Guest Blogger TuJoHaHa: The Montreal Comedy Scene

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"Hey Ottawa! What a great week I had. I've seen more shows in the past seven days than I have all month of June. Work is a bitch but we need to eat. And I loooove to eat! I might not look like it but food is my muse! Especially in the summer with BBQ ribs, burgers, sausages... 

                     *Homer drooling sounds*     

Jessica Salomon

 So, like I mentioned last week, I went out to The Comedy Bistro on Wednesday July 6th, which will be a monthly show put on by Jessica Salomon. It was a delight because I had some your locals on stage. Matthew Carter and Jimmy Cassidy. To balance the boat, Jess had two french comics doing their English sets. Benjamin Marquis and Bruce Fauveau. Bianca Yates had a killer set, perfecting her craft every time. With our super treat, DeAnne Smith, warming up for her Zoofest  and Just For Laughs show. She played her ukulele and had "6 minutes on the clock", some ad lib she does with the crowd. She is way hotter tha Bieber will ever be and I'm convinced that he stole his whole look from her. She comes to Ottawa often so catch her when you can!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                               Le Bistro du Parc des Princes is a sweet intimate venue.  Good seating all around, amazing wait staff and from what I could see and how people were ordering, the food is awesome.Famous for there sangria, why? Because it is the bomb! With lots of fruit and perfect balance of wine and juice, just the drink to satisfy a warm evening summer thirst. I can't wait to go back. The plateau is summed up well in this place.     

  

Doug Stanhope came to town on Thursday, July 7th and it was a blast! Katacombes was jammed packed and sold out, the booze was flowing and everyone was eager to see and cheer on the man! What an amazing show. Rob Mailloux opened up with a bang. Dan Derkson is becoming the greatest host ever and always perfecting his art.So lively, stage and crowd controlling not to mention completely hysterical and the room loved him  My hubby-to-be was with me and like he says: "If you can make me laugh every time with the same bit, you're doing something right!" Franck Chevrier was the cream in the show and the one who put it all together along side his pod-casters Tony Lalonde and Kara Mabee. Doug Stanhope did a solid hour and then some, completely destroying. He was hysterical, clever, tear jerking and a complete joy to watch. I think they really appreciated us as a crowd. We loved all sets and weren't like he said: " Fuck you, we want to see Stanhope." And it's true. The audience was there for the whole experience and everyone left more than satisfied. Next week, I'll put up the link to their podcast, This Won't Blow, with the Man himself. For now you can check out the last one they did with the Devil Dan Derkson himself, right here.  It was an amazing show and another reminder of why I love what I do!      

                                     

Until next week Ottawa, keep on laughing                     

 Jo

Men of Comedy: Guest Blogger Graham Chittenden

I've begun trying to remember my childhood in greater room with that little bastard me (figure of speech, my parents are still married,) I'd probably beat him up, or he'd beat me up. I was pretty feisty back then. It's also becoming clear to me how bad I have anxiety, and how long I've had it. 

One night when I was eight years old, I stayed up late and watched television. I don't know if it has any significance to the story, but I remember very clearly that I watched boxing on TSN. Around midnight, a time I rarely ever saw at that age, it occurred to me that I had done irrepressible damage to my sleep patterns. Normally I was asleep by ten o'clock and it was midnight. Not only did I not get to sleep on time, I realized something terrifying: I might never sleep again. I flew into a panic and ran upstairs, where my mother assessed the situation and decided that I should not be given caffeinated soda ever again. We all learned very little from that situation, but I didn't drink another cola for three years.

My sanity has always followed a feast-or-famine model. It pains to me admit this, but I'm the perfect candidate to be the guy who cuts his lawn at the same time every week except for the week that he murders his whole family and drives his car through the front window of his house. This polarized disposition started early. I have three brothers and my mother had to tolerate us twenty four hours a day because she was always sober. In the summer she would have to bribe us or trick us to behave. She ran a non-stop contest, tallied weekly, to monitor our behavior. A negative incident would get you a demerit point. By Tuesday I could be in the lead, with zero demerits. Nobody else was ever too bad, one or two check marks at the most, and they'd take them with out much of a fight. Then around Wednesday I'd get a bit heated with one of my brothers, and a check mark would go next to my name and holy hell would I let loose. I'd fight it. I'd try to get it erased, and I would get louder and louder and switch from pleadings of "please take it back" to declarations of "how much bullshit this is." Within twenty minutes I'd have twenty check marks. I don't think my brothers ever had more than four.

Anyway, this next paragraph should be about how I've grown out of this, but the truth is, last week I couldn't get a light fixture properly into place so I smashed it to pieces on the ground. I probably had to bend a tab over in a different way. Ah well. My anxiety only really goes away after a comedy show. Maybe I should just start reading the newspaper instead for jokes. Oh, my poor mother.


*Chittenden can be seen at Yuk Yuk's Comedy Clubs this weekend, call 236-LAFF for reservations