Filed under: Author: jaxba, comedy, toronto, Uncategorized | Tags: craig, festival, gold digger, just for laughs, kanye west, mahna mahna, muppets, robinson, second city, show, sketch, toronto
Fast Forward Revue Rating: FFF (3 out of 5)
Craig Robinson aka Daryll from The Office (US) – The ultimate serenading host! WOW. Take your panties off for this talented man on the keyboard… he is naturally hilarious, calls often for audience participation, and is musically inclined. Somehow he is able to figure out any song on his tiny keyboard by listening to it once. Incredibly charming guy.
The Sketchersons – Not my favourite. I felt that it was hard to connect with the number of people in the troupe in such a short time. Some of the acting seemed robotic and scenes were a bit mundane with lots of unoriginal lines and situations. Though, one sketch was quite hilarious with a repeated Sarah Maclachlin song.
The Imponderables – Four guys with amazing chemistry who are inventive and take risks… nothing is inappropriate between them. For real. Check out their YouTube! 
The Williamson Playboys – Wonderful! What a delightful musical duo… Doug Morency and Paul Bates. They are like Flight of the Conchords as senior citizens with a ukulele and a tuba. Their songs are a riot and are original to the bone. Their 100% commitment led me to think they WERE over 100 years old (which is what they claim to be).
Keilly & Roeters – Takes a bit of time to adjust to their refreshingly crude humour but it ends up being a great laugh. Their continuous bickering and bizarre banters are so natural… I wondered while I was watching if they were improvising their elaborate threats. They’re on YouTube!
Memorable tune from the Keilly & Roeters act:
Kanye Mahna by Luke Enlow – SUPER catchy. A mashup of the Muppets’ infamous doo doooooo doo doo doo mahna mahna and Kanye West’s Gold Digger.
I apologize for the lack of linguistic flow in this review as it is written entirely with dashes, ellipses and colons – with the exception of this se…. god damnit. More Just For Laughs reviews coming!
-jax
Filed under: Author: jaxba, Miscellaneous, toronto | Tags: comedy, festival, just for laughs, toronto
Yes, that’s Martin Short, Jason Alexander and Jimmy Fallon…. AKA Ned Nederlander, George Costanza, and Idiot Boyfriend. They’re hosting the Toronto Just For Laughs Comedy Festival (Click for website where you can buy tickets)! Huuuuuge comedians are lined up and people in town should definitely check it out this week, July 23-27, at the following venues:
Massey Hall
-
Just For Laughs Gala – July 24 (Short), 25 (Alexander), 26 (Fallon) – 7:00pm & 9:30pm
Jeff Dunham Concert – July 27 – 7:00pm
The Second City
- The Sketch Show – July 24 – 10:30pm
Winter Garden Theatre
- The Asian Invasion – July 24 – 7:00pm & 9:30pm
Wiseguys – July 25 – 7:00pm & 9:30pm
Wiseguys – July 26 – 7:00pm & 9:30pm
Absolute Comedy
- Best of Homegrown 2008 – July 25 – 8:00pm
Mark Breslin’s Yuk Yuk’s
- Headliners – July 25 – 7:30pm
My friend saw the Headliner’s show last night at Yuk Yuk’s which had Elon Gold and Adam Hills and she said it was highly entertaining. I’ll be checking out most of the shows so expect some reviews.
-jahahahax
Filed under: Author: kswitz, Environmental Consciousness and Art, Live Music, Miscellaneous, toronto
The Rogers Picnic (July 20, Historic Fort York)
Official Promotional Poster
So it’s 4:54 am… and I can’t sleep.
But that’s unimportant, since there is blog-fun to be had!
So this isn’t really going to be a concert review, so much as a hodge-podge of random things I noticed about concerts while attending the Rogers Picnic yesterday. And here goes:
a) RAIN AS A BONDING EXPERIENCE: Seriously, once it started pouring, everyone got in closer, got more into dancing, and cheered louder than ever as the bands expressed their sympathies for our soggy bottoms. It even bonded audience members individually, as umbrellas were shared between neighbours, and tarps were put up by those who brought them and stretched to fit as many concert-goers as possible. Rain is the great equalizer.
b) ENERGY IS KEY: I found that the bands onstage who had tonnes of energy (Chromeo and Dizzee Rascal, to name two) ended up being the bands I liked the most out of all the performers. This surprised me ’cause I’m something of a huge Animal Collective fan, but I still liked Chromeo‘s set way, way more, because of their connection with the crowd, and the cool factor of their high energy level. Their late-night DJ set in the back of the Nokia DJ Tent (or whatever it was called) was also a great picker-upper for all those who’d been there all day and noticed their energy flagging. We danced like crazy-people.
c) ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS: Is the new cool. And rightfully so! I love how it’s gotten to the level where there are “Zero Foot Print” tents at concerts! The concert was also co-ordinated to be as close to a zero-waste event as possible: there were sorting-style recycling bins, separated into Aluminum/Plastic, Paper, and Compost. Serious snaps for that!
d) TEXTING SCREENS: Amusing but annoying, as they are just so damn distracting! Everyone ends up staring at the boards instead of the bands! But they are hilarious, like when people write “I am the hiphoppopotamus, my lyrics are bottomless”, or comment on the large number of Urban Outfitters wearers in the crowd (read: hipster-bashing is the new cool). It’s also a bit sketchy, though… I was trying to get in contact with my brother throughout the show using the service but who knows if our Katie/Graeme texts were actually between me-Katie and him-Graeme? (Skeeettcchhhyyy. I clearly need to just get his number…).
e) FREE REDBULL: Is bomb. Just saying… (PS If anyone from Redbull reads this (not likely), feel free to do it at more concerts! I will love you! So will everyone else!).
f) CITY AND COLOUR: Actually isn’t too bad. They’re a touch emo but they have a good amount of energy, and I like Dallas Green‘s jokes.
Alright, so it’s bedtime.
Hope y’all enjoyed this.
Filed under: Author: kswitz, Cinema, toronto | Tags: Bloor Cinema, David Lynch, Eraserhead, Film Retrospective
Saturday morning, right before heading out the door to that photo shoot I mentioned in my last posting (pictures to be posted soon), I did my habitual CinemaClock movie schedule check, and quite literally teared up a bit as I realized that this week’s listing at Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor St West, right next to Bathurst subway) includes FOUR out of David Lynch‘s ten feature-length films.
- Eraserhead (1977)
The Schedule:
Eraserhead, Monday 7 pm
Blue Velvet, Monday 9 pm
Lost Highway, Tuesday 7 pm
Mulholland Drive, Tuesday 9:35 pm
So okay, they’re a bit squished in there, but hey, so completely and totally worth seeing, and especially since movie tickets cost $5 for members at Bloor Cinema… which is pretty much the cost of renting a movie, anyways.
For those of you who don’t recognize the name, David Lynch is one of THE masters of the modern horror/mystery film genre, having created such cult masterpieces as Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, and Twin Peaks, as well as my (perhaps) most favorite film ever, Inland Empire. This man is a master of suspense, weirdness, and all-out creepiness. Expect mystery, suspense, uncomfortably creepy imagery, sex, drugs, darkness, and a complete loss of connection with reality, which typically occurs at least once per film. His work is also art-directed to the nines, as he actually went to art school (The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts) intending to become a painter, before deciding to become a film-maker instead.
And this guy is legit: his work been honored in such ways as France’s César Award for Best Foreign Film, the Palme d’Or from the Cannes Film Festival, and the Gold Lion lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival, as well as receiving four Academy Award nominations for the Best Director category.
So go do it!!
Ps if anyone wants to join me, I’ll most likely be at all of these screenings…
Filed under: Author: E. Sempé, Miscellaneous, toronto | Tags: scooter, street style, toronto, transport, vespa
Now, who doesn’t love a green Vespa? [Seen on Spadina Ave. at Harbord]
I love the detail on this model – namely the sticker in back; it reminds me a bit of what the Jacobins and the Assemblée Générale of the French Revolution would wear on their waistcoats and jackets. Though instead of green in the outer ring, they wore blue, of course. But we can ignore that little inconsistency…
The Fast Forward Revue 