Pet3rs: The Complete 3rd Season

I’m not making excuses here, but four things have conspired to keep me from blogging this week:

1. A new cat (actually a kitten) who’s thrown my daily schedule into disarray;
2. A new handset I’m waiting on from Nokia’s WOM World;
3. A new online service, also from Nokia, that I’m trying to get working;
4. The new Pet3rs revue!

Pet3rs: The Complete 3rd Season showcases some of what I think is the best work yet from this talented trio of Currie Conservatory Alumni. You’ve got only four chances this month to catch this show — yes, we’re well aware that the Film Festival is in town, but despite what the title suggests the Pet3rs show is not coming to DVD anytime soon, so come on out before it’s gone!

This week I’ll be reporting on Nokia’s flagship business device, the E90. More on the in a couple of days — in the meantime…

The Second City is a comedy institution in North America, boasting alumni who have powered hit TV shows and movies from Saturday Night Live through SCTV to The Daily Show and Colbert Report.

Klaus Schuller is the producer of the Toronto franchise, and was my boss last year for a contract I had directing the theatre’s National Touring Company.

1. Nice phone! Where’d you get it?

In an effort to support local businesses, I ordered it online from SelectGSM.com here in Toronto –- who promptly had it shipped to me from the States.

2. What handset were you using prior to this?

I was using the Eten M700 Glofiish. A fun handset, but I found the Microsoft OS (and the phone) to be fragile and crash-prone. The older I get, the more I want things to just work. But I’m sad my new phone doesn’t have an adorable nickname like Glofiish. I would suggest we nickname it “The Monolith”.

3. How did you first hear about the E90?

Your blog, of course! Actually no. I found it online while comparing specs on smartphones. I ordered and received it back in January.

4. Were there other handsets you were also considering at that time? What made the E90 win out?

I looked at some HTC handsets/PDAs, particularly the TyTn II and that big honking one they had with the 7-inch screen. In the end, what sold me on the E90 was the combination of specs and reputation for quality. Until I started researching Nokia, I didn’t know much about them — and even thought they were probably Japanese. I mean, they’re called Nokia, not Finnsgrüven.

5. What are three-ish favourite things about your E90?

1. Overall Quality – This thing is solidly built, substantial and has great sound/call quality. Many of the other PDAs feel like they’re going to fly apart in your hands. The E90 is solid, and could be used as a weapon. Really surprising battery life too. If I forget to charge it, I’m usually good for a second day.
2. Features – GPS, 3G, great camera/camcorder.
3. The real clincher for me was the keyboard. Full QWERTY plus number keys and shortcuts.

6. How about three or so things you wish it could do/do better?

1. I don’t like that firmware upgrades wipe the phone. Reinstalling all your applications is a PITA.
2. Outer Numeric Keypad is a bit small, even though there’s plenty of room to make it bigger.
3. Camera button is touchy. You push it, wait and hope that a picture gets taken soon. They need to redesign this button to “click” in a satisfying way.

7. Favourite apps/games?

• EmTube – now that Rogers has useful data plans, I use this all the time.
• I rely on RoadSync at the moment, but will switch to Exchange for S60 once I find the patience to update my firmware.
• Nokia Maps – again, only useful now that I have a big monthly data plan.

In general, I’ll give Nokia/Symbian full credit for having most of your needs preinstalled, from Adobe Acrobat to the Office programs. I’ve probably only used 1/10th of the preinstalled aps at this point.

8. Is there any other handset (cough, cough — iPhone — cough) that might woo you away from your E90?

Though I’m a loyal iMac/iPod user, I just can’t get comfortable with a touchscreen for typing. Maybe some day when they perfect that active screen technology that zaps your fingertips and makes you think you’re touching fur. And I always prefer technologies that are not quite as, well…smug as Apple. If you really want to tempt me, wave an E71 under my nose. Mmmmm, tiny.

9. Working in the comedy business, you must have a hilarious voicemail greeting, right?

Um…no.  I believe my greeting is “please leave a message”. No joke is funny enough to be endured every time someone calls you. Well, no clean jokes anyway.

So my Conservatory Class’s grad show was a big success on Sunday, and we owe it all to my expert selection of pre-show music!

Of course I’m kidding, but I do take my house tunes very seriously and thought it might be worthwhile to publish a list of the tracks with their reasons for being there. Each track name links directly to the iTunes Music Store, where available… So if nothing else, you can check out some artists you may not have heard of before!

1. Sea World by The Phoenix Foundation. “Enter a magical realm where the rules of banality no longer apply…” As incredibly gay-tarded as that sounds it’s generally the idea here, to have the audience enter the theatre to the sounds of a slightly off-putting instrumental, letting them know that they’re in for something unusual. This track, by the way, is from Eagle vs. Shark, the perfect date movie which I haven’t yet found the perfect date for. I’m working on it.
2. Vulture Kisses by So So Modern. Where the first track clears the air, the insane odd-time signature chorus in this synth-punk number sends the not so subtle message to the audience that they won’t be spoon fed easy laughs, but are going to be challenged. So So Modern, like The Phoenix Foundation, is another band from New Zealand. Their CD was playing in a Wellington music store when I was there last summer and I bought it on the spot.
3. The Looks by MSTRKRFT. The subliminal message here would be something to the effect of: “How will you possibly be able to resist us when we are clearly so fucking bad-ass?” So now, with all our cards on the table, we set off down the road to build the energy for the Act One curtain call.
4. Archaeologists by Wintersleep. A driving groove, sloppy drum fills and Canadian content, all present and accounted for.
5. Bodysnatchers by Radiohead. You need at least one Radiohead track to appease all the rock snobs in the crowd, and this one got the nod.
6. Away From Here by The Enemy. Nothing wrong with a tasty little anti-establishment anthem, is there?
7. Lydia by Dog Day. A good track and my bad attempt at affirmative action. I realized at this point that the playlist was lacking in female vocalists, and this one seemed like the best fit to the mix, despite having only backing female vocals.
8. Under the Underground Water by Telefauna. How this quirky band of Montrealers manages to rock out with a drum machine is beyond me, but it works!
9. Nighthawks by Two Hours Traffic. A quick tempo and twangy guitars worked the audience into a fever pitch. Didn’t it?
10. Julianna by Bend Sister. Some retro glam-rock bravura for the penultimate track before Act One.
11. September / The Joker by Fatboy Slim. This was a last-minute choice — for me it was a defining moment of the movie Babel but on its own didn’t seem like enough of a remix to save me from dating myself. I hemmed and hawed but ended up keeping it as a schmaltzy pre-curtain tip of the hat to the time my class and I have spent together since last autumn. Awww…
12. The Wishes Pile Up by Jim Bryson. Getting out of Act One into the intermission can be tricky — you don’t want to eclipse the energy of the closing scene but you don’t want some dirgy-ass ballad to bring things down either. I don’t really get what “roots” music is, but this roots track by Jim Bryson worked perfectly.
13. My Moon My Man (Boyz Noise Remix) by Feist. Grrl power but not some recycled iPod TV ad music, oh no no no… The music snobs in the crowd will be having none of that!
14. Starlight – Young Heart Attack. On it’s own this knock-off of The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again is pure cheese. But as a lead-in a CSI: Miami parody it is the stuff of genius.
15. Someone Else’s Problem by JJ Appleton. A parting tongue-in-cheek jab at the cast. It played as the house lights came up at the end of the show. But as they were too busy getting accolades from friends and family, nobody seemed to be paying attention to the lyrics.

It’s specific enough that I couldn’t guarantee it to produce the same results anywhere else, but this very playlist got us a standing ovation at The Second City last Sunday afternoon — although I suppose a talented cast, solid material and a house packed in our favour also had something to do with it…

Forgive me for my single post this week; I’m finding that all my free time is being directed towards the Conservatory Grad Show that’s going up on the Mainstage this Sunday. Details can be read off the poster or by clicking through to the Second City site proper.

Hope to see you there, and I’ll be back to blogging next week!

There’s something in the air at MacWorld Expo 2008… Who cares? I’m launching a new video site!

ComedyOnHand is an online attempt at what I tried to do offline with Second Cine back in the day — to prop up the fine work of local comedians and video artists to the world at large. I’ve seen a lot of great performances and shorts posted on MyFace and the like, but as these are closed systems there is no way for the general public to see them!

So starting today, you’ll be treated to the finest in Toronto comedy hand-picked by yours truly. The inaugural video features some familiar faces from the Neutrino Video Project… Check it out right here!

(Speaker’s Corner today — closed for renovation, or possibly forever?)

Well, I’m an idiot… Last year around this time Al Howell sent me a congratulatory text on the 10-year anniversary of our first Speaker’s Corner broadcast as The Devil’s Advocates. I quickly corrected him, thinking that we started our Satanic shtick in 1997, but I was wrong. So, um… Happy 11th Anniversary, Al!

Ten years ago today the Devils had already achieved some notoriety and were busy criss-crossing Southwestern Ontario playing mostly lunchtime shows in the cafeterias of Community Colleges and Universities, then at night storming the stages of downtown comedy clubs to critique the other acts on the bill, à-la Speaker’s Corner. The club act was a stroke of genius; because we had to go on at the end to deconstruct the acts that came before us we automatically headlined every gig we played. The college show format — straight-up improv and pretty much games — was born out of necessity, because we couldn’t possibly roll into another town and be expected to know all the local goings-on. This also proved to be valuable training for the 80 episodes of Improv Heaven & Hell we would start taping the following year.

IH&H was a fantastic experience and one of those rare, proud moments where Al and I were able to work with some of our closest friends and colleagues. The Devils, however, had gone from a TV audience of some 300,000 Speaker’s Corner viewers in Southern Ontario alone to a national Comedy Network audience only 60,000 strong. And so after two seasons we were done.

In the time since Mr. Howell has parlayed his talents into a successful writing career for Comedy Inc. and This Hour Has 22 Minutes, while I’ve bounced back and forth between sporadic bursts of international touring, directing, filmmaking, even drumming?! Looks like someone has commitment issues…

Rather than a long walk down memory lane consider this a quick glance back, and before eyes once again face front I’ll leave you with a bit of Devils trivia:

1. Best gig ever – being paid an obscene amount of money by Microsoft Canada to unveil Internet Explorer 4 (!) at a downtown nightclub.
2. Worst gig ever – Al will probably say Sault Ste. Marie (the second time) but I’ll give the nod to Centennial College Bell Campus (now the Centre for Creative Communications), only because there was a point during the lunchtime show where someone came up to us from the audience who we thought was a volunteer for an improv game, but in fact she only wanted to microwave her soup.
3. Last TV appearance – on U8TV’s the Lofters (ugh). I remember looking at a laptop in front of me while we were on air showing some yutz in a chatroom repeatedly typing “Say my name out loud… Say it!”

For anyone who’s ever thought it odd that someone like yours truly can be equally passionate about the seemingly disparate pursuits of comedy and technology, may I present Mr. Stephen Fry’s latest blog post on the subject of… Smartphones!

So what exactly is the deal here? Is there some common yet undiscovered link between the geek and comic brain?

Maybe we’re both so hyper-intelligent that we need a high-functioning device to control the spillover from our profilic brains lest it vanish into the ether forever. Or perhaps we savour the satisfaction of getting our smartphones humming along like a well-oiled film set or live show?

Of course, it might also be that we both just have a lot of free time. Whatever the case, Mr. Fry, I’m honoured to be in your company!

There’s actually not much to report on my 5th day in New Zealand…

I spent the morning exploring the CBD (Central Business District) including this interesting piece of government architecture unaffectionately referred to as the Beehive.

Then it was back to Fidel’s to drag Derek Flores away from the important meeting pictured above. With two other performers we spent most of the afternoon drinking coffee and talking shit. It was awesome!

So last night Al Howell took me to The Spiegel Show at the Spiegeltent’ntavern. It was a fairly authentic tribute to your classic German-style cabaret — I mean, who doesn’t like pasties? But I did take great exception to one of the acts.

A local actor (who shall remain nameless) pretty much brought the house down towards the end of the second act with a mimed routine set to Bonnie Tyler’s classic ’80s hit Turn Around Bright Eyes. While the rest of the audience screamed with repeated peals of delight I sat stoically with my arms crossed, because some six weeks ago I had the pleasure of watching the above Google Video — a much better execution of pretty much the identical premise… In my humble opinion, of course!

Had this actor seen the same video and shrewdly swapped in a different tune? Does changing said tune make it any less of a rip-off? Why take the chance?

With the great wealth of recorded performances available on the internet it seems to me that every performer should do at least a cursory search for similar material before taking something out on stage and passing it off as their own.

On any other day I would have called the guy out on what I perceived to be a misappropriation of someone else’s bit, but a moment later I was once again distracted by pasties…

If you’re wondering why I haven’t written any new posts this week it’s because I’ve been desperately cobbling together the nuts and bolts for tonight’s opening of NeutrinoPlex at The Bad Dog Theatre on the Danforth.

Unlike previous incarnations of the show, our new run will nix the opening act of stand-ups and feature instead a special selection short films from around the city, across the country and from the deepest, darkest corners of the internet. It makes for a lot of extra work for yours truly but it will all pay off — in particular, patrons of tonight’s show are in for a very unique treat!

No need to squint at the text in the above graphic for details… You can download your very own full-sized souvenir flyer right here.