Archive for July, 2010

3 Pairs of Tickets to see the ultra-rare Rolling Stones documentary Charlie is My Darling at The Rio Theatre!

“I’m a Paul!”

If you’re a fan of music, film, and pop culture history you are not going to want to miss tonight’s show at The Rio. Charlie is My Darling is the rarely seen documentary shot during the Stones‘ two city tour of Ireland in 1965. Conceived by their manager Andrew Oldham as something of a necessity after the massive success and impact of The Beatles‘ A Hard Day’s Night, the film was completed in 1966 and is as much a montage of footage as it is a documentary. Mick imitates Elvis, Charlie is “practically incoherent,” Bill claims he’s just “in a band,” and Keef is a young man brimming with health, vigor, and possibility (relatively speaking).

Keef and Andrew fooling around.

In attendance to present the midnight screening on Saturday is Andrew Oldham, who, in addition to being the Rolling Stones‘ manager in the 1960s was also their mentor and the PR mastermind behind much of their early work. Oldham encouraged them to start writing their own material and effectively manipulated their “bad boy” image (in contrast to that other British super group).

Up for grabs are three pairs of tickets to Saturday’s very special and ultra-rare screening, and one $20 concession tab. (I have been advised that the concession tab is only good for Saturday and will self-destruct if not used.)

To enter, follow @VIAGiveaways on The Twitter.

At 12:00 noon today a trivia question will be tweeted from @VIAGiveaways. The first person to tweet the correct answer wins the $20 tab and a pair of tickets! The 2nd and 3rd correct tweeters will get a pair of tickets to Saturday’s show.

Get out there….this is the kind of thing you wait for all year for.

I love  blackberries so much.  For the next two weeks at least, I’m going to be lugging around some ratty shopping bag, and a step ladder.  Today after eating my stash, I huffed the bag….

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

For your boogie down beats and bboy battles this coming long weekend:
- TONIGHT/JUL. 29: Jurassic 5 DJ Nu-Mark @ Shine
- SAT DAT/JUL.31: Famous Circle presents: Circle Prinz Canada – International Bboy Battle, 4pm @ Russian Hall – 600 Campbell Ave (Strathcona)
- SAT NIGHT/JUL. 31: Hi5 @ the W2 Storyeum, 151 W. Cordoza (Gastown) with like every single mad DJ in town – Room 1: Hedspin, Illo, Rico Uno, Bles-sed, Nina Mendoza / Room 2: U-Tern, Trevor Risk, Zeeaa from Ethnic Friends, Cherk, AJK
Hi-5 July Promo Mix feat. Djs Illo / Hedspin / Zeeaa / Cherk

This Friday night Vancity Theatre gets bad-ass  with Super Fly (1972) at 7:00 and Coffy (1973) at 8:45.

Actor and musician Jim Byrnes is presenting this “Funk Night” as part of Vancity’s Music and Film Summer Series. See one for $10 or both for $13.

If the chance to groove to Curtis Mayfield’s epic Super Fly score at the swank theatre – hands down, Vancity is the most comfortable seating in Vancouver – isn’t enough to entice you, Coffy is screening in 35mm!

Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!). Today’s photo was taken by knitgirl and I have absolutely no idea what’s going on with it aside from the fact that it pictures a Shiba Inu named Yoshi sitting next to a plush letter W. And it is awesome.

“Comedy is tragedy plus time.” It’s been said many times by many comedians. I believe the original usage dates back to the great Carol Burnett. It’s a quote I have borrowed from to title this column about the wonderful talent in the comedy community right here in Vancouver. Since I’ve lived in Vancouver, I’ve heard a lot of people say that they had a bad experience at a comedy show and never went back. This is as ridiculous as swearing off restaurants as a whole because of one case of food poisoning. It’s my hope, that the profiles here will bring back those who have turned away or open the door for those who have never seen live comedy.

Finally, for those out there that don’t like to laugh, they might be best served by a quote from another lady of show business, Julia Roberts:
“Show me a person who doesn’t like to laugh and I’ll show you a person with a toe tag.”

I have heard an anecdote that the famous Monty Python sketch “Dead Parrot” was originally going to be about a broken toaster. I have also heard it was going to be about a broken car. It has been said that it was Graham Chapman, working with John Cleese who recommended it be a “Norwegian blue parrot” and the absurdity that made that sketch a classic was born.
I think of that story when I see Kevin Lee perform. His manner and appearance never give any hint of anything out of the ordinary, but he is always there with just the right twist to make something surreal.
I first met Kevin when he was doing stand up comedy. The “was” in that sentence has left the people who were lucky to catch him doing it with heavy hearts since he no longer performs in that medium.
His act included many non-sequitors, from him discussing the best tattoos to have under a moustache to a bit where he pulled a DVD copy of Legends of the Fall out of his pants at the end of the show.
Kevin moved on to a sketch duo with Sean Devlin that would produce podcasts and live performances called “The Living Room”. These sketches reveled in the absurd and surreal, while Lee’s outward demeanor would suggest nothing odd is going on at all.
Kevin’s most recent comedy home has proven that his obtuse comedy isn’t necessarily the product of hours of forming and reforming an idea, but something he can do on the spot. When Kevin performs with the Sunday Service, the only thing I can rely on is that his reactions to things are never what I expect.
His improv skills reveal that leaving behind the solitary act of stand up might have been a good idea, because he shines as a collaborator.
Some day his cast mates will be able to recall the fact that it was Kevin who added the idea to some wonderful piece that made their creation such an unusual delight.

You can find out more about Kevin and the Sunday service at thesundayservice.ca

Kevin was kind enough to collaborate with me on this article in the form of answering some questions.

When was the last time you laughed until you cried?
When I was 6, and my older sister’s boyfriend at the time said “Knock knock” and I said “who’s there?” and he threw sand in my eyes and said “I forget the rest of the joke.” He laughed, I cried, and my sister broke up with him 3 jokes later. 

Wait, I think I read the question wrong…

What would you say to people who say they hate improv because of what they’ve seen on television?
I’d say you probably hate cops, doctors, lawyers, cowpersons, serial killers, Friends, Seinfelds, and reality because all of those are on TV too, right?

Then you’d shake your head and say, well I like some cops, some doctors, all serial killers and I’d stop you right there and say improv is a difficult to show taped on TV because improv, arguably moreso than all other comedic form, is a dialogue between the audience and the performers. 

Which isn’t to say that the audience should be talking/yelling at us performers during the whole thing (because they really really shouldn’t), but I mean rather a dialogue of energy, where energy flows back and forth freely, effecting one another as we go along and shapes every aspect of the show. Stand up, sketch — these things are pre-prepared and staged and can certainly feed on energy in terms of volume and pace, but the content is set. With improv, at its best and purest, nothing is set. 

And hell, TV is full of G-D sets! TV is shown on an eff’n set fer christing out loud! 

I wish I’d read the question wrong…

What is your dream comedy venue?
We’re all really small and we’re under the cushions of Robin William’s Hollywood couch. We’re playing for dust mites, loose change and …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

The 3rd Annual Vancouver Film Race will be challenging local filmmakers to create an original short film (4 minutes max) in just 24 hours from Friday, August 27th to Saturday, August 28th. All of the completed films will premiere for the public Wednesday, September 1st at the Ridge Theatre and the best films will advance into a nationwide competition for over $30,000 in cash and prizes!

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

In case you haven’t been following my series of posts about the Celebration of Light fireworks, I’ve taken you onto the BARGE, I’ve shown you who’s JUDGING the fireworks this year (AHEM! myself and 6 others), shown you HOW WE JUDGE the fireworks and finally I told you about the competition part of the fireworks actually ENDING last night and this Saturday’s show being a tribute to China done by a Canadian fireworks team.

So you’re all caught up and the competition part is over. Last night after the final flare went off we judges headed back to the Boathouse and deliberated over cheesecake and white wine, we shared our thoughts and tallied up all of our scores from all 3 nights. Who do we collectively think put on the best show between the USA, Spain and Mexico? You’ll have to wait until Saturday night’s fireworks to find out because as I mentioned in my interview with Tamara Stanners on The Peak 100.5 FM yesterday, the results are in our head judge Jill Krop’s purse and they will remain there until Saturday night when they’re announced!

These two RCMP officers (our escorts for the evening) were standing close by the entire time and even they don’t know who won. If you’re following our main account on twitter (@VIAwesome) you might have already seen this photo of them. But honestly, if you’re into the fireworks you’re probably not paying attention to our tweets during the nights of the Celebration of Light – I would hope that you’re sitting on a blanket on one of the beaches that line English Bay enjoying the show!