Results tagged “standup”

Gossip no longer, culture vultures. We've finally got confirmation on CanStage's upcoming season. Like it or not, it looks like the rumours are true. As we reported before, the Bluma Appel Theatre's rather commercial lineup is entirely free of any Canadian-written shows, which has some folks in quite a tizzy. And as we suspected, CanStage is getting its CanCon through co-pros at the Berkeley Street Theatre. They're calling it The Berkeley Street Project, and it seems intended to supplement the Bluma's playing-it-safe season with "edgier, more provocative works." The first show, Wild Dogs (a co-production with Nightwood Theatre), is a stage adaptation of Helen Humphreys' eponymous novel. Up next, Studio 180 co-produces the Canadian premiere of Blackbird, a West End and off-Broadway hit by British (and consequently not Canadian) playwright David Harrower. The final co-production (with Necessary Angel) is the Toronto premiere of HARDSELL, a new work by Bigger Than Jesus team Daniel Brooks and Rick Miller. (Although, the only reason CanStage can claim "Toronto premiere" status is that the workshop presentation Brooks and Miller were going to present at Passe Muraille a month ago was cancelled due to illness.)

The National Post is reporting today that Coyote Ugly––the raunchy, almost-a-strip-club-bar that inspired a Jerry Bruckheimer movie that everyone, including Piper Perabo, forgot about five years ago––will open up its first Canadian "saloon" next year at 220 Adelaide Street West. Coyote Ugly is upfront about its intentions: on their website, the bar explains the "business plan" of its first owner, Lil' Lovell, was "beautiful girls + booze = money." The organization's slogan is "Don't Just...

The Toronto Star is known for a lot of things, but editorial consistency isn't one of them. This Saturday's paper contained a particularly flagrant example of the ongoing conflict between Star's left and right brains.

City Council is going to be crazy today. We highly recommend you watch. (Click here for the online feed.) The chambers are going to be packed to capacity, with the overflow relegated to watching the proceedings on the screen in the rotunda. This does not happen often. It will be loud. It will be hectic. It will be exciting.

Poverty is an issue politicians like to debate, pundits cluck their tongues over, and that everyone agrees is kinda crummy, but pretty overwhelming. While debates, discussions and campaigns aren't bad things, they don't always result in a lot of concrete solutions. So what do we do about a complex issue like poverty?

So much for Brampton.

Michael Moore’s much anticipated Sicko hits, and having seen it, we can say it’s not particularly essential for Canadian viewers to watch, unless you want to feel smug about our lovely health care system, or slightly surprised that it only takes an hour or so in London (Ontario) to be seen in an emergency room. Yes, the film is chock-a-block with anecdotal evidence, and it’s probably to the film’s fault that, as usual, Moore is selective with his anecdotes to only show free universal health care in a positively glowing light.

If you’ve seen the movie The Aristocrats, you know disgusting can be smart. But while most stand up nights have more than their share of jokes involving penises, poo, breasts and masturbation, by the end of the night, what was once mirthful becomes meh. It’s partially because most comics reserve their most fecund fecal matter material for friends and fellow comedians. Few truly delve into scatological onstage.

Before we begin, we'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of James Kim. We are not, by any means, trying to discount that tragedy by juxtaposing posts about the Kims with more light-hearted posts. It's the nature of doing a compilation such as this one: we're trying to give a full slice of the goings-on in the Ist-a-Verse: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

When comedian Richard Ryder ("Dick!" he loudly tells his audience) gets on stage to do a set, he does so with a commanding presence: tall, bald, goatee, eyes like lasers. He’s looks like a biker ready to take down the bar. Until he opens his mouth. When he speaks, Richard speeds through whatever comes out of his head in a voice that makes fag hags stand up and take notice. He's the guy your girlfriend wants at her side at an H&M year-end sale. He's whip-crack smart and punctuates his sentences with girlish, infectious giggles. Not something you'd expect from an intimidating 6'4" bear of a man.

Turns out that the union was actually ready to walkout again yesterday. Fortunately a few last minute desperate phone calls prevented what would've been a disastrous second wildcat strike in as many weeks. The TTC and the union are still in intense negotiations. Hopefully they can avoid any future job actions.

Christopher Hume laments the destruction of the Inn on the Park, a great example of Modernist architecture. It's being replaced with an auto dealership. Hume points fingers at a City Hall unwilling to stand up to business interests, and negligent in protecting the City's architectural history. The Post weighs in here.

A quick look around our sister sites brings back some ISTeresting stories.

At left: We know we just used this image last week, but Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots are definitely awesome enough to stand up to repeat postings.

Everything is Illuminated: Surprisingly good adaptation from Henry V (Liev Shrieber) of J Safran Foer's magical novel. The decision to drop the surreal bits works out, and Eugene Hutz (of the Balkan punk band Gogol Bordello) is terrific as the malapropist Alexander Perchov. But go for the soundtrack which features Hutz' Gogol Bordello, The terrific Balkan Brass band Kocani Orkestar, Tin Hat Trio and guitar work by the amazing Marc Ribot.

Fab Magazine, the free gay monthly with the David Miller-in-tight-leather cover last year, has started a massive postcard campaign with a same-sex marriage message to our federal MP's. One card thanks Paul "promise made promise kept" Martin with a hunky thumbs up, and the other has the ever-disparaging middle digit for Steve "notwithstanding" Harper.

Instead of standing up to raw fish, why doesn't Smitherdork stand up to Ontario MD's to get new contracts signed? According to my good friend and old college roommate Roy Romanow, the notoriously cranky Smitherpants should save the attitude for the doctors. Or even better, doctors that eat sushi.