WHAT’S SO FUNNY: Arena comics risk Nickelback syndrome
There’s something strange that happens in the course of a stand-up comedian’s rise to success. While moving up from nightclubs to theatres is celebrated, prompting pats on the backs and kudos all around, hitting the next level – arenas – seems to result in a wee bit of a backlash. Consider that racist puppet guy, […]
TEDESCHI TRUCKS: Marriage like a band, band like a marriage
We’ve beaten to death this idea that being in a band is like a marriage – but what about a band that literally is a marriage? The Tedeschi Trucks Band – at the Jubilee Auditorium Friday night – is centred around Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, a power blues couple if there ever was one. […]
Apocalyptic Pagan rock opera to premiere at North Country Fair
Here’s a devilish scenario: What if – of all religions – Paganism turns out to be the correct one? Like, hey, didn’t see that coming. Imagine: The Mother Earth Goddess, aka Gaia, has been beaten and raped by humanity. Her husband, meanwhile, doesn’t know because he’s been asleep for several hundred years following an epic […]
COMIC INTERVIEW: Brent Butt gets mocked for optimism
The great thing about being a stand-up comic who gets a TV series is that you have a pretty sweet gig to fall back on once the series – inevitably – ends. A lot of TV actors aren’t so lucky. Ask Seinfeld’s co-stars. Brent Butt was of course the creator and star of the CTV […]
FOOD: River Cree Casino hosts heirloom tomato festival
One imagines the heirloom tomato fetishists keeping the sacred seeds of the precious Brandywine Lollypop safe in lockets around their necks, only sharing their fruits with a select few of their privileged fellow heirloom tomato enthusiasts on special occasions. You’d think they were growing marijuana. The humble fruit – right, tomato is a fruit – […]
BRYAN’S SONGS: Now or never, all or nothing
Bryan Adams doesn’t do anything by half. It’s either now or never. There is no stalling for some indeterminate point in the near future. Everywhere you go, the kids wanna rock, not just certain places you go. The lack of direct empirical evidence doesn’t seem to matter. Has Bryan actually played everywhere just to make […]
Area teacher-comic zeros in on what’s wrong with schools
“In our generation, we eliminated the stupid kids.” Relax, it’s just a joke from an old guy – professional stand-up comedian and schoolteacher Ken Valgardson. See, if there’s anybody who can find humour in the No Zeros brouhaha, it’s this man. Not only that, but Mr. Valgardson is a teacher who retires in couple of […]
City crime novelist wins $10,000 prize at Alberta Book Awards
Wayne Arthurson’s tale of life and death on the mean streets of Edmonton turns out to be a big hit with Alberta readers. The local author has won the top prize at the Alberta Book Awards – a $10,000 Alberta Reader’s Choice Award honouring his first novel, Fall From Grace, dealing with a gambling-addicted newspaper […]
