I am doing a show here

Soooooooo,

I am doing a show here in Toronto. Check it.
The Catch23 show is happening on Monday (and every Monday) at Clinton's Tavern.


The Catch23 show

It is a fun show and they are cool peeps.

It is cool being in Toronto

I like Toronto.

There, I said it. Perhaps it is because the rest of the country is so down on it that it ends up being this really cool city just because I expect it to suck (or maybe it is just a cool city). I like it.

I know I no doubt sound like a prairie bumpkin, but, there is so much here.
-so many people for people watching
-so many cool looking shops
-so many cool little eating places
-and lots of art on the street

No, it is no Berlin when it comes to street art, or even a Montreal. It still has enough to keep me focused on the alleys and scribbles that show up on walls and posts. One example is the now famous Val Kilmer (which was Val Kilmer's face pasted up all over), the art was featured in People Magazine.

It has enough stuff, and shows, and cool people and stuff to be a cool city in my book. Okay, enough kissing the ass of Toronto.

Well, it turns out I am in Toronto

So I am currently in Toronto at a Canadian Improv Games meeting. It is quite awesome hanging out with all the CIG folks and getting pumped about another improv season.

What is the Canadian Improv Games
? It is the super awesome rad high school improv program that has been running for a years and years (it was the 25th season a couple of years ago).

The Comedy Bus

Finally I am able to post the poster.
This show is gonna rawk hard folks, you had better all be there.
Comedy from the makers of fine comedy products like:
-CRUMBS in their first non-improvised show in over 5 years.
-The Steve Breadstone Experience in their first show since the Fringe.
-The Fabulous Ron Moore in his first show since his one man show at the Park Theatre last month.
-Mike Bell in his first real comedy show since the Royal Leichtenstein Theatre Company days.
-Jeff Sinclair in his first show since returning from his Letters @ Large tour of Western Canada.
-Janet Shum in her first show at the Gas Station Theatre since CRUMBS presented Berlin or Bust 5 in March 2004.

wierd

so,
either the internet is bunk.
the blogger site is bunk.
firefox is bunk.
safari is bunk.
my computer is bunk.
or its all bunk...
the thing is, i cannot load any fotos, and jeez i would really like to.

Some shows

Always with the more shows...

Last night was the jack'um & attack'em show at the Park Theatre featuring GrewG (204), Jefferson Sinclair (204), Carolynn (Outside Joke), Ron Moore (Ex-Brave New Weasel and Jack'Um Producer), Myself and special guest Marcus Bale (Snatch Improv from Ireland).

Thursday at the Gas Station Theatre will feature 204 Improv opening for Outside Joke.

Firday at the Park Theatre will feature the show "Ron Moore is Missing" a live DVD presentation of the Collector's Edition of the Fringe hit Ron Produced 3 years ago at the Fringe.

Saturday BBQ at Dave Kitchen's house, if you don't know him, then you can't go.

That oughtta keep y'all busy...

A new commercial

That's right folks, I have sold my soul yet again. This time its for Compusmart, last time it was for Selkirk GM. So, be on the look out for a dashing young customer wanting to buy a computer (its me!).

"If you renew a membership are you remembering?"

The Gas Station Theatre membership drive show came and went, and it was a blast.
Soon I will post pictures of the night. For right now I will just say that those that did show up were there for a party and that is what they got.

Amazing performances, three big tents in the courtyard, plenty of nice people and plenty of good times.

All those people that did show up received new memberships and are now burdened with the responsiblity of actually attending some shows. Those that did not show up are still lucky enough to buy their theatre membersips directly from the Gas Station Theatre call 284-9477 for details.

If you don't have a membership, its like you aren't part of the "cool" club.

Park theatre shows coming up

The Park Theatre Jack'Um & Attack'Em Improv show

The next improv show is on September 13th and will feature:
Ron Moore
Stephen Sim
Carolyn (from Outside Joke)
Grewg (204)
Jefferson (204)
and...
Marcus Bale (a special guest visiting from Ireland)

the next next improv show on September 20th will feature:
Ron Moore
Lee White (CRUMBS)
Stephen Sim (CRUMBS)
and others...

and there will be more

outside joke has a show

Outside Joke (as in, not an inside joke) is doing a back to school show called "gimme your lunch money". The show will be at the Gas Station theatre on September 15th. It will be 7 or 8 bucks but cheaper if you write a 100 workd essay on why you should get in cheaper.

It will be an improv show with those Outside Joke folk:
-Carolynn
-Andrea
-RobYn
-Jane
-Toby
-Chadd

I like to call Outside Joke O-Joke cause its shorter, sometimes i call them the O-Jokers.

Shows this week (and beyond)

There are shows coming up this week (and in the future).

Tuesday night at the Park Theatre, Jack'Um & Attack'Em with Ron Moore.

Wednesday night at the Red Road Lodge, with the Far Manimals and guests.

Thursday night at the Gas Station Theatre, the 2005/2006 Membership drive shows (there are three shows and a patio party happening, come on down).

Don't forget:

Every Monday at the Toad, there is an improv show that anyone can play.

Every Monday at noon on 101.5 UMFM, CRUMBS does a live improv talk radio show.

On September 16th (Friday) there will be a show at the Park Theatre. Ron Moore is Missing (Collector's Edition).

On October 15th (Saturday) there will be a comedy show at the Gas Station Theatre. It will feature the best in Winnipeg comedy (and will not have any improv in it).

The IF... Winnipeg Improv Festival 2006 (which is the 6th annual). Oct 31st - Nov 5th. The festival will feature so many shows i won't list them, so many wonderful perfomers that i won't name them and so many awesome things that you won't bw able to stay away.

wow,

bocce ball

Here is my best girl playing bocce ball at the cabin, she has some nice curve-ball action.



bocce history


Throwing balls toward a target is the oldest game known to mankind. As early as 5000 B.C. the Egyptians played a form of bocce with polished rocks. Graphic representations of figures tossing a ball or polished stone have been recorded as early as 5200 B.C. While bocce today looks quite different from its early predecessors, the unbroken thread of bocce’s lineage is the consistently common objective of trying to come as close to a fixed target as possible. From this early objective, the basic rules of bocce were born. From Egypt the game made its way to Greece around 800 B.C. The Romans learned the game from the Greeks, then introduced it throughout the empire. The Roman influence in bocce is preserved in the game’s name; bocce derives from the Vulgate Latin bottia, meaning boss.

The early Romans were among the first to play a game resembling what we know as bocce today. In early times they used coconuts brought back from Africa and later used hard olive wood to carve out bocce balls. Beginning with Emperor Augustus, bocce became the sport of statesman and rulers. From the early Greek physician Ipocrates to the great Italian Renaissance man Galileo, the early participants of bocce have noted that the game’s athleticism and spirit of competition rejuvenates the body.

As the game enjoyed rapid growth throughout Europe, being the sport of nobility and peasants alike, it began to threaten with the health of nations. The popularity of the game was said to interfere with the security of the state because it took too much time away from archery practice and other military exercises. Consequently, Kings Carlos IV and V prohibited the playing of bocce, and doctors from the University of Montpellier, France, tried to discredit the claim that playing bocce had great therapeutic effect in curing rheumatism.

In 1576, the Republic of Venice publicly condemned the sport, punishing those who played with fines and imprisonment. And perhaps most grave was the condemnation by the Catholic Church which deterred the laity and officially prohibited clergyman from playing the game by proclaiming bocce a means of gambling.

Contrary to the rest of Europe, the great game of balls thrived in Great Britain. Such nobility as Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Francis Drake were avid fans. According to legend, Sir Frances Drake refused to set out to defend England against the Spanish Armada until he finished a game. He proclaimed, "First we finish the game, then we’ll deal with the Armada!"

The sport first came to America in the English version called bowis from the French boule meaning ball. In accord with how the game was played in Britain, American players threw the ball not on stone dust (as is done today in bocce) but on close cropped grass which some say is the origin of the modern lawn. It has been noted that one early American playing field was Bowling Green at the southern tip of Manhattan and that George Washington built a court at Mount Vernon in the 1780s.

In modern times, the first bocce clubs were organized in Italy. Notably the first Italian League was formed in 1947 by fifteen teams in and around the town of Rivoli (Torino). 1947 also marks the beginning of the yearly Bocce World Championships.

Thanks to many Italian immigrants at the turn of the century, bocce has come to flourish in the United States. During its beginnings in the U.S. there were as many versions of the game as there were towns the immigrants had left. Bringing some order to the game is the Collegium Cosmicum ad Buxeas, the preeminent bocce organization headquartered in Rome, Italy.

It should be added that the oral traditions of bocce are just as much an important part of the game. Throw out a pallino and become part of the long heritage of the game from great thinkers such as Galileo and da Vinci, to rulers Augustus and Queen Elizabeth, to the noble Sir Francis Drake and even America’s own George Washington. Enjoy the world’s oldest sport, a sport known to revive the body and mind, and next to soccer, the most popular game in the world.

Wow, all about throwing balls in the grass.

Are people offended?

Are people offended by the fact that Manitoba is prefixed with "Man"? Is this to male domintated? Should it become People-itoba? Should it become Womanitoba every other year? Perhaps we should just call it Toba?

Or is this idea just completely ridicuous and subject to ridicule...

out in the woods

Two weekends in a row I have had the luck and time to escape into the woods. Last weekend it was out to "the cabin", while this weekend it was out to some crown land north of Kenora, Ontario.

The site is one of those "secret spots" that everyone has. And boy, is it great. As long as you have a 4x4 and some off road experience. There were 11 of us who went out to this spot for Kent's stag party (Kent Bannister). We brought out 3 boats, 5 trucks, 2 pellet guns, 400 beers, 3 golf clubs, 47 fireworks, 7 tents, and lot's of other distractions.

Fishing was had, and I caught my first fish since becoming a vegetarien. I released it, though I was ready to kill and eat it. Oh well, next time perhaps.

The site was right onto a lake which was so clear you could almost always see the bottom. There was a set of water falls off the lake which fed into another lake (and another two sets of falls). This land of clear lakes and falls has a very nice site for camping. I have my eye on that site for next time.

The escape is nice...