EDMONTON COMEDY FESTIVAL: Stand-up harder than it looks
I have a new found respect for stand-up comedians after walking a mile in their shoes for the first time. It’s not as easy as it looks – and it looks hard enough to begin with. My three minutes of terror was part of the Edmonton Comedy Festival’s “Funniest Media Person” contest at the River [...]
EDMONTON COMEDY FESTIVAL: How funny is Jim Cuddy?
Jim Cuddy says he honestly has no idea why he was asked to be the host of the opening night at the Edmonton Comedy Festival, “Jim Cuddy’s Comedy Rodeo,” Wednesday at the Citadel Theatre (with Louis Ramey, Kevin McGrath, Trent McClelland, Atomic Improv, Lars Callieou and Sean Lecomber). Damn it, Jim, he’s a musician, not [...]
WHAT’S SO FUNNY: Even one club down, lots of comedy ahead
Make that What’s Not So Funny – it looks like the Laugh Shop is out of business. There was talk the Sherwood Park comedy club would be moving to a new 124th Street location for an opening on Oct. 1, but that never came to pass. The owner-operators reportedly sold the building and that is [...]
WHAT’S SO FUNNY: More swords and sex than usual in Die-Nasty Soap-a-Thon
The annual Die-Nasty Soap-a-Thon – running continuously this Friday through Sunday at the Varscona Theatre – has chosen “Game of Thrones” as its theme this year. But don’t worry, it shouldn’t be any harder to follow than any other 50 hour marathon of improvised comedy. The inexhaustible Mark Meer – who once again is expected [...]
Funny business afoot as Rapid Fire Theatre moves to the Citadel
The old idea that the Citadel Theatre is the Edmonton version of Broadway, this ivory tower that’s both artistically and financially above all other local theatre companies is about to get turned on its head. Rapid Fire Theatre is moving in. These guys are loud, known to cuss, usually hilarious, and they don’t even know [...]
Magazine on mission to mount monument to Melonville
We may drive down Mark Messier Trail, meet at the Wayne Gretzky statue and pause beside the Rollie Miles mural – so maybe it’s time we erected a Monument to Melonville. That’s what Avenue magazine is after in its determined campaign to pay sculptural tribute to the great Canadian comedy series SCTV, which has its [...]
The unwritten (until now) rules of the Fringe
At the front of the Fringe program is a list of rules – “Village Bylaws” – with things like arriving early, refraining from bringing your cat or turning your cellphone off at a play. Really? Do we still need to be reminded to turn our cellphones off at the theatre? Half the Fringe shows this [...]
Holy Batman! The real Batman to host Comic-Con in October
Gird your loins, adventurers, for an upcoming “Comic-Con” exhibition of pop culture is bringing in the REAL Batman – which, as everyone knows, is Adam West. The star of the popular TV 1960s series – and lately as Mayor Adam West on Family Guy – is just one of the special guests expected at Edmonton [...]
FRINGE CITY: The Return of the Borg
It’s always nice when an ex-Edmontonian comes back to visit. Break out the good bong. And show your love for Wes Borg when he returns to this year’s Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival – running Aug. 16-26 at innumerable theatres around town – the first time since his friend and partner Joe Bird died suddenly [...]
Seven ways the Edmonton Folk Music Festival is like Disneyland
Well, there goes another folk festival – into the inevitable Four Strong Winds, whose annual performance at the end of the event marks the beginning of fall in Edmonton. Suckers! Longtime festival-goers – especially longtime festival-goers with kids – may notice certain similarities between the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and Disneyland. It’s eerie when you [...]
ANNOUNCING: Jeff Dunham, Wintersleep, The Wiggles
One of the biggest stand-up comics who gets away with murder because he can blame it all on his racist puppets is returning to Edmonton. You guessed it: Jeff Dunham – along with Walter, Peanut, Jose Jalapeno on a Stick, Melvin the Superhero Guy and the ever-loving Achmed the Dead Terrorist, and many more! – [...]
NEW FESTIVAL NAME: K stands for Klondike, you nitwits
The most anti-climactic, waste-of-money contest in city history has wrapped up and we have a new fair name. The winner? No one, really. When Northlands announced a couple of months back that they’d be looking for a new name for Capital Ex, the collective yell for a return to the silly-but-lovely tradition that was K-Days [...]
