What’s up: Renovation show, Fred Penner, housing fundraiser, D.J. Demers

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This article was published 11/01/2024 (1014 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Create your very own house beautiful

The Winnipeg Renovation Show

• Friday, noon to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m to 6 p.m.
• RBC Convention Centre
• Tickets $13 adults, $11 seniors, $6.50 entry after 4 p.m. at winnipegrenovationshow.com; children 12 and under free.

Tired of your living room? Planning a kitchen refresh this spring? Or just need a few ideas to brighten a dull and dingy bathroom?

Whether you’re simply in search of inspiration, or looking for professional tips and suggestions from industry experts, this weekend’s renovation show might have just what you’re after.

This year’s show features the Lifestyle Stage helmed by Sherry Holmes of Holmes: Next Generation, an Ask a Renovator booth where you can drop in for a free 15-minute consultation with one of the city’s top home improvement experts, Ask a Landscaper area for access to top local landscape and nursery experts, and access to decorator and designer pros who will help you turn your house into a dream home.

Buy tickets early online and save $2.

— AV Kitching

Penner gives budding scientists a boost

In My Backyard

• Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.
• Manitoba Museum Planetarium
• Tickets $6.30-$8.40 at manitobamuseum.ca (free for Indigenous visitors)

A familiar voice will help introduce Planetarium visitors to the wonders of the stars and more.

Iconic Winnipeg children’s entertainer Fred Penner voices In My Backyard, the newest show at the Planetarium, which opens this weekend and runs every Saturday and Sunday from 11 to 11:45 a.m. until the end of March.

Guided by Penner and combining immersive visuals with songs, In My Backyard will help kids and their parents learn about celestial bodies — from planets to stars to meteors and more — as well as phenomena closer to home, such as the colours of the rainbow and why different seasons exist. Aspiring scientists and astronomers will come away enriched and entertained.

— Ben Sigurdson

Fundraiser for Right to Housing

• Sunday, Jan. 14, at 7 p.m.
• Good Will Social Club
• Tickets $20 at bettermanitoba.ca

Have you heard? There’s a housing crisis in Manitoba. Just this week, the Free Press’s Danielle Da Silva reported that more than 2,000 publicly owned, subsidized rental units across the province are unoccupied. It’s not for a lack of demand. According to a September report by the Right to Housing Coalition, nearly 6,000 people were on the wait-list for social housing as recently as 2022.

It doesn’t sound like a happy song, so on Sunday, Better Manitoba — a grassroots, left-leaning political action coalition formed ahead of the last provincial election — is hoping to change the tune, holding a fundraiser at the Good Will Social Club in conjunction with Right to Housing.

On the bill are Bush Lotus, Claire Thérèse & Darwin Baker, alongside a helping of “Chilean entertainment.”

— Ben Waldman

That’s it, back to Winnipeg for DJ Demers

• Jan. 16-20
• Rumor’s Comedy Club
• Tickets $14-$20 at rumorscomedyclub.com

D.J. Demers wasn’t always comfortable joking about his hearing loss.

“I didn’t want it to be a gimmick or a crutch,” the Kitchener-born, Los Angeles-based standup comedian, who was diagnosed with severe-to-profound hearing loss as a child and uses hearing aids, recently told The Canadian Press.

“But then once you feel confident in your abilities, you go, ‘Well, I’ll find a way to make this funny, and it’s a big part of who I am.’”

Demers, 37, has certainly found a way to make it funny and relatable in his appearances on America’s Got Talent and Conan, his quartet of comedy specials [Indistinct Chatter], Interpreted, Uninterpreted, Born in ‘86, and now, as the star and creator of One More Time, a new sitcom that premièred on CBC and CBC Gem this week.

Demers will be back at Rumor’s — where he recorded Uninterpreted in 2019 — for a run of shows next week, from Tuesday through Saturday. Note: the Jan. 18 show is sold out.

— Jen Zoratti