Hits and giggles

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This article was published 15/02/2011 (5637 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT’S laughter, to the power of 10.

This year’s Winnipeg Comedy Festival — the 10th-anniversary edition of the local springtime laugh-fest — will be the longest (10 days in all) and most frenzied (36 shows on the schedule) in the event’s history, and organizers are promising a lineup more dense, diverse and potentially dangerous than anything fest-goers have seen before.

The full festival schedule will be unveiled today at a Ten Commandments-themed launch event, which is open to the public, at 11 a.m. at the Gas Station Arts Centre.

So far, only one commandment has been revealed: Thou Shalt Laugh.

In a strange and slightly comical audio/text-hybrid interview — the result of some recent throat surgery that has left the festival artistic director literally speechless (much to the delight of his staff) — Al Rae said this anniversary celebration includes some of the most challenging and new-media-inspired content ever.

“We’re trying to reconcile the festival with the way people consume comedy now,” Rae explained, “which is online and by word-of-mouth — more local, and guerilla-style.”

With that in mind, Rae said the strategy this year was to strike a balance between familiar comedy faces — including the likes of SCTV legend Andrea Martin, This Hour Has 22 Minutes veteran Cathy Jones and never-miss festival stalwart John Wing — and emerging acts whose popularity has grown more online than in clubs and theatres.

 

“We look at a ton of (Internet) links,” said Rae. “We don’t care what clubs they’ve played. It’s a new ball game.”

The festival will begin April 1 with an appearance by Rae and Winnipeg-born writer/comedian Bruce Clark at Aqua Books’ weekly Kelly Hughes Live! show. On April 2, the festival is co-presenting a show by Last Comic Standing finalist Gerry Dee at the Burton Cummings Theatre, and on April 3, the CBC Radio show Wiretap will do a taping at MTC Warehouse and comedian Chris Gibbs will headline a Festival Kick-Off show (with opening act George Westerholm), also at the Warehouse.

On April 4, Kids in the Hall regular Kevin McDonald will open Kevin Fest, a weeklong free-admission screening of his favourite comedy movies (beginning with Young Frankenstein and continuing with Love and Death, Real Life, The Heartbreak Kid and Monty Python and the Holy Grail).

The April 4 schedule also includes the first of three performances of Clark’s new play, Incongruous, which was inspired by the life and comedy of Irwin Barker.

On Tuedsay, April 5 — the day usually reserved for the festival’s opening-night show — CBC writer/reporter Wab Kinew will host an aboriginal-themed show titled Urban Unreserved, featuring locals Ryan McMahon and Cara Lytwyn, and fest regular Wing will host a Comedy Aces show that includes Nikki Payne, Pete Zedlacher and Big Daddy Tazz.

The festival’s list of theme-driven galas, which will be taped for TV broadcast, includes On That Note…, a telethon-formatted musical show hosted by SCTV alumna Martin and featuring Jessica Holmes and Gavin Crawford, and a pair of Friday shows titled Hystereotypes (featuring Jimmy Tingle and Darryl Lennox) and Does This Joke Make Me Look Fat? (hosted by Payne and featuring Carla Collins, Ryan Belleville and returning favourite Mrs. Hughes).

Saturday’s galas are Misfortune Tellers, featuring Trevor Wilson, John Hastings and Elvira Kurt, and Crossing the Line, hosted by Jon Dore and featuring Dan Licoppe, Maureen Langan and Claire Brosseau.

The festival lineup also includes two tapings of CBC Radio’s Q — the first scheduled show sold out in 10 minutes, so a second taping has been added — as well as a return engagement by Winnipeg’s Hot Thespian Action, the edgy Dark and Stormy Show, and, for the first time, a free-admission Student Night! show on April 7 at Lo Pub.

CBC Radio’s Definitely Not the Opera is hosting an event called Have I Got a Story For You!, which was inspired by last year’s Storytellers feature and will be taped for radio broadcast. The 10th-anniversary lineup also includes a pair of French-language galas — Drôlement Vôtres 9 — and a francophone version of the born-in-Winnipeg Debaters franchise.

The on-again/off-again relationship between the festival and Rumor’s Comedy Club is on again, with the local comedy mainstay showcasing comics from the fest’s roster throughout the week.

The festival will close, fittingly, with an old-school comedy event called The Dark Roast: Al Rae on a Spit, hosted by popular Debaters moderator Steve Patterson and featuring Wing, Kurt, Clark and Westerholm.

“There will be no holds barred,” says Rae.

Full schedule information and ticket prices are available at www.winnipegcomedyfestival.com.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca