli. The film, Uranium, screens again this Saturday night as part of Splice This! (Toronto's Super 8mm Film Festival) at the Gladstone Hotel.
Also, the Fringe is coming up. And just when I thought I was not involved at all this year, it seems I find myself quite misinformed. I will be doing a couple of guest spots on Late Night with the Rumoli Brothers as well as a few performances of Julie Dumais' longform improv show, soundtrack.
And, I now have the date for the Write from the Hip staged readings at Nightwood Theatre's Groundswell Festival. August 29th. After six months of weekly meetings, I (along with my six counterparts) will have 15 minutes of my play staged as directed by some outside person.
Further along the horizon, Graham and I are also slated to perform some requested sketches at the Shehori Brothers' Character Night 3rd Anniversary Show. August 3rd. Tim Sims Playhouse. The line-up also inlcudes Knock Knock. Who's There? Comedy!, The Imponderables, and I know I've been told but I forget who else.
And other chatter is going on about other shows, too. But for serious this time.
April 3, 2004
It has been forever since last I updated. This has had far less to do with the amount of work I am doing and almost everything to do with my conviction that having the internet at home was beyond my means.
The last news I posted here was in September of last year so I am going to try to loosely fill in the last seven months as well outline a few neat things coming up.
I may have to consult my day planner.
Also, this may take a while.
Shortly after my last posting, I did my first piece with Helen Donnelly (at the RED Cabaret). 'Foo & ruby' debuted at the cabaret's one year anniversary and we have been doing little turns at little shows around town here and there ever since. Helen is an incredible performer and an amazing person to work with. I don't either of know what will come of these collaborations but there are currently a heck of a lot of fun.
In October, Graham and I took IRON COBRA (you know, ourselves) to if... (Winnipeg's Improv Festival). The festival was a lot of fun and was filled to the brim with old friends from all over the place (Steve Sim, Lee White, Tazman Van Rassel, Ryan Gladstone, Bruce Horak, Robyn Slade, Jeff Sinclair, Dave Kitchen, Ron Moore, Devin McCracken, Craig Bjerring...). Aside from all the old friends, a real highlight for me was the day we spent experimenting with and devising improvised video (a few by ourselves and one with Winnipeg director Sean Garrity).
About exactly as soon as I got back to Toronto I hopped on stage at the first annual Hysteria (a Festival of Women) Produced by Buddies in Bad Times and Nightwood Theatre. That was fun.
In December, I also finished the application and interview process for Write from the Hip (the young playwrights unit also programmed by Nightwood Theatre) and was informed of my acceptance soon after. The progeam this year is being run by Lisa Codrington and we had our first session a week and a bit ago. It looks to be an amazing program and I'm very excited about putting together my first full length script in the company of such lovely and creative ladies.
In the new year, I mostly focused on doing a bunch of little shows: I continued to do catch23 IMPROV almost every Monday at Clinton's; I did some episodes of Albert Howell's improvised soap opera series, Dazed with our Lives; I've done a few installments of Neil Muscott's monthly cabaret of clown, Cirque du Poulet; I did Tuesday Sketchday with the Distractions and the Understudies and Eclectic Circus Character Night at the Tim Sims Playhouse; and I had my first minute of stage time at the Rhubarb! Festival as one of 40 Tiny Performances Under a RED Light curated by Lisa Pijuan.
I also spent a day playing some kind of crazy awkward dancer for Brenda Goldstein's new experimental video thingy, Fear Factory, commissioned by Charles Street Video for the Images Festival. The festival must be happening soon but I don't know when.
There are countless projects coming up, too - too many, perhaps.
IRON COBRA has been recording at Toy Box Studios with James "Textbook" Hodgkinson and we will be releasing some of the new stuff soon via our webpage. We have also been invited down to the Atlanta Improv Festival at the end of May and are gearing up for that.
As has been the way for the past three years, Mark Andrada and I are slowly working on a show together. But for serious, this time. We won't just write it we will put in on stage.
Helen and I have a performance coming up (possibly two). We will be screwing around and yelling at one another at the upcoming clown show at the Lula Lounge. Also, I have slot to do clown in a cabaret at the D.K. Ranch (the rooftop patio of the apartment of Derek Flores and Kristian Reimer). Helen is in Vancouver right now so our communication is currently sporradic, but if she can't join me then ruby will just have to do some terrifying solo turn.
catch23 still trundles along every Monday night at Clinton's.
Levi MacDougall and I are in the early planning stages for some sort of collaboration (ie. we go drink beer together and talk about how great we are). I'm sure sometime interesting will come of it, nonetheless.
And I am working on a very exciting project with Bob Wiseman and Katie Crown. For the release of Bob's new album we are working on a puppet show to accompany one of his more morose and pointed songs. The current plan is that we will eventually make a movie of this little piece that could then go on the road with him when he tours.
Which reminds me, I have some puppets to make.