This was my night to be on the run — hitting up 3 shows, or, perhaps more accurately 1 show and 2 chunks. I was shocked to learn before departing for the 8pm Double Threat show at Yuk Yuk’s that it was not sold out. What? This was a double bill of Todd Barry and [...]
View Post
Luckily for us, the concept of “truth in comedy” is a foreign one to Noel Fielding.
In front of his second of three packed houses at Toronto’s intimate Comedy Bar, the uber-popular Mighty Boosh star wove fantastical tales out of small granules of reality. He took us on adventures though having a flamingo as a roommate after a zoological “adoption” program gone awry, the inner dialogue of a fly trapped indoors, and his relationship with his freaky neighbor dubbed “Monkey Edwards”. It all starts innocent enough, but before you know it you realize Fielding has sneakily led you down a dark path of make-believe.
View Post
On paper, those of us who attended the 9:30 Alternative Show on Thursday night got shorted. Those early-show people got the surprise bonus additions of Noel Fielding and Chris Hardwick! Damn them! Plus, they got a set from Pat Thornton which, by all accounts was absolutely killer. Sigh. It’s hard to feel too sorry for [...]
View Post
A reliable little birdie has told me that for those wanting to see a Just For Laughs show on the cheap tonight can head over to Comedy Bar, and with the password “OPRAH” score themselves a 2-for-1 deal on Daniel Packard’s 7:30 pm show Live Group Sex Therapy. It’s not as good as everybody getting [...]
View Post
It would turn out to be a slightly ironic statement made by Tommy Tiernan at the start of his Wednesday night performance of Crooked Man, pointing out how ridiculous it was that he was beckoned to travel all the way from Ireland “to do something you’re very capable of doing among yourselves – laughing.” As [...]
View Post
Last night marked the world premiere of Mike Birbiglia’s new one-man show, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, at Just For Laughs Toronto. Having seen his wildly successful off-Broadway run of Sleepwalk With Me last year, this was unquestionably at the top of my list of “must-sees” for the Festival. And it remains there. It isn’t just an [...]
View Post
I’ll admit off the top that my expectations for Elon Gold’s show were low. Perhaps unfairly. My one and only experience seeing him live was on a steamy Tuesday night in July of 2006, at the Comedy Cellar in NYC. After that show, I blogged privately that “he got mad at the audience, didn’t want [...]
View Post