#19: Go to a Comedy Show

Until now, I’d never really been to a comedy show. There was one sad time in my undergrad when a comic came to entertain us students during frosh week...but this poor guy bombed so hard that I hesitate to call it comedy. There were no hyuks, no giggles, not even a larf...it was more of what the Germans would call “Fremdschämen - being embarrassed on behalf of another person. 

When the best joke is about driving by the paint test strips on the 401 highway near Belleville, you  know things are not going well. 

Probably the closest I’d really been to a real knee-slappin comedy show is when my friend Sam and I spent an entire night in her dorm room watching every single Eddie Izzard video on YouTube. I can’t remember ever laughing so hard in my life – we weren’t even drinking, but honestly I was full on crying/drooling/cramping from laughter.

  

So when I went to Second City Toronto with my buddy Amber last weekend, they had some pretty big high heeled sparkly shoes to fill. We attended the early show at 7:30, which features a cast of funny people doing skits and short monologues.

The theatre was really nice. I think probably every seat in the house was decent, and the waiters are super fast to bring you alcohol.

Waiting for the chuckles

The show itself was pretty good as well, although maybe not $30.00 worth of funny for me. Everyone else there seemed to be laughing a lot, but I really only got a few good lol's and the rest of the time the jokes just made me smile. Which I guess is still a good thing.

I’m sure they must change the show up pretty regularly so hopefully I’m not ruining it for anyone in saying that my two favourite parts were a joke comparing a character’s declining fertility to the stinky old eggs found in the back of the fridge, and the recurring theme of brightening someone’s day – that was a nice touch. Throughout the performance, the cast did little things like giving out a Starbucks gift card, a free beer, and even taking up a collection for a guy who was saving to buy a car. It wasn’t particularly hilarious, but made for a super friendly, happy atmosphere. At the very end there were some clever improv songs as well, sort of in the style of Whose Line Is It Anyway? 

Since we are on the topic, Colin Mochrie started out at Second City Toronto!