Hot Picks, March 24: Master of puppets
Maybe we should take those ‘learn to throw your voice’ ads in the comic books seriously – Jeff Dunham has hit the big time. He plays Rexall Place tonight – the big building. Quick: name another puppeteer who can do arenas. Can’t do it, can you? That’s because there isn’t anybody else! It really is […]
Demonika’s celebration of the underground at The Starlite
Listen: It’s a big, big world, the underground world, and if it’s going to be an interesting one as well, interesting enough for all of us, then everyone has to do their part. Everyone’s got a thing that they can do, and they’ve just gotta do it. Some will have to dress scantily so as […]
GIGGLE CITY: John Caponera lives the Good Life
When it comes to stand-up comedians trying to break into television, many are called, few are chosen. John Caponera had his big chance as the star NBC’s The Good Life, co-starring Drew Carey, which was cancelled after the 1994 season. Caponera has since been on Letterman, had parts in big-time television shows like ER and […]
THEATRE REVIEW: Dog soils the fine line between surreal and nonsense
Edward’s father is a disgraced war hero who one day started shooting his own troops because he could no longer tell the difference between them and the enemy. Edward’s wife Vally was five years old when her mother hanged herself in the kitchen. One thing is clear: Despite their Happy Days veneer, the characters in Dog […]
GIGGLE CITY: Improvising with Stephanie Wolfe
Again we turn to the theatre community for funny people through which to explore the nature of comedy and comedians. Locals theatre buffs know Stephanie Wolfe as a veteran of Die-Nasty, the Live Improvised Soap Opera, which has run every Monday night at the Varscona Theatre for the last 20 years. It was invented in […]
THEATRE: Life and death in ‘Dog’
Now for something really spooky. Dog, playing through March 27 at Theatre Network’s Roxy Theatre, sounds like a real chiller. Set in the 1950s, the play deals with a happy young couple about to have a baby. When the wife suffers a miscarriage, they both sink into depression. Perfectly natural. But the husband just happens […]
Mayor’s Evening for the Arts – it’s not really his evening, it’s ours.
Stephen Mandel is one of the artsiest civic leaders artsy Edmonton has ever had – demonstrated again this year with today’s announcement of the nominees for the Mayor’s Evening for the Arts awards presentation on April 11. It’s not really HIS evening. We elected him. It’s OUR evening. Some of the names you will recognize: […]
THEATRE: Quasimodo, fully satisfying
There’s music, dancing and Quasimodo — but there is nothing Disney about Catalyst Theatre’s take on Victor Hugo’s classic 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This is a tour-de-force examination of humanity’s darker traits. With Hunchback, playing at the Citadel’s Shoctor Theatre through March 27, Catalyst’s core team of Jonathan Christenson, Bretta Gerecke, Laura […]
Alberta Party leader ready to rumble at Roller Grrrls
You know that Bob Dylan song Blood on the Tracks? It’s all about the roller derby. OK, so there’s no such song (it’s the name of the album), but there ought to be – because it could be the theme for Edmonton’s first (and possibly last) roller derby team comprised of theatre people under the […]
STEVE-O: The crazy kid who will do anything
You know that kid in your class who will do anything, take any dare, jump from any height, eat any bug? Steve-O is that guy. He has: – Snorted his own snot – Stapled his scrotum to both of his thighs – Snorted a live worm and pulled it out his mouth – Allowed his […]
