This past Friday I bore witness to this year’s iteration of Victoria College’s long running sketch comedy revue: The All Knowing Bob. It was a night of laughter, jeers, death panels, and hanging rednecks (read: basically my childhood) and well worth the $5 admission price.

Having seen last year’s Bob, A Bob Divided (based on the theme of two directors at war), I can’t help but draw comparisons between the two. While this year’s show was strong, its central theme was only really present in the introduction and conclusion sketches of the show, whereas the theme of the two warring camps of Bob actors reappeared throughout last year’s, which gave the show more of a sense of structure. In any case, The All Knowing Bob was very strong with some very well-written and well-acted sketches. There was not one sketch that didn’t elicit at least one laugh from me, which was a welcome break with the past tradition of some headache inducing acts that I have seen (please see my reviews of the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival).

Timing is an elusive thing to master in sketch comedy, and when designing a sketch one always runs the risk of thinking that (lots of good jokes) + (even more jokes) = funnier. Unless every single one of those jokes is about land-stealing Prussian nobles, then there is such a thing as reaching the tipping point in a sketch where additional length serves to make funny jokes less funny. As always, less is more: some of the longer sketches in The Bob would have been 100% funnier if they had been 50% longer. Also, some sketches didn’t build towards a central punch line or narrative conclusion, which made a few of them seem static.  But those small critiques aside (and they are very minor, compared to the wealth of great sketches in this two-hour long revue), it was a very well made piece of comedy. The Mad Hatter sketches made me laugh till I peed (just a little bit), and the songs were catchy and original.

The acting was strong, and hopefully many of this year’s newcomers to The Bob –and those still involved that aren’t geriatric fourth years like me that have to hobble across campus to catch the Early Bird™ special at Denny’s – will stick around to crack jokes about death panels for years to come. A hearty round of applause should be given to long-time Bob actors/writers/co-directors Brandon Hackett and Chris Berube, along with their very talented cast.

In part three of blogUT’s continuing coverage of the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, we find ourselves once again in the cozy Theatre Passe Muraille catching the tail end of the week-long festival. The three final acts were the native Toronto duo Accidental Company, the energetic New York duo Kanellis & Armstrong (covered here), and former University of Toronto student group Statutory Jape. This evening’s performances rounded out a solid week of hilarious sketch comedy that featured groups from near (Toronto) and far (the æther that supposedly lies beyond Toronto) assembled to bring mirth to our frozen, coal-black city dwelling hearts.

In all honesty, it has been a great pleasure to cover this festival, and this author hopes sincerely that you managed to catch at least a little bit of the first-rate comedy that went on there. But enough of my sentimentality (exactly what I heard before getting shoved into a locker in Grade 8): onto the acts!

Accidental Company is a Toronto-based duo that opened the evening’s performance. They opened with a sketch featuring what could only be described as the bastard child of a children’s television show and Pee Wee Herman’s repressed memories. My favorite line came from the protagonist’s Big Book of Ideas: “Chapter 7: starving children should trick-or-treat more!” Accidental Company opened strong and maintained good chemistry throughout their sketches, despite some lulls in their otherwise impeccable energy and timing. The duo had inventive routines, and their sketches took some unexpected routes eschewing audience expectations. Favorite sketches were the autobiography of forward-to-novels writer Samuel McCloud (“Things I Never Did”) and Badjoon’s World.

Kanellis & Armstrong were in good form again. For a more in-depth look at their act, please see blogUT’s review of their Friday night show. A second review of their act revealed a previously unnoticed degree of improvisation, which was a pleasant surprise.

Statutory Jape brought the evening’s performances to a close. Their act, while solid, was by far the longest out of the three acts. It is possible that this is due not to a preponderance of content, but rather to their timing. Some of their sketches were overwrought and lacked actual punch lines to provide structure. Others had punch lines clumsily tacked on at the end of perfectly good sketches, throwing off the dynamic. My philosophy with comedy has always been that less is more (also, Shakespeare may have said that but he’s dead. Who’s plagiarizing whom now, William?!) and the same holds true for sketches. Saying more jokes with fewer words is always better [ED: more jokes, fewer words. [ED: jokes!]]. Nevertheless, I suspect that some of the timing issues are related to the fact that they were by far the largest group (at five performers) and followed two acts of duos (a configuration that helps to emphasize timing). There were some very funny sketches in this act: personal favorites were a Choose Your Own Adventure Diary of Anne Frank and Orson Welles upstaging his own death in Romeo & Juliette.

Do I hear a video mashup of Citizen Kane and Romeo + Juliette in the works? Answer: no.

To reiterate, it has been a pleasure to cover the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival and I recommend that everybody at U of T check it out when it returns next year.  At $12 a ticket, this event exists at the exact intersection between the twin axes of price and fun. (All econometrics of fun (funometrics) courtesy of the Bank of Canada).

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.

Victoria College’s annual sketch comedy revue — which claims to be the longest running sketch comedy show in Canada (the NDP was disqualified on the grounds that it is not intentional comedy) –- will be opening on Thursday, November 19^th. This year’s production, The All-Knowing Bob, claims to know more about everything than you do.

Do they know the recipe for comedy? If not, I posit that it involves a lot of extra virgin olive oil, cumin, whimsy, and serves six (note: recipe copied from Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares & Glaswegian Standup Routines, vol. III).

What: The All-Knowing Bob
When: Thursday, November 19^th to Saturday, November 21^st. Show starts at 8pm (doors open at 7:45pm)