I’ll be the first to admit that I have a bit of an issue with procrastination, but it’s never been particularly serious. So I write the occasional essay on the morning of – as long the grades are fine, it’s not such a big deal. But when putting things off gets in the way of leisure, then I know I have a problem. Such was the case last week during North by Northeast (NXNE), the multi-media, multi-venue arts festival that took over our city for a few days. Even though I had the chance to see just about every show – the festival operates on a first-come, first-served basis – and even though they put out a killer scheduling app that would have made finding appropriate shows easy, it wasn’t until the very last night of NXNE that I finally dragged myself on to the subway to see something. I was not disappointed.
That something was a comedy show at the Lower Ossington Theatre. Consisting of several comedians rotating every ten minutes or so, the show had humour as well as variety, so I was easily able to find some comics I loved (and very few others I did not). It was an enjoyable experience, and I regret not seeing more shows when I had the chance. I also regret not branching out into music or art or cinema and seeing some of the festival’s other offerings. This might actually be the thing that makes me change my procrastinating ways.