In the second part of blogUT’s continuing coverage of the orgy of laughter (and tears) that is the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, our intrepid blogUT crew ventured into the cozy embrace of the retro-chic venue Theatre Passe Muraille this Friday for a late-night 11pm lineup of three intrepid troupes: The Skinny, Kanellis & Armstrong, and U of T alumni group Skule Night. The small size of the crowd was almost certainly attributable to the lateness of the show (who, besides the cast members’ mothers, do you expect to be at a sketch comedy show at 11pm on a Friday night? Answer: pathetic bloggers), but the atmosphere was cozy and made the inevitable bouts of fourth-wall shattering audience participation more tolerable. But enough esoteric details, onto the show!

The Skinny are a three-person troupe hailing from Vancouver, and opened the show with a clever reverse strip tease. My personal favorite line was “Oh yeah, put it on! Put those clothes on slower!” If I were Ron Howard (and God willing someday I will be) I would tell those people to run with it and make the parody video I have been dreaming of since Grade 7: Nelly’s “It’s Gettin’ Colder in Here (So Put on a Parka).” Superheroes and cartoons featured prominently in their sketches, along with well executed bouts of physical comedy. Their shorter sketches sometimes fell flat: the punch line of one sketch advertising sex as a new form of exercise is that, surprise surprise, they have sex! But never fear: the LOLs kept coming. Personal favorite sketches were: (a) Superman accidentally commits murder and has to reverse the rotation of the earth (because, according to Marvel Comics in the 1970s, that’s how time travel works. Get on this, Science!) again and again, and (b) a def poetry jam between heroin-junkie William S. Burroughs and being-sad-junkie Sylvia Plath.

Kannallis & Armstrong are a New York based duo, and provided a strong follow-up to the first act. Their sketches featured prominently funny accents, physical comedy, energetic audience participation, and poop. The duo had very good comedic chemistry and timing, and very few of their sketches fell flat. Another positive aspect of their comedy was the range and depth of characters they played, even when communicating it through a blown-kiss-cùm-fellatio pantomime sketch. Personal favorites included a fecal tennis match, and two Irish women talking about dating (during the potato famine, I assumed).

Skule Night are a University of Toronto based troupe from the Faculty of Engineering and rounded out the evening’s lineup.  Their work, while good, was the least polished of the three. With the largest cast, it was difficult for them to develop characters adequately within the space allotted. Then again, developing any kind of character within the four minute time-frame that most sketches impose is a feat for anyone. With such a large cast, it was hard for many of the performers to develop chemistry, and there were several line flubs and uncontrollable fits of laughter (thanks, Jimmy Fallon for making this seem OK) that detracted from the sketches’ dynamic. There were also some very strong, promising sketches that should be further developed. Personal favorites were a movie trailer voice over artist narrating his friends’ love triangle and the Microsoft Word Swat Team.

The show was, overall, very enjoyable and is highly recommended for any armchair fan of comedy. (Also for people that like to laugh: this logically excludes emotionless cyborgs that live and thrive among us. Sorry, cyborgs!) Please come and support local comedy and the burgeoning U of T comedy scene! Check back for further blogUT reviews of the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 at 1:32 pm and is filed under Arts, Clubs, Entertainment, Events, Wish You Were Here. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.