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Off Key Comedy Aims to Fuse Stand-Up and Song

Chris Dart — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:15:44 +0000

A musical-comedy showcase tries to shake the genre's lame reputation.

Even with the success of acts like Lonely Island and Flight of the Conchords, people still tend to view musical comedy with some suspicion, and not without reason. Those high-profile success stories aside, at the club level, musical comedy is too often the province of people who aren’t quite good enough to make it as musicians, but not quite funny enough to make it as comedians.

Two local comics, Robert Keller and Rush Zilla, are out to change that perception with their show, Off Key Comedy, which features a wide variety of acts whose only commonality is that they combine music and comedy in one form or another. The third edition of the monthly show will take place on May 23, at Comedy Bar.

Of a Monstrous Child is Caught in a Complex Romance with Lady Gaga

Carly Maga — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:00:29 +0000

Alistair Newton's new play dives into the history of performance art to explain our cultural fascination with the House of Gaga.

Despite the fact that the last show in Buddies in Bad Times Theatre’s 2012/2013 season is titled Of a Monstrous Child: A Gaga Musical, Lady Gaga herself takes a secondary role. There are no homages to raw-meat dresses and gold-plated wheelchairs here. Instead, writer and director Alistair Newton uses the House of Gaga as a pathway into the history of the notable performance-art stars that came before her in the pantheon of queer iconography, and how she is and isn’t a construct of all of them put together.

Twin Showcases at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Herald Student Filmmakers

Kevin Scott — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:30:46 +0000

TIFF presents a night of films by directors who are still in high school or university.

It’s entirely possible that an early work by the next Atom Egoyan or David Cronenberg will screen on Wednesday night at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. With the 2013 Student Film Showcase featuring the best from post-secondary schools around the country and the Next Wave Presents: Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase kicking off the evening with Toronto-area high-school students’ films, the night will be a coming-out party for a new crop of talent. Judging by the polished creativity of some of the entries, it’s safe to say that young people are more prepared than ever to start telling stories on film from an early age.

LitTO: February 12–20

Stacey May Fowles — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Photo of d’bi.young.anitafrika and her son, Moon, courtesy of Women’s Press.
Last week’s literary listings featured a number of events celebrating one man (Michael Redhill, who is likely exhausted and has since gone back to Narbonne, France) and One Book (Consolation). This week the obvious literary picks are two very talented, very different women.
Recent winner of the Toronto Arts Council Foundation Emerging Artist award and one of Canada’s most celebrated young performers, d’bi.young.anitafrika launches rivers…and other blackness…between us (Women’s Press) at Lula Lounge next Monday. There’s nothing this woman can’t do; she has performed, published, and lectured internationally, headlined numerous festivals, self-produced five dub albums, appeared on stage and television multiple times, and has been awarded countless “best of” accolades from everyone from Eye Weekly to the National Post. Her second poetry collection is part of a continuing dialogue on the nature of love, and is being praised as a must-read for fans of dub and feminist poetry. If you’re lucky enough to witness a dynamic performance by this incredible artist you certainly won’t be disappointed.
Even though it’s a week away, Torontoist recommends you buy your tickets now for an opportunity to see sultry screen siren (and voice of Jessica Rabbit) Kathleen Turner. Next Tuesday she’s launching her new memoir, Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love and Leading Roles (H.B. Fenn/Springboard Press) at St. Barnabas Anglican Church. Presented by This Is Not A Reading Series and a mere five dollars, watch as The Toronto Star’s Geoff Pevere engages the gravelly-voiced icon in a revealing conversation. The chat will be punctuated with clips from some favourite on-screen moments. While The War of the Roses and Romancing the Stone are obvious picks, let’s hope Turner’s riveting performance as Chandler’s dad on Friends is also featured. Tickets are only available in person from Pages Books & Magazines—there are no reserves or phone orders.
Full listings after the fold.

Toronto Literary Listings: February 12–20

Tuesday, February 12
The Art Bar Poetry Series presents Mike Freeman and Steve Venright. Clinton’s (693 Bloor Street West). 8 p.m. Free.
Wednesday, February 13
Lads Who Lit Literary Lunch with Paul Quarrington and Dave Bidini. Pape/Danforth Library (701 Pape Avenue). 12:30 p.m. Free (bring lunch or buy for $5).
Aloud: A Celebration for Young Readers presents Jill Murray and Meg Rosoff. Harbourfront Centre (235 Queen’s Quay West). 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Thursday, February 14
This Is Not A Reading Series presents Russell Smith in conversation with Josey Vogels. Smith will launch a revised literary edition of his notorious pornographic novel, Diana: A Diary In The Second Person (Biblioasis), by having a frisky Valentines Day conversation with renowned sex columnist. Gladstone Hotel Ballroom (1214 Queen Street West). 7:30 p.m. Free.
Friday, February 15
Diaspora Dialogues presents fiction, poetry, spoken word, drama and music, in conjunction with Keep Toronto Reading 2008. Palmerston Library (560 Palmerston Avenue). 7 p.m. Free.
Saturday, February 16

Toronto Poetry Slam presents the last slam of the regular season before the semi-finals begin in March. Drake Hotel Underground (1150 Queen Street West). 7:30 p.m.
Jill Murray and the all-ages launch party of her debut YA novel, Break on Through. Street Dance Academy (160 Spadina Avenue). 7:30 p.m. Free.
Monday, February 18

This Is Not A Reading Series presents Chris Turner and The Geography of Hope. Gladstone Hotel Ballroom (1214 Queen Street West). 7 p.m. Free.
d’bi.young.anitafrika launches her new book, rivers… and other blackness… between us: (dub) poems of love (Women’s Press). Lula Lounge (1585 Dundas Street West). 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, February 19
Sally Cooper and the launch of Tell Everything (Dundurn Press). Type Books (883 Queen Street West). 7 p.m. Free.
This Is Not A Reading Series presents McSweeney’s contributing editor Dan Kennedy and Rock On: An Office Power Ballad (Thomas Allen Publishers). Gladstone Hotel Ballroom (1214 Queen Street West). 7 p.m. Free.
This Is Not A Reading Series presents Kathleen Turner and Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love and Leading Roles. St. Barnabas Anglican Church (361 Danforth Ave). 8 p.m. (doors 7:30 p.m.) Advance tickets $5 at Pages Books & Magazines (256 Queen Street West).
U of T Book Store Reading Series presents Fred Doucette, author of Empty Casing: A Soldier’s Memoir of Sarajevo Under Siege (Douglas & McIntyre, 2008). Robert Gill Theatre (214 College Street, St. George entrance, 3rd Floor). 7:30 p.m. Free.
The Art Bar Poetry Series celebrates Black History Night with host Rudy Fearon. Clinton’s (693 Bloor Street West). 8 p.m. Free.
Wednesday, February 20
Draft Reading Series, in conjunction with PEN Canada, presents DRAFT 3.3 —The Writers-in-Exile Edition. Readings from authors Andrea Hila and Mehri Yalfani of the PEN Canada Writers in Exile Network along with local author Ann Ireland. SOMA Restaurant and Lounge (703 Queen Street East). 8 p.m. $5 (copy of DRAFT included).

Have You Written Anything I Might Have Read?

Stacey May Fowles — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:00:00 +0000

Oh, the seemingly endless toil and frustration of being an underpublished and underappreciated writer. There’s the mailbox full of polite, predictable rejections and the depressing rite of passage otherwise known as “open mic night.” When you finally emerge from it all, it’s certainly time to rejoice.
Thankfully Pages Books & Magazines’ This Is Not A Reading Series has stepped up to celebrate some of the lesser-known but soon-to-be-well-known players in Toronto’s vibrant literary scene. Tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 7:30, in honour of Daniel Scott Tysdal’s first-place win in Eye Weekly’s first ever short story competition, The Gladstone Hotel will host Emerging Writers Night. In full “not a reading” style, the event will instead feature an old-time radio performance of Tysdal’s winning story, complete with live on-stage sound effects. Tysdal is likely to find himself graduating to “established” shortly—he’s already experienced attention and praise for his debut poetry collection, which won the 2007 ReLit Poetry Award.
Hosted by Eye‘s Arts & Lifestyle editor (and talented, published poet) Damian Rogers and featuring moderation by Coach House’s (published) Alana Wilcox, the evening also offers up a chat with competition finalists about the writing process.
What’s the best way to attract hungry young writers to the event? Offer up a roster of elusive big name publishers’ logos on the invite—the Canadian arms of Penguin Group, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Random House are all sponsoring the event.

Photo by gbalogh from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Where does Eye Weekly get all those great ideas?

Jonathan Goldsbie — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:15:00 +0000

SEPT. 28, 2006: Torontoist publishes “Two Peas In A Pod,” a poorly considered article making fun of Eye and Now for both deeming Nuit Blanche significant enough to feature on their covers the same week.
JAN. 17, 2008: Eye Weekly publishes “Where does Toronto Life get all those great ideas?” a poorly considered article making fun of Toronto Life for also deeming the Zeidler family, Dave Meslin, Yonge Street, and Council’s right wing significant enough to give feature coverage.

Tile Over Substance

Jonathan Goldsbie — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Selected quotes from “Toronto’s Type and Tile Heritage” by Edward Keenan, from the November 14th issue of Eye Weekly:
Joe Clark: “The trick is trying to prevent the destruction of the subway system as we know it. What are these [TTC] commissioners doing, exactly? Through malign neglect, they are beginning a 35-year process of destruction. Because if they make over Pape station so that it doesn’t match any of the other stations, if they make it over in artificial stone — which has ‘fake’ right there in the title — then the design uniformity of the Bloor-Danforth line is busted…”
TTC Chair Adam Giambrone: “We could get special tiles [to preserve the look of stations undergoing renovation], presumably someone could make them, because they do reproductions, but it’s going to be very expensive.”
Councillor Adam Vaughan: “You can build a city off a budget sheet, but you end up with Tucson…. The reality is if you build Paris, you’ll have an economy. If you build an economy, you’ll have Houston. Or Calgary.”
Or Spadin.
Photo of the meeting of old and new (due to an elevator installed in 1997) at the eastern end of Spadina station’s westbound platform taken by Jonathan Goldsbie. Thanks to Cy Goldsbie for the tip.

Torontoist’s Favourite Photos of 2007

Miles Storey — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 02:02:43 +0000

Throughout the year, we select photos from the Torontoist Flickr Pool and feature them here on Torontoist––some as Daily Photoists, others in our Weekly Photo Roundup. Here, in no particular order, are our picks for some of the year’s finest.

Jumping Girl

BY WVS

Second Period

BY ROOM929

Smoke

BY LOREGAN

rush hour [90/365]

BY MOONWIRE

Sarah

BY DANIELN

WalktoWork_070807-3.jpg

BY RYAN COLEMAN

Shovel

BY DISCARNATEQUE

Early Morning Fog Shots

BY BIGDADDYHAME

whisper/kiss love/sounds

BY TAYLOR ZHOU

It was a dark and stormy night

BY METRIX X

Untitled

BY TORONTOGAL PHOTOS

l-glqwo

BY ASI \TI

I am 22!

BY REBOOTYOURCOMPUTER

CNE Night Fun

BY ARIEHSINGER

After school special

BY INVENTOR_77

The Calrizians @ The Dakota

BY MONKEYFACEDRATFINK

Pride and Remembrance Run 2007

BY GP0256

Critics Can’t Keep Away From Sarah Polley

Jaime Woo — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:15:00 +0000

Sarah Polley is having a kickass month as her debut directorial feature, Away From Her, racks up the accolades. On Sunday, the Los Angeles film critics gave Polley a New Generation Award for up-and-coming directors. Then, on Monday, the New York film critics felt Away From Her was 2007′s Best First Film. In addition, earlier this month Polley was named one of the “50 Smartest People in Hollywood” by Entertainment Weekly. She’s the youngest person on the list at age 28 and one of the few Canadians. (Titanic director James Cameron and former eBay president-turned-film producer Jeff Skoll also made the list.)
Away From Her is an adaptation of Alice Munro’s short story “The Bear Came Over The Mountain.” The story involves an elderly couple, Grant and Fiona, who are torn apart when Fiona develops Alzheimer’s and during treatment forgets Grant and falls for another man. Polley’s smart, mature take on the story received universal critical acclaim when it was released last May, but the film grossed less than $5 million in North America (and got trampled on by the bloat-fest Spiderman 3). Hopefully the critical attention will get people to check out the film on DVD. Sarah Polley will next be seen back in front of the camera as First Daughter Abigail “Nabby” Adams in the HBO television miniseries John Adams.
Photo from the Away From Her website.

Because You Just Can’t Get Enough of the Revue!

Sam Sutherland (Guest Contributor) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 20:00:59 +0000

As the unofficial fansite of Roncesvalles’ favourite success story (and one of the oldest operating movie theatres in this country), Torontoist is pleased to tell you about another exciting event being staged by the good folks at the Revue Film Society. This time, money will be going towards brand-new educational initiatives the theatre aims to have up and running in early 2008, including a film school for neighborhood kids.
This particular event, starting at 7 p.m. on December 13, will feature the brilliant musical comedy of Fringe circuit hit Giant Killer Shark: The Musical. (Conflict of interest alert: The author happens to be the creator of Giant Killer Shark: The Musical.) A spoof that has nothing to do with this 1975 summer blockbuster, the show was been called “Fucking hilarious” (Rue Morgue), “The perfect Fringe experience” (National Post), “Jaw-droppingly funny” (Winnipeg Free Press), and, perhaps most accurate, “Charmingly sloppy” (Eye Weekly). Awarded “Best of the Fest” in both Toronto and Winnipeg, this will be the show’s first Toronto performance since last summer’s successful run as part of the Over the Top Festival.
But don’t just take our word for it. Take the word of the children who will benefit. The children, dammit. How will they benefit? Through your donation of $15 in advance (at the theatre or She Said Boom!, 393 Roncesvalles) or $18 at the door. Following the musical majesty will be a super secret shark film screening, which will not be the film everyone thinks it will be. But really. It’s not. Really.
Photo courtesy of the Revue Film Society / Giant Killer Shark: The Musical.

Call In The Army!, Jacques Hebert Passes On, and Germany No Place For Nancy Cartwright

Christopher Bird — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:28:46 +0000

City councillor wants to bring in the army—literally—to fight gangs. Torontoist ultimately decided to link to the Star‘s version of this story over Holy Shit Somebody Actually Said That Weekly. You are welcome.
Mitt Romney delivers passionate speech defending religious plurality in America. The gist of the speech is thus: “Don’t be intolerant of me because I am a Mormon; be intolerant of those agnostics and atheists over there who should not even be considered Americans.” (Fun fact: in a speech designed to combat the perception that he is a member of a cultish religion, Romney used the word “Mormon” exactly once.)
Jacques Hebert dies at 84. The odds that he did more with his life by your age than you have are probably very strong, so instead of mourning him, alternatively you might want to go out and seize the day by…nah, just refresh Facebook again.
Germany moves to outlaw Scientology. In response, Beck, who is a Scientologist, wrote a strange song that nobody understood. (Yes, we could have made a Tom Cruise joke, but that is so 2006.)
And finally, the Leafs won a game for once.
Photo by denmar from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Are You Toronto’s Next Top Writer?

Jaime Woo — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:15:00 +0000

The short story is an unfortunate middle child. Not romanticized like poetry, nor widely read like novels, the short story finds refuge in literary journals, the New Yorker, and writing contests. In fact, the Toronto Star, Broken Pencil, and Eye Weekly all have contests ready for your masterpiece.
First, stalwart Toronto Star has its annual short story contest. The top prize includes $5,000 and tuition to the Humber School for Writers for Creative Writing. (Shouldn’t those who lose be forced into writing programs?) Submissions can’t be longer than 2,500 words and must be accompanied by a $5 fee. Make sure your story is postmarked by Thursday, January 17th, 2008.
Broken Pencil is pitting submissions against each other in a “death match.” Writers will start blogs to beg the masses to “pick me, choose me, love me” and talk smack about the other entries. Readers will then vote on their favourites. (A similar “Idol” style contest was also attempted earlier this year in the States.) The winner gets $250 and published in the magazine. Entries must be between 1,000 and 3,000 words, and there’s a $20 fee. The contest deadline is Monday, December 31st.
Finally, Eye Weekly follows its corporate sibling, the Toronto Star, into the contest ring. The winner will get $500 and published in the newspaper. Submissions must be 1,000 words or less, and there’s no fee to enter! Hopefully your story’s already complete, though, because the deadline is this Friday, November 30th.
Each contest has its perks: Toronto Star offers the most cash for their prize; Broken Pencil probably has the most street cred; and Eye Weekly won’t cost you a penny to enter. Make sure to read the rules carefully (especially on simultaneous submissions) so you don’t get disqualified. Just one piece of advice: short stories are rarely happy. Chalk it up to “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.”
Photo by SirCharlie from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.