And Now, A Picture

Hey kids, just trying something out here. Check out the pictures from my (afore-mentioned) Aug. 2nd show. Later.

Additional Picture Fun!

Hey everyone, you know that old chestnut about pictures being worth a thousand words? Well, apparently when that phrase was coined centuries ago, they had blogs and camera phones specifically in mind. Pretty good foresight, if you ask me. So I've decided to continue the format that I set up last month, and let my Nokia do the talking...

To start off, I've got some pictures from karaoke last month. I had just returned from a... disappointing, Approximately 3 Peters show (Rob Bartlett, Bad Dog technician extraordinaire, describerd it as "the worst set I've ever seen you guys do"). But then I met up with friends from work, and we had some musical fun. First off is our Second City bartender PK (Paul Kingston) rocking the Darkness' "I Believe In A Thing Called Love":


Next up is Fraser "the other guy in the Subway commercial" Young doing a number on the Chili Pepper's "Under The Bridge". I was bugging him all night to sing, and he kept insisting that it wasn't his thing. I kind of see why now. But as we all know, "karaoke" is Japanese for "public humiliation":


Speaking of, I still have not seen the Subway commercial in question. A shiny nickel to the person who manages to tape it for me. As for karaoke, rest assured that I was not idle. I sang a strirring duet of Bowie and Queen's "Under Pressure" with my director friend Kate (myself singing the Bowie part); and performed a surprisingly capable version of "Get Rhythm" by the late Mr. Cash.

Next up I went to a birthday party for my friend and fellow improviser Lindsay. It was held at a friend's place, and I was quite excited to discover that he is a fellow Halifax ex-pat. He also has exactly the type of apartment decor that I want to have when I grow up. Here's a (pretty blurry) pic of said birthday girl and said decor:


Some other cool news: I shot another commercial! It's for The Source (by Circuit City), and it will be my first paying gig as a full ACTRA member. I still think ACTRA is a bunch of crooks, but now I'm one of the crooks. Anyways, I took some cool snaps on the set, so here goes:


This is James, my costar (and fictional co-employee). Very cool guy. Within 5 minutes of being on set and meeting, we determined that James used to be in a sketch group named "Someone and the Somethings" a) with my old roomate Thomas Middleditch, b) with my current roomate Andrew Bush, and c) was hanging out in my apartment unbeknowenst to me as recently as the previous week. Small friggin' world, eh?


This is my other costar, Kim. And by "costar", I mean the girl I was paid to make out with for 6 straight hours. She was very cool, and regaled us with stories of the violent shooting at the downtown night club where she bartends, just days previous. Gotta love Toronto.


The French Me! They shot two versions of the commercial, one to air across Canada, and one with Francophone actors to air in Quebec only. So instead of doing two nights of shooting (we were in a Source store overnight) they did all the lighting set-ups and shot the commercial with us, and then shot it again, en francais. So apparently if I have a french doppleganger (or bizarro double) it'll look like this guy.


This sign made me laugh. Not sure why.

Oh, and last week I performed my final show of the Bad Dog Theatre's Lord of the Things. *sniff*. I did however live out my dream of playing a different character from the Dark Lord. Yes, I was Legoland, of the Elves. I sang 3 "Elven Lamentations", including "Every Rose Has It's Thorn", and "Candle In The Wind". Below is photographic proof of me in an elf costume standing next to an unusually beefy-looking Brad Sayeau. Note: Brad is not actually this large, it's some kind of trick of the light.


Next up, the big news was the arrival in Toronto of Mr.Shawn Maggio, and Lt. Dan Hennigar.


Shawn (above)


Dan (above)

They were here on vacation, and right off the bat last Sunday we trekked (bright and early) out to Paramount Canada's Wonderland, for a day of fun and (expensive) adventure.


Rounding out the group was Tim and Debi, Dan's brother and friends of ours (pictured below). Tim and Debi live in the city, and even though I should do so we never hang out. That's gonna change though. Mainly because Tim has an Xbox 360.


The day was an absolute blast, and we rode the hell out of the rides from 10am all the way past 10pm. Tim has a bit of a thing about heights, but it actually worked out great. The 4 of us would go on a ride, and he'd nerd out taking pictures of us with his super-high end digital camera. He knocked the hell out of some little kids on the bumper cars though.


Oh, and here's Scooby Doo.


In other news, Toronto has been struck in the grip of another ridiculous heat wave recently. Our air conditioner in the living room has been working overtime. Here is a sample of the liquid (I hesitate to say water) that I removed from it the other day.


Makes ya think, hm?

Of course this heat and humidity also leads to freak rainstorms of biblical proportions. Take for instance this deluge, which lasted for about 3 minutes:



Or this picture (courtesy of the Toronto Star) of an amazing lighting storm the other night.


Yep, that storm sure was amazing. Except I missed it, becasue I was inside doing a show.

(Oh shit, you guys have to read this article also from the Toronto Star. Rest assured, I'm e-mailing it to the Colbert Report as we speak).

Speaking of, hey, I did a show last week. It was Approximately 3 Peters performing with PunchDRYSDALE, a very funny group from here in Toronto. Here's a great picture my good friend Andrew Currie snapped, and a link to where you can find more.


Speaking of shows, we had our first longform improv show last night after our big 5-week intensive. The show was called "Dead Tanson's Dreambox presents: FORMATIONS" (I was not present when we decided on the name), and it went smashingly. Everyone in the class was on their game and hilarious. I myself was in scenes that included: me playing a beer-themed superhero who longed to be an event planner; myself and Onai playing enthusiastic sweatshop employees; and an estranged father and son who reconciled over the Village People's "YMCA". Good times.

Finally, I leave you all with quite possibly the high point of my week (month? year?). Yesterday Shawn and Dan were quite intent on purchasing some comic-book themed t-shirts. Having been disappointed by the selection and sizing at most comic stores (plenty of XXL shirts, if you catch my drift) we were about to give up hope. But next door to our final stop, we stumbled upon a little gem of a store called Honest Canuck Customs, which makes custom t-shirts. We spent some time looking over their t-shirt designs, the general crude and ironic t-shirt fare. It wasn't until Debi inquired about different designs however that we discovered you could find images on the internet and design your own shirts!!!!!

Fuck yes!

Finally, I was able to realize my dream of owning a Scott Pilgrim t-shirt. It was so amazing, that Shawn purchased an identical one. Check this shit out!



Best $24 ever spent.

Later kids.