Subject: Messageboard Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 12:19:11 +1000 From: Mark Longmuir To: Mark Longmuir Rob: An item from Thursday's Toronto Sun that may interest the convention goers... (03-Jul-1999 22:12:31) Nick: Yay, they mentioned my favourite skit... the arguing couple. :-) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 00:27:59) Sam: That was your fave? How come that doesn't surprise me :) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 13:25:40) Nick: Boy, do I have a reputation or what? Completely unfounded, I don't know where you got that from. I liked that skit for the acting, and the lighting was well done :-) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 14:03:41) Monika: My faves...the cat and the beauty pagent! :) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 14:56:05) Nick: Both excellent choices. That show rocked. :-) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 15:48:03) Jessie: The beauty pagent ... and the banana. Sorry, I'm gauche and I ... am not sorry! ;) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 15:23:56) Sam, always willing to learn new things...: Ah yes...the banana....I WILL learn that trick... (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 17:18:51) Monika: *groaning* Thanks for sharing, Sam...;) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 22:46:54) Sam: No problem Monika...as Greg says "Friends always share" :) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 23:21:43) Jessie (updating her things to do list *G*): It's a good .. no, necessary thing to learn! (n/t) (05-Jul-1999 09:23:35) Joe: I'm sorry (rhymes with Laurie)! (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 20:52:49) TCS: One word: CORN!!! :) (n/t) (05-Jul-1999 17:43:50) Nick: The game of CORN is ruining our lives!!! (sorry... had to) :-) (n/t) (06-Jul-1999 10:09:35) -- Mark Longmuir - longmuir@labyrinth.net.au Homepage: http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~longmuir/ Whose Line is it Anyway? - http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/8451 "Stop tap dancing, you fool!" --------------------------------------------------------------------- [Image] [Image] Whose Board is it, Anyway? An item from Thursday's Toronto Sun that may interest the convention goers... Saturday, 03-Jul-1999 22:12:31 199.246.8.72 writes: This is a review of the Second City sho we all saw. SECOND CITY SLIPS INTO NUDE BEACH WEAR When Second City took the drastic step of replacing virtually it's entire mainstage cast last winter, it was enough to discover that the new young crew had the talent to pull off a show. Now comes the process of uncovering their collective strengths and weaknesses, a work in progress that continues with the new show Nude Beach Wear: 100% Off, Or Hanlan's DON'T Point. The 46th Second City Revue-which opened last night, and which we saw in previews last week- retains all but one of the cast of the previous show Y2K: The Chip Hits The Fan. Melody Johnson (a veteran former mainstager who has been acting at Stratford of late) joins Gavin Crawford, Tracy Dawson, Lee Smart, Doug Morency and Mary-Pat Farrell- as gifted a group of actors as that stage has seen. On the other hand, they're still trying to find their legs as writers. All of the best sketches in Nude Beach Wear: 100% off are inspired acting excercises, and Johnson runs away with the single best one. In it, Crawford plays a guy making out in his apartment with his new girlfriend (Farrell). Johnson plays his disgruntled cat, Marmalade, who slinks about the room, disgustedly, staring daggers at the girlfriend. You can say this about Johnson, she gives good cat. The audience was screaming with her every move. Another great bit that could have come straight off an actor's workshop sees Dawson and Morency as an arguing married couple, barking at each other non-stop, so that you can't make out what either one is saying. The arguing continues as they go to bed, pretend to take their clothes off, hop on each other and have sex. Apparently it falls on Dawson as the least inhibited Second City castmember to handle the sex sketches. She has another one in which she plays a girl asking her gay brother (Crawford) for tips on oral sex - which is pretty similar to one in Y2K where Crawford was a teacher giving his wannabe-Lolita student (Dawson) tips on how to be seductive. (And come to think of it, she had at least on sketch in her former troupe Loogie where she jumped the bones of a fellow castmember.) The message to take from the above is that you might think twice about takng your parents to this Second City show, unless they're cool about matters sexual. The more writing-heavy sketches tend to be overwritten. Yes, we did see a preview, and some of the problems may have subsequently been fixed. But, for example, a sketch about an "alien abduction" in which the stereotypical yokel (Smart) turns out to have had an encounter with Mike Harris' Tories, tried too hard to score poits as political satire and came off hamhanded. The closest to sharply-written social satire was the Miss Millenium Pageant sketch - A Miss Universe spoof in which the three finalists were a mousey, self-effacing Miss Canada (Johnson), a pushy Miss USA (Dawson) and a hungry Miss Rest Of The World (Farrell), and in which the emcee (Smart) blurted out advertising slogans every 30 seconds or so, in between two cheesy dancers, The Millenium Homosexuals. In fact, it's always been the conundrum at Second City that castmembers be adept at both acting and writing. And if you have to favour one over the other, it's probably true that acting can cover for writing better than the other way around. Which is why, despite it's flaws, Nude Beach Wear: 100% Off is still an entertaining package of sketches. Oi vey. This transcribing stuff takes forever. At least it does when you're Typo Man! :) Rob ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Message thread: Rob: An item from Thursday's Toronto Sun that may interest the convention goers... (03-Jul-1999 22:12:31) Nick: Yay, they mentioned my favourite skit... the arguing couple. :-) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 00:27:59) Sam: That was your fave? How come that doesn't surprise me :) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 13:25:40) Nick: Boy, do I have a reputation or what? Completely unfounded, I don't know where you got that from. I liked that skit for the acting, and the lighting was well done :-) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 14:03:41) Monika: My faves...the cat and the beauty pagent! :) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 14:56:05) Nick: Both excellent choices. That show rocked. :-) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 15:48:03) Jessie: The beauty pagent ... and the banana. Sorry, I'm gauche and I ... am not sorry! ;) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 15:23:56) Sam, always willing to learn new things...: Ah yes...the banana....I WILL learn that trick... (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 17:18:51) Monika: *groaning* Thanks for sharing, Sam...;) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 22:46:54) Sam: No problem Monika...as Greg says "Friends always share" :) (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 23:21:43) Jessie (updating her things to do list *G*): It's a good .. no, necessary thing to learn! (n/t) (05-Jul-1999 09:23:35) Joe: I'm sorry (rhymes with Laurie)! (n/t) (04-Jul-1999 20:52:49) TCS: One word: CORN!!! :) (n/t) (05-Jul-1999 17:43:50) Nick: The game of CORN is ruining our lives!!! (sorry... had to) :-) (n/t) (06-Jul-1999 10:09:35) Back to main board ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prev Page Next Page Now viewing page 4 of 5 (06-Jul-1999 01:41:19 to 03-Jul-1999 02:58:39) [Image] Message subject: Name: (optional) Email address: (optional) Type your message here: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Back to main board ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright © ITW Newcorp, Inc. 1997-1999 All rights reserved.