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Must Be Nice Indigenous Comedy Festival

• Devil May Care Brewing Company, 155-A Fort St.
• Friday & Saturday, 7 p.m.
• Tickets $23 at Eventbrite

Treaty 1 comedians Jeff Gobeil and Kaitlynn Brightnose have had big, busy summers.

Gobeil, a member of Poplar River First Nation, is fresh off performing The Crown Witness Is a Stand-Up Comedian? at this year’s Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival. The hour-long solo show, which earned four stars from the Free Press, details how he reported his childhood sexual abuser to police and served as the Crown witness during the man’s trial, “with Gobeil striking a breathtaking balance between his harrowing life story and the comedic observations that have resulted,” according to our review.

He and Brightnose, who grew up between Pukatawagan and Cranberry Portage and is a regular at the Bannock Bums showcases at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, also performed at the Indigenous Comedy Showcase before headliner Jim Gaffigan’s set at the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival in July, along with fellow comedian Noah Robinson.

On Friday, they’ll headline the first night of Must Be Nice Indigenous Comedy Festival, a two-night showcase featuring Indigenous comedians from across Treaty territories. Robinson will also perform at the fest, along with a slate of other comics including Stephan Meechas, Sherry McKay, Issa Kixen and others. Single-night and weekend passes are available at Eventbrite.

— Jen Zoratti

 

Deep Purple

• Canada Life Centre, 300 Portage Ave.
• Saturday, 6:45 p.m.
• Tickets $78-$165 at Ticketmaster

They penned one of the most memorable riffs in rock and have sold more than 100 million albums since the late 1960s; now hard rock/metal pioneers Deep Purple are coming back to Winnipeg, with fellow rock veterans Kansas and Jefferson Starship in tow.

The British quintet is responsible for such hits as Smoke on the Water (featuring that iconic riff), Highway Star and Speed King, many of which were written and released in the early 1970s as the band shaped the sound of hard rock and heavy metal. Impressively, three of the five members — drummer Ian Paice, bass/keyboard player Roger Glover and vocalist Ian Gillan — date back to that iteration of the band that penned the bulk of Deep Purple’s hits.

The band is currently touring in support of its 26th album, Splat!, and has been introducing fans to songs from the album interspersed with some of its biggest hits.

Opening the show will be bands who have featured myriad players over the decades — Jefferson Starship along with Kansas, best known for the hits Dust in the Wind and Carry on Wayward Son.

— Ben Sigurdson

 

Maryland Music Fest

• Maryland Food Fare parking lot, 115 Maryland St.
• Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
• Free

There’s plenty to do in West Broadway this Saturday, as the Maryland Music Fest returns to the neighbourhood.

Presented by the West Broadway BIZ and Real Love, the free event kicks off with a street smudge at RAY at 11 a.m., followed by a parade and community feast at 12:30 p.m. at Magnuss Eliasson Recreation Centre.

A family-friendly street market featuring 40 local vendors, including Luckygirl popup and Chip’s Vintage, will be held between 3 and 6 p.m. along Westminster Avenue between Maryland and Sherbrook.

Music will be pumping all day. Shorty’s Pizza, acting as the official sidestage, will have musician and DJs starting at 11:30 a.m. and continuing until 2 a.m. The mainstage, at 115 Maryland St., will feature up and coming local acts Solaire, Jana Jacobs, Dom and Jacob, and Tiana starting at 6 p.m., with Diaphanie as Alanis Morissette headlining at 10 p.m. Beer from Good Neighbour Brewing, cocktails by the Handsome Daughter, tacos from Bistro Dansk, shwarma from Food Fare and sammies from Hoagie Boyz are on offer at the main stage beer garden all evening.

Speaking of the Handsome Daughter, the venue at 61 Sherbrook St. will host the official festival afterparty, with Domo Lemon, Earth Angel and CEC performing starting at 10 p.m. The venue will also host its own summer market on Saturday with a dozen vendors from noon to 6 p.m., and a patio show from Courtney Devon as part of its Garage Days summer series, all of which are also free, by the way.

— Sheldon Birnie

 

Sarper Güven

• Sunday 5 p.m., 8 p.m.; Monday 6:30 p.m., 9:30 p.m.
• The Basement Speakeasy, 3740 Portage Ave.
• Sold out

There’s a scene in reality TV show 90 Day Fiancé where Sarper Güven is attempting to seduce his fiancée, Shekinah Garner, by doing a striptease.

Following the show’s premise (and America’s stringent immigration law for those who have received or applied for a K-1 visa), the Turkish national has three months to marry his belle, or it’s back to Istanbul.

“When I was exotic dancer, you feel powerful there. You are the only man and all the girls are getting crazy for you. They’re screaming, want to touch you. You feel great, you feel like a god. But now I will only dance for Shekinah,” he tells the camera.

For the next four years, Güven danced only for Garner. But after a messy breakup, the muscly, spiked-hair fan favourite is single and trying his hand at another artistic metier: standup comedy.

Are we laughing with him? A YouTube clip of his routine shows a bit of his about Greyhound Lines going over well in Toronto. We’ll see how Winnipeg audiences respond, but with four sold-out shows he’s clearly popular here.

— Conrad Sweatman

 

A Taste of Manitoba

• Fort Gibraltar, 866 Rue St. Joseph
• Sept. 3-7, various times
• Free, food tickets $40-$80 at tasteofmb.com

The third annual Taste of Manitoba food festival kicks off next Thursday at Fort Gibraltar. The event is hosted by the Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservice Association and features bites and beverages from 20 local restaurants.

Admission is free and attendees can purchase tickets that can be exchanged for food and beverages at participating vendors, which include Jeepney, Spicebros, Carlos and Murphy’s, Peasant Cookery and other local eateries. Individual menu items are valued between two and five tickets and packs of 20 or 40 tickets can be purchased in advance for $40 and $80, respectively.

Each of the festival’s five days has a different theme and features entertainment by local musicians, from Sol James to Bobby Dove to Gabriela Ocejo.

Visitors can also watch and participate in various competitions, such as a server tray and DJ contest or a chicken wing, rib, perogy and lumpia-eating contest.

— Eva Wasney

 

Morden Corn and Apple Festival

• 13-379 Stephen St., Morden
• Friday-Sunday, various times
• Free

The annual harvest festival makes its return to the town of Morden this weekend. Go for the free corn and apple juice — on offer across all three days of the event — and stay for the packed schedule of events.

There’s a flea market, dance battle, live music and even a festival within a festival — and that’s just on Friday.

Saturday starts early with an 8 a.m. pancake breakfast before the farmers market opens an hour later. There’s also a raw corn and cider sale where you can purchase corn by the dozen and apple cider by the jug, along with the option to purchase freshly cooked cobs of corn. Bus tours run from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and St. John’s Parish is holding an outdoor bingo event, which runs from early afternoon until 9 p.m.

There’s a car show from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, and afternoon concerts organised by the Morden Christian Programs committee. For more information and full event listings visit cornandapple.com.

— AV Kitching

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