Mark Meer elected Edmontonian of 2012 in landslide victory
We should’ve known what would happen if we put Mark Meer on the list. Of course he was voted GigCity’s Edmontonian of the Year – in a landslide, with 68% of the vote. He’s such a tireless self-promoter and wields such a formidable clout in social media that winning our little contest/social experiment was a [...]
Vote now for Edmontonian of the Year!
If Time magazine can choose a “Person of the Year” from eight billion prospects, we can certainly do it from among the mere one million citizens of Edmonton. It’s kind of like Vue magazine’s “best of Edmonton,” but there can only be one. We just don’t have the budget. The only criteria was “made waves [...]
Who is the Edmonton Person of the Year?
We’re making a list – but we’ll be checking it three times, at least. The hunt is on for Edmonton’s “Person of the Year,” for no other good reason than “why the hell not?” And you – yes, you, reader – can play a part. In the first phase of what will undoubtedly be a [...]
TV: Tiny Plastic Men a kids’ show for grown-ups
Tiny Plastic Men isn’t just another little TV comedy – it’s an important signpost to a modern world where grown-ups have refused to grow up. The Edmonton-produced sitcom-sketch comedy series – premiering Monday at 8 p.m. on Superchannel – stars the local writer-creators Mark Meer, Chris Craddock and Matt Alden as a trio of numbskulls [...]
SCARY TIMES: 13 Halloween events for grown-ups who don’t want to grow up
It’s no mystery why Halloween has been completely co-opted and dominated by grown-ups – it’s because many modern grown-ups have failed to grow up. Joe Flaherty – SCTV’s Count Floyd, so he ought to know about this sort of thing – complained that many of the adult students in his improv classes back East were [...]
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 [...]
FRINGE OF THE PICKS: Locals expected to rise to the top
According to a highly scientific study tracking the statistical average quality of Fringe plays over the last 20 years or so, a full sixty per cent of Fringe plays are now at the level of “not bad,” up significantly from past ratings of “OK.” It’s what you say to a friend asking about that play [...]
Area improviser Mark Meer up for Canadian Comedy Award
Mark Meer appears to be the only Edmonton nominee at this year’s Canadian Comedy Awards – and that says more about Mark Meer than it does about any possible bias against Edmonton. We’re just one funny town in a funny country – and this particular local actor just happens to stand out because he works [...]
THEATRE: Little Elephants a peek into gently eccentric British family
The reason North Americans are so fascinated and amused by British people is a mystery. But at least now we have another reason to tune away from Coronation Street or the Royals visit coverage with another delightful peek into a typically barmy British family in Belinda Cornish’s new play, Little Elephants. It opens Thursday at [...]
WHAT’S SO FUNNY: Landry airs dirty laundry
It’s getting a little tiresome to see ethnic stand-up comics going on and on about their ethnicity time after time after time – but hey, write what you know, eh? Still, it seems a bit lazy. One of the best in Edmonton this weekend is the mono-named Landry, at the Laugh Shop in Sherwood Park. [...]
GIGGLE CITY: Donovan Workun funniest when allowed to be himself
The whole notion that “corporate comedy” is a brain drain that removes the best comic talent from the public eye recently surfaced with the curious case of Donovan Workun – a master comic improviser who’s so good at doing those high-paying corporate shows that he rarely performs in public as the Atomic Improv anymore. The [...]
THEATRE: Art imitates surreality in Die-Nasty Soap-a-Thon
Strange things can happen to actors who go the distance at the annual Die-Nasty Soap-a-Thon – this year’s edition beginning Friday at 7 p.m. at the Varscona Theatre and running continuously through Sunday at 9 p.m. Disorientation, delirium, borderline psychosis, galloping coma, terminal giddiness, you name the symptom of sleep deprivation, you might just see [...]
