I’m going to be a little bit incommunicado for the next nine days as a result of some work with the WorldSkills Competition happening here in Calgary.  This is a MAJOR event with over 900 Competitors vying for Gold Medals in 45 different skill competition categories (like landscaping, auto body work, machining, etc).  There will be over 5000 delegates from 46 countries and 150,000 spectators through the Stampede Grounds.  I will be working with The Australian Channel as a part of the “Web Team” trying to get the word out about this important event.  So, quite obviously, my first stop is my own blog.

If you are in Calgary next week you can visit the grounds during the competition for FREE. You can try a skill/trade and watch the competitions.  If you are more ambitious I know that they are still hunting for volunteers (some positions require you to get a massage or facial!).  Click here if you are interested in that.

Should you be unavailable to visit the grounds (or outside of the city) there will be extensive coverage via this lovely thing called the internet.  I’m currently sitting in a room filled with people getting ready to conduct interviews with the Competitors and Experts, file reports on the activities, and give you a taste of what this event is all about.

Here’s a random sample of some of the online coverage…

As of this writing there aren’t many videos online (as we are still in the preparation days), but as the event goes on more videos will be added almost hourly. You can see/browse the videos online at the WorldSkills TV site or add the WorldSkills TV Facebook Application to your Facebook profile.

There will be tons of events happening over the next week and they are definitely worth at least a few minutes of your time!

—————————————

On the performing end of things: I’ve got a lot of public shows in September, most notably my first appearance at The Calgary Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club from September 10 to 12, 2009.  (Click here for the Facebook event.)  I’ll post more details next week on this blog, but try to keep one of those evenings free to come and see the show.

When I announced the opening night of Red Carpet Comedy I wanted people to say: “Wow!  What a surprise! I’ll put that in my calendar.”  Unfortunately I’ve been letting the date slip for the past several weeks to various performers and audience members.  So, this is the official announcement that I am sure will make people say: “Oh yeah!  I remember him saying something about that last week.”  (Maybe next time I can keep a tighter lid on it.)

Opening night of Red Carpet Comedy is Wednesday, September 16, 2009! For those of you that don’t know: this is an open-mic show that is for professional comedians only.  That means that while these performers will be trying out new material to perhaps start to include in their shows they have the stage presence and wherewithal to still guarantee a good show (even if their new jokes aren’t that funny).  I can easily say that it will be a unique night with highs and lows.  (If you’d like to know more about the show, click here.)

Tickets for the evening are only $10 and available online through KarmaTix: http://www.calgarytickets.com/comedy/red-carpet-comedy/.  Seating is very limited (about 60 chairs), so I would recommend advance tickets, but there may still be some at the door.

The night’s frivolities (I got this word from the character Mathis in “Casino Royale”) will start with the doors opening at 6:00pm for drinks and dinner.  Show time will be 8:00pm and will likely wrap up at about 9:30pm – depending on how many comedians end up on the show.

If you are a professional comedian looking for a spot on the show, please RSVP using this web form.  Even if you are an amateur comedian we may have a job for you… we’ll need some help with the door, etc, so feel free to contact me.

There’s a Facebook event created for this as well if you have any desire to share it with your friends.  (And I hope that you will!)

I’ll be hosting the evening and am already getting excited about it.  I know we’re still a month away from the show, but it’s never to early to get excited… or to buy your tickets (hint).

———————————

And speaking of hosting a show… I’m taking over from James Moore the responsibility of hosting Comedy Monday Night this coming Monday, August 24.  It’s a big job but I know I’m going to have a ton of fun.  That show starts at 8:00pm at Broken City (downtown Calgary).

There’s good news and more good news: One of the hottest comedy rooms in Calgary is opening back up AND I’ll be making an appearance on the grand re-opening shows this Friday and Saturday night. Daryl Makk’s Comedy Detour is returning to its original location now known as Fat Jacks (formerly Kit’s Pub). The room has the same great intimate feel and still pulls in great comics.

This Friday, July 24 and Saturday, July 25 will be the first shows back in the room with Daryl Makk himself as the headliner and James Moore as the MC.  I’ll be in the middle spot for both shows and relish the opportunity to work with these two gentlemen again.  (It’s been a while since I’ve shared a stage with either of them.)

So, if you’re looking to escape the heat (the room is underground), I would pick up some tickets by clicking here.  Show time is 8:00PM, but I would arrive early enough to grab a drink and a bite to eat.  Fat Jacks is located near SAIT on 16th Avenue.  The exact address is: 720 16th Ave NW, and you can click here for a map.

Daryl is working hard to make this a regular comedy room so I’ll be pulling out all the stops to give my best show possible.  (To be fair: I always give the best show possible… I’m now just now making that a publicly stated goal.) If I don’t see you this weekend, I should have some more public shows coming up this fall… stay tuned to this blog for more information.

———————————————

UPDATE (July 23, 2009): Daryl just sent me a spiffy flyer for the opening.  (How can you not attend now?)

Open mic nights are the birth place of new comedians.  It is where comedians step on the stage for their very first time, make their first mistakes, and learn a LOT in just five minutes (or less).  The truth is, that even professional comics need a stage to practice their new material or stay sharp in between paid shows.  While you’ll often see professional comics on stage at amateur open mics (making it more a pro/am experience), many open mics have decided to go “pro only” to better cater to the needs of the full-time comedian.

Despite Calgary’s wealth of comedic talent we have yet to see our own pro only open mic.  That all changes in the fall.  That’s when Red Carpet Comedy will be having it’s opening night in Calgary.  The rules are simple: professional comics on stage trying out ONLY their new stuff.

The audience will be in for a once-in-a-lifetime experience as the comedians share material with them that is being heard for the first time.  There are no guarantees as to the quality of one joke or another (it’s all new stuff), but you will be guaranteed a great time and a memorable night!  (And, yes, there will be a lot of laughs – they will just be in surprising places.)

All the details are forthcoming, but I do know that I will be the MC of the evening (also having to perform only new material), and that it will be occurring on a Wednesday night in September or October (heck, maybe even one show each month).

In the coming weeks I’ll be searching for all the professional comics that I can find (as well as the amateurs… they will be invited to attend, just not on the stage) to join the email newsletter of Red Carpet Comedy so that they can be the first to know about the show when the date is confirmed.  We’re also hunting for fans of stand-up comedy (they can also join the newsletter) so that we can let them know when the show will be and which of Calgary’s comedy celebrities they will see perform.

A full website with a rundown on the show and what each event will look like is available by clicking here. The date of the show will be confirmed in early August – at this point, we’ll start booking the comedy guests and making tickets available for sale.  (They’ll be cheap: $10 or so.)

I know I’ve already started to think about some new comedy to share with the audience that night.  Hopefully I will see you there where your reaction will decide if it stays or if it goes.

One of my best friends, Steve Nagy (mentioned on this blog before), embarked yesterday for a trip to Rwanda.  Now, a LOT of people’s knee-jerk question is: “Why?” The knee-jerk answer from myself is: “I have no idea.” After spending a week on a road trip to Vancouver and Tofino he decided that Rwanda was right for him. (That decision was made about a month ago.)

To be fair, he’s wanted to volunteer at a hospital in Rwanda (and work for other NGOs in and around East Africa) for quite some time.  His travels to other parts of the world (Hungary, China, Nepal, etc.) have set him up with a number of different contacts in the humanitarian sector, and he’s now taking advantage of them.  Since signing on to be a part of the trip his skills as photographer and videographer have been enlisted and he’ll be producing a “promotional video” for the hospital as well.

I’ve spent the last few weeks helping him get online and ready to start feeding information (stories, photos, and videos) back to us here in Canada and around the world. The final product is pretty spiffy, and there are a number of ways to read about and see what he is up to:

• A full-length blog with photos and video.
• A shorter blog through Tumblr.
• Twitter (for the most frequent updates).

I know that I’ll be watching intently.  Bon voyage, Steve!

The two of us on a train. On top of a train that is.

I had a TON of fun this past Saturday and Sunday taking a “Weekend Voice Over Introduction” presented by WCS Voice Spot and facilitated by the very talented Jonathan Love.  I’ve had a bug in my ear for quite some time about getting involved in voice over acting and this was my first step to pursuing it.  Number one lesson from the weekend: I’ve got a LOT to learn.  (But that is pretty exciting on it’s own… I love learning new skills, especially when they involve performing of some kind.)

The main benefit of pursuing this new “career”, or at least adding it to my existing one, is that it allows me to flex my acting muscles with less time commitment than a full stage play.  As I mentioned in my blog post from a few weeks ago, I do very much enjoy the opportunity to work with other people to produce creative work, and “on mic” opportunities often allow for that to happen.

Two days of working in the “classroom” (well, in the hotel boardroom) culminated in a brief stint in a studio here in town recording a commercial that would have originally aired sometime in the 90s.  I’ve included a couple of takes of the same script here – these are exactly as read with no edits. If you have a trained ear for the industry you’ll notice some areas for improvement.  If you don’t… well… you may still notice areas for improvement.

For now I’m casually hunting for any opportunity to work “on mic” and will see how it goes for the next few months before making any final decision on whether or not to include this skill in my regular repertoire.

On a personal note:  It was great to work with Jonathan again!  He’s also a part of a great music group called The Heebee-jeebees and they are playing the Coke Stage during Stampede.  (Click here for the showtimes.)

——————————————-

PS:  Happy Birthday, Canada! I was going to get you a card with some money it, but then realized that I paid taxes again this year, so we’ll call it even.

Saturday night was the closing night gala of Tuesdays With Morrie and since then I haven’t been quite sure what to do with myself.  Yes: I get back to being a magician, comedian, and speaker, this weekend… but the last couple of weeks have been so dominated with the play that there are now lots of hours in a day.

Several friends have been asking, “Are you sad it’s over?” And, yes, I am.  There is nothing quite like working with other performers and creating something special to share with an audience.  So much of the performing that I normally do is solo work.  I write by myself, I rehearse by myself, and perform on stage by myself (even when there are other acts on the show).  The opportunity to “play” with like-minded (and ridiculously talented) people is a rarity that I will surely miss (and already do).

Fortunately, the memories of the experience will last a very long time… and the skills that I learned and developed will last even longer.  Speaking of memories (how’s that for a segue?), there is now an online scrapbook of the show available with pictures, newspaper clippings, and some other “souvenirs” of the event.  You can see everything that is online by clicking here.

I look forward to my next venture into acting (whenever the opportunity arises) and am using these few days off to switch gears back to my work as a solo performer.

————————————–

Oh, and I would like to point out that I achieved my goal of making this week’s blog post “on time”.

In the past when a blog post was delayed (from posting on Tuesdays) for some reason I would make an apology… that time is past!  It is my blog – it’s my decision.  (It’s not like anyone has ever complained about the delay.)

The reason for the “two days late” post today is the run of Tuesdays With Morrie.  We opened on Sunday night to a sell-out crowd and have been performing nightly ever since – with no break until after Saturday.

I must confess that I am enjoying the process of going to the theatre nightly.  It is a very different atmosphere than the normal venues that I appear in and it is a wonderful experience and a great change of pace.  That said, I did decide to take off to the mountains yesterday for a coffee, some lunch, time with great friends, and a short hike.  It refreshed me and I’m ready to go for our final three shows this week.

If you haven’t made it the play yet, tickets are still available tonight through to (and including) Saturday.  (www.CalgaryTickets.com)

Next week’s blog post might actually be “on time” – but no promises.

We’re now less than a week away from the opening night of Tuesdays With Morrie.  Rehearsal yesterday was smashing and we’ve got just a few left to put the finished touches on the show.  There are still tickets available online here:

www.CalgaryTickets.com
(there are no service fees)

It has been an absolute pleasure working with such amazing and talented people for this show including my co-star Richard Michelle-Pentelbury and our director Christopher Hunt.

A big thanks also goes out to my friend Andrew Delong for stepping up and stage managing the show.  He had a lot to cover in the last few weeks here and he has done a marvelous job.

And, of course, none of this would be possible without the generosity of M&M Meat Shops – providing the sponsorship necessary to make this show happen and ensure that we raise the most money possible for The ALS Society of Alberta.

I do hope that if you are in Calgary you’ll be able to see the show one night from June 7 to 13 (that’s this Sunday to Saturday).  There’s a Facebook event page also created, click here to view it.  And tickets are all sold through this site.

This Thursday night is the opening night of the new Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club in Edmonton, AB! (For those of you that thought this post was about Tuesdays With Morrie: don’t worry, still lots of time to get your tickets for our June 7 to 13 run.) And guess who is on the show?  That’s right… it’s Nikki Payne!  Oh, yeah, and I’ve been given one of the coveted opening spots on the show.

I’m quite honoured to have been selected for this and have been obsessing about my set for that night.  (And by “obsessing” I mean “putting in about twice the work I normally would for a show”.  And by “twice the work” I mean “showering”.)

Having seen Nikki Payne (the headliner) several weeks ago I can tell you that it’s going to be an unforgettable night.  If you’re in Edmonton and looking for tickets all the details about the show are online here.  Also, Nikki created a Facebook event for the evening.

While it is a little strange being a Calgarian and playing the new Edmonton club before the new Calgary club I trust the audience up there won’t hold it against me.  (And if you are surprised to hear that there is a new Yuk Yuk’s in Calgary: it’s a great new club in the Elbow River Casino with great acts coming through all the time.  Click here for details.)

See you in Edmonton!

—————————–

PS:  Part of the reason that you might not have known that Yuk Yuk’s in back in Calgary is that they haven’t got approval for a sign on the casino to promote themselves.  The city has held them up in red tape.  So, to do my small part, I created a petition a few weeks back that I would love for you to sign.  It’s online here, only takes a minute, and is free to sign. The petition isn’t so much about comedy as it is about the rights of local businesses.