How would you describe your comedy style?

I’d describe it as absurd, silly, loud, and so, so dumb. The dumber the better.

Who are some of your influences?

Growing up I was obsessed with Seinfeld, so Julia Louis-Dreyfus was a big one. And my mom, Nancy. She’s hilarious.

Who was your favourite comedian growing up?

David Hyde Pierce as Niles on Frasier was comedy gold. Equal parts stuffy and horny. I also loved The Kids in the Hall, old SCTV reruns, and the ladies of the late 90s and early 2000s SNL – Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig, Molly Shannon, Tina Fey, and Ana Gasteyer.

Who is your favourite comedian now?

I am in awe of Edi Patterson’s performance on The Righteous Gemstones. And Candiace Dillard Bassett on The Real Housewives of Potomac.

What is your pre-show ritual?

Procrastinate, worry for days, show up on the night filled with dread, have a tequila soda, and eventually remember that I actually really love comedy.

What is your favourite place you have performed? Why?

I was in the Sketchersons for three years. Every Sunday we’d set up camp at Comedy Bar at 1:00 PM, run rehearsals all day, and then put on a show that same night. Comedy Bar and its little green room, complete with old-ass costumes and disgusting, lice-ridden wigs, became a second home.

What is your favourite bit you have written and why were you proud of it?

I wrote a bit where I’m a detective who gets called in late one night to investigate a dead body. As I take a closer look at the corpse’s injuries and bloody wounds, I gag, announce that I’m going to be sick, and run offstage. Then, the audience hears me leave a really weird voicemail for my mom, where I admit that, actually, I’m nauseous cuz I got food poisoning from eating “old fish”. Not cuz I’m overwhelmed by the grisly murder scene. There’s a lot of farting and puking sound effects. Let’s just say… it’s really fucking stupid.

What is your favourite medium for listening or finding new comics/comedians?

TikTok and TV.

Tell us a joke about your city.

Ummm… I can’t afford to live here? Please send money? Help?

Do you have anything to promote right now?

Follow me on social media. My goal is to produce a one-woman show before the fall. And now that I’ve written that sentence out for all the Internet to see, I have no choice but to actually do it.

Where can we follow you?

I’m @emrich44 everywhere – TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter (let’s get this gal to 700 followers!!!)

PAY IT FORWARD: Who is another local comic/comedian we should know about?

Devon Henderson! A comedian’s comedian. I’m very jealous of her, and that’s the highest compliment I can give anyone.

The post Chatting with Comedian and Writer Emily Richardson appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

Bombs vs. Eggs

The show immediately creates common ground for Torontonians in the audience with an amusing sketch despairing subway hygiene. The stage design is a realistic mock-up of the Osgoode subway platform and a slew of TTC vignettes are littered throughout the show. This is one of the many things that make the whole show very relatable.

Walking On Bombshells addresses things about everyday life people can relate to, such as: taking your phone to the bathroom; ugly vaginas; love/hating Gmail’s Smart Compose; and overturning a marijuana conviction – okay, maybe that last one is not for everyone.

The first half of Walking On Bombshells is fast-paced and plays well with the inappropriate appropriate dichotomy. The second half slows down a bit but raises the stakes for being inappropriate. Act two opens with a provocative song that tackles the shame of secretly liking things we shouldn’t, like The Cosby Show, plastic straws and Joe Fresh clothing. A sketch about a white woman referencing a black man as her “black friend” tackles the comic lines drawn around racism, clearly pointing out what is inappropriate, yet still allowing people to laugh at the sketch.

Bombshells Will Crack Open Your Conscious

The comedy in this revue gives permission to chuckle at things we aren’t supposed to laugh at in polite company, it also has a lesson to share on how far is too far. I like how the show sometimes calls on the audience to empathize – not be indifferent. I appreciate the subtlety at work in this show.

Walking On Bombshells has lots of fun songs, over-the-top physical comedy and miming (the Toronto-centric bike date and the aggressive dad sketch both had excellent mime work). Bombshells provides a temporary refuge from overbearing civility yet it also demonstrates, with humour, when being indifferent and unintentionally hurtful is out of line. Additionally, I appreciated a time-out from jokes about Trump and grim political satire. A terrific, smart show that I highly recommend. I will forever be haunted by the words “lemon chicken.”

***

Walking On Bombshells – The Second City Toronto’s 82nd Revue
Runs Tuesday through Sunday evenings throughout the spring and summer of 2019. https://www.secondcity.com/shows/toronto/walking-on-bombshells
Show tickets starting at $27. Student prices available.
Dinner & Show packages starting at $57.
Improv & sketch comedy theatre and bar with nightly shows, located at 51 Mercer St, Toronto.

Walking On Bombshells is directed by Second City veteran Chris Earle (Sixteen Scandals, The Second City Guide to the Symphony), who received a Dora and Chalmers Award. This revue stars Nadine Djoury (Newborn Moms), Stacey McGunnigle (Stacey Helps), Sharjil Rasool (MANTOWN), Allana Reoch (The Beaverton), and Chris Wilson (Royal Canadian Air Farce). And the newest cast member is Juno Award-nominated frontman of funk ensemble God Made Me Funky, PHATT al.

For The Second City Toronto shows & tickets please visit: http://www.secondcity.com/toronto/

About The Second City
The Second City, a 100% Canadian-owned company, is the world’s premier improv and sketch comedy theatre company, with resident stages in Toronto and Chicago, Training Centres in Toronto, Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as touring companies performing throughout the world.

The post Walking On Bombshells Inappropriately Appropriate for Laughs! appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

Music, burlesque, drag, theatre – and, of course, comedy. If Toronto is Canada’s main hub for what’s happening right now moment to moment in standup, sketch and improv – then Pride is bursting at the seams with shows and events tailored to showcase the who’s-who of veteran Queer comedians and outspoken up-and-comers.

Queer comedy has long been an unsung component and a vibrant subsect of Toronto’s multi-facted comedy scene, albeit a drastically underexposed one until more recently. With Canada’s major festivals and independent comedy clubs finally playing host to a more diversified array of performers in the past few years, Toronto’s comedy circuit has answered in kind by playing host to more and more independent shows putting LGBTQ comics in the spotlight. This year’s programming at Pride showcases a wide range of the comics we’ve seen and heard from lately – and a few you maybe haven’t yet, but definitely should.

Veteran LGBTQ comics who’ve long dominated the landscape (and they’d probably laugh at the sentiment) are making the rounds again. Canadian television mainstay Elvira Kurt (widely known for her Comedy Network series Popcultured, her quiz show Spin Off  and her regular appearances on CBC Radio’s ‘Q’) – returns to the cult Queer comedy hotspot ‘Buddies in Bad Times Theatre’ with her solo showcase “Fearless/Funny AF”, which features a Pride festival lineup of upcoming and well-on-their way opening acts. Andrew Johnston, who wider Canadian TV audiences will probably know best for his stint as a main cast member/commentator on Much Music’s long running Video on Trial, and Toronto comedy crowds will know from his weekly appearances as a main member of the even longer running comedy troupe Laugh Sabbath, which features every Thursday at Toronto’s Comedy Bar. This year Andrew returns to Pride to host the annual gala show of “Bitch Salad”, featuring the foremost female comics dominating the stage in Canadian comedy. Another pride fixture Dawn Whitwell brings her hit independent showcase “Dawn Patrol” to the Buddies stage during Pride.

And the LGBTQ shows that make up the festivities this June run the gambit of a multitude of formats and featured players on stages across the city. Tinder Tales, the cult hit storytelling show (which has since spawned spin-off sister shows in Vancouver and Montreal, and has toured a handful of other Canadian cities) features a Pride lineup June 22nd at the Gladstone Hotel. Tinder Tales has also previously played host to a monthly showcase in the Church-Wellesley village’s own Glad Day bookstore, featuring a lineup of Queer comics, storytellers, and some of the city’s most loved (and loud and proud) drag and burlesque performers. Comedians Chantel Marostica and Adrienne Fish have played a major role in expanding the city’s Queer comedy presence recently, with their weekly standup series “Church Street Comedy”, at Pegasus on Church. And comedy/podcast duo Jess Beaulieu and Natalie Norman have been providing a stage and a space for Queer identifying comics and female performers since their own weekly show “Crimson Wave Comedy” originally debuted at the Comedy Bar.

That’s just to name a few names, and sum up just a few of the shows of note hitting the stage at Pride this year. There’s more comedy happening at this year’s pride than perhaps ever before. From the regular haunts, to hidden gems of shows happening at glorious holes in the wall (yes, I just made a glory hole pun – this is comedy, this is pride, I’m allowed)

If Pride is about shedding our inhibitions and celebrating, as one city (and it is), then we can’t think of a better way to do that then laughing. Besides, there’s nothing sexier than a good sense of humour.

Pride 2018 promises loud and proud punchlines delivered all over the city, at a venue near you.

And for a wider offering of all of this year’s PRIDE events happening in Toronto, don’t forget to hit up Pride Toronto

We’ll see you out there!

The post Loud & Proud Punchlines at Pride Toronto appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

But 10 years ago, Toronto’s standup scene hadn’t yet blossomed into the wild west it is today. The original few gatekeepers had the club market cornered, as they had since the dawn of time. Comedy Bar, now the lynchpin of local indie comedy, was just in it’s infancy. Outside of Yuk Yuks and Absolute, most newcomers to the stage could only hope to work their way up through the ranks and find themselves on one of the city’s few famed independent shows. The late Jo-Anna Downey‘s Spirits was a place of local legend, and for over 20 years was a favourite proving ground for comedians here in the Six and across Canada. In one of Spirits’ most widely reminisced occasions, Robin Williams once famously showed up and took the stage during Downey’s 40th birthday.

The Rivoli was always another highly coveted stage. Popularized and patronized by the members of the Kids in the Hall – royalty in Canadian comedy, and to upcoming comics (myself included) they were almost deities. The Rivoli was arguably where the first match of the indie explosion was struck.

Sprinkled throughout the scene were a handful of long-running open mics and weekly showcases of varying levels of quality control and notoriety. Ein Stein’s, Betty’s, the Texas Comedy Massacre 2, were all churning out new voices. Most of the “weed rooms” of the ever-expanding 420-comedy counter-culture hadn’t fully sprouted yet.

The indie boom was in it’s early stages, and it was about to burst.

It was in this era, 10 years ago, on February 25th 2008, that a comedy collective called THE BOOM first hit the stage. On that fateful night in Kensington Market, 9 comedians who would go on to enjoy far-flung successful solo careers, took over the back room at the Supermarket. A new brand in Toronto comedy was born.

Those now cult-classic BOOM shows represented the groundswell that was about to happen in Canadian comedy, and the epicentre, arguably, was Toronto.

The BOOM didn’t just put on shows, it was always an event. A party. They stripped away old conventions, f*cked with old formulas, mixed mediums and created a format all their own. Every time they hit the stage they brought down the house with an electric, absurd blend of sketch, music, improvised elements and in-your-face, unfiltered comedy that became something of a local phenomenon. No one else was doing what they were doing. They tapped into something new, something big – and their comedy spoke to the voice of a new generation in comedy. Audiences were paying attention, tastes were changing, and The Boom became the tastemakers.

Over the course of their live shows, the BOOM built a massive following in Toronto. So much so that the 9-member troupe and their wildly popular live show was even profiled on an episode of CTV’s ETalk. They were joined on-stage by special guests and some of the biggest, top-billing names in Canadian comedy – Colin Mochrie of Whose Line Is It Anyway? fame, Air Farce’s Luba Goy, and the aforementioned Kids’ own Scott Thompson (just to name a few).

Soon enough, the industry came knocking. And the members of The Boom eventually disbanded and went their separate ways. Some members would carve out careers as working/touring standups (Keith Pedro and Garrett Jamieson, still based here in Toronto) with other members making the move to the states, writing, producing and performing on New York’s hyper-competitive comedy scene. They would appear on Canada’s major festivals, network specials, and resurface regularly on the air. From MTV Canada to the Comedy Network, and on the satellite airwaves of Sirius XM.

And now, 10 years after that fateful night – the BOOM is back. Performing for one night only, at Toronto’s Great Hall. Featuring original founding cast members and special guests. Including host Hunter Collins (Much Music’s Video on Trial, JFL42, NXNE, Edinburgh Fringe and Montreal Sketchfest) with standup from Sara Hennessey of Laugh Sabbath fame, and Nick Reynoldson – himself a label-mate on Comedy Records, the standup & sketch record label where Pedro and Jamieson currently reside.

A lot has changed in a decade. Culture has mutated, comedy has changed, and careers have blossomed along with it. If the BOOM played a part in kicking off a new comedy golden age, imagine what they’ll bring to the stage with another decade behind them.

Catch the BOOM, reunited for one night only. This Saturday, 24th February, at The Great Hall, Toronto. Presented by Comedy Records. There won’t be any tickets available at the door, so make sure you grab them right here

The post Comedy Collective The Boom turns 10 appeared first on Toronto Guardian.