An organizational downturn, followed by a comedic rally

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/04/2009 (6370 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Watching Thursday night’s Savings & Groans gala at the Pantages Playhouse was kind of like watching the stock market during the past six months (or I’m sure it might have been, if I was anywhere near smart enough to understand the stock market) — sometimes unsettling, occasionally frightening, creating a sense of curiousity about who’s ultimately at fault, but with enough moments of encouraging up-tick and a late-stages rally to leave one with the gratifying but still-uncertain feeling that not all was lost.

The theme of the show — basically, the no-end-in-sight economic crisis — was challenging, and the basic logistics of putting the darned thing on were also a bit daunting, given that this was the first taped-for-TV gala in a new era in which the fest’s big shows are no longer in-house CBC productions but independently produced programs handled by locally based Frantic Films.

To say there were a few glitches and hiccups would be an understatement, and to suggest that they didn’t affect the pacing of the show and, ultimately, the audience’s enjoyment thereof would be patently untrue.

Growing pains, to be sure, but it was clear in the post-show hours that the fest’s organizers are determined to have the necessary adjustment period over and done with in time for Friday’s double-header Super Gala.

On to the show itself — which, like the financial realm that inspired it, was something of an up-and-down affair. Show host Kevin O’Leary acquitted himself admirably given all the technical glitches he faced, but like Roddy Piper, Dennis Hull and others of their non-comedic ilk before, he demonstrated the difference that exists between regular folks trying their hand at doing funny bits and professionally funny people being professionally funny.

O’Leary opened with the necessary nod to his role as the most uncompromising judge on the addictive CBC show Dragons’ Den ("I’m actually Mr. Wonderful; I’m a really nice guy; but sometimes, I have to tell the truth"), then served up a couple of yarns about the public’s reaction to his DD-panelist persona.

Then he tipped his hat to the network that’s paying him what I’m sure is a lot less than walking-around money in his world for appearing on its airwaves: "I like working with the CBC — it’s my third-favourite government-subsidized entity, right after Chrysler and GM."

And then, a bit of exceedingly well-received local pandering, in the form of the punchline to a remark about his love for finding and acquiring failing, no-hope businesses and breathing new life into them: "That’s why I’m going to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and bring them back to Winnipeg."

HUGE cheer, followed, I’m sure, by O’Leary quickly crunching the current-NHL-economic-model numbers and immediately dismissing the whole idea as sheer fiscal insanity.

Glen "That Canadian Guy" Foster, the Wednesday-gala show-closer, took the stage first on Thursday, with an even-more-polished version of the bank-focused rant he’d worked on the night before.

"I’m sure there’s a lot of people here old enough to remember when you actually had to go to the bank," he said to the appropriately CBC-aged crowd. "Now the bank comes to you … to foreclose on your house."

Foster’s cash-crunched set also included a clever sign-of-the-times line about receiving a "pre-declined" credit card in the mail, and a strong closing bit about what might happen to a bank robber who ventured into a branch like his local outlet, which recently announced it "no longer handles cash transactions at this location."

Former Frantics guy Peter Wildman was next, offering a brief but effective musical meditation on "What Would You Do For Money?"; Kathryn Greenwood followed with an in-character monologue about vying for a rich aunt’s estate that had some effective moments but, overall, demonstrated the large audience-reaction gap that always exists between scripted/acted bits and straight-ahead standup. The standups win, 99 times out of 100.

 

Further evidence of same came in the form of a set piece that attempted to replicate O’Leary’s place on the Dragons’ Den panel, with a couple of cavemen (Sean Cullen and Ron Sparks, Lord love ’em for donning the wigs and furs and giving it the ol’ college try) pitching an investment opportunity in their new wheel-ish invention. The bit would have stalled completely if not for the improv abilities of the Flinstonian funny dudes; as it was, it teetered on the brink of extinction anyway.

Air Farce guy Alan Park made an unexpected — and unexpectedly effective — appearance doing a dead-on impression of U.S. President Barack Obama, offering thanks to our current local crisis for relieving some of the pressure he’s under back home: "It’s nice to be in Winnipeg, where — thanks to your Red River — the term ‘bailout’ has a totally different meaning."

Minneapolis comic Tom Steffen offered an amusing look back at his day-job days in cubicular corporate America, and Halifax-based (Picnicface) sketch guys Mark Little and Andrew Bush served up a quick corporate-greed-in-progress scene that was so logic-mockingly surreal that it turned out to be very funny.

Veteran standup Tim Steeves closed the show, with an upliftingly strong take on the depressing downturn. "You know who’s giggling? You know who comes out of this smelling like a rose? People who were already broke," he observed.

And, later: "Being broke is NOT an aphrodisiac. She never tells her friend, ‘… and then we went back to his place for Cheese Whiz and bread.’"

And, still later: "During hard times, you find out what’s really edible. Before hard times, beet greens weren’t something you put on a plate. Beet greens were what you use to pull the beet out of the ground; they were the beet handle."

Host O’Leary sent the crowd off with a distinctly Winnipeg sentiment: "I hope we’ve taken your mind off your troubles … and that no one has stolen your car."

And then the audience up and ran — RAN — for the exits; I don’t know if it was a case of fest attendees getting wise to the routine, or that they were extra-impatient after an unevenly paced show, or if the new TV producers didn’t provide adequate pre-show instructions, or that civility really is finally dead … but it was clear Thursday that few in the theatre had any intention of sticking around for the usual round of re-shoots and pickups that are part of the fest’s TV tapings.

 

O’Leary said good night, and at least half the audience didn’t stick around to try the veal or tip the wait staff. They were going going, gone.

At the post-show reception, artistic director Al Rae said he’s hoping for a smoother ride through Friday’s twin-themed (The Holiday Show followed by Queer As Jokes) gala. "Every year, the first show is a little bit bumpy, but that was far bumpier than I would like."

Rae also said that the folks at the fest remain focused on the funny stuff, but they’re also mindful of the watery worries being experienced by many people in and around Winnipeg, and have made an effort to provide a bit of comic relief to stressed and weary victims and volunteers.

"Obviously, we’re focused on the event, but we have tried to reach out, and when we’ve got shows that we want to give out tickets to, those are the folks we’re focusing on," he said.

"We gave 100 tickets to the reeve of St. Andrews about a week and a half ago; we gave 200 tickets to our board president to distribute to the Red Cross today, and yesterday (a representative) from the festival went out with Big Daddy Tazz to where they were sandbagging on Scotia Street and handed tickets out to the homeowners and sandbaggers."