Oddly on a Tuesday, the 10th, the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival began its 5th season in three venues across the city. Taking place in the venerable comedic halls of The Second City, at theatre mainstay Passe Muraille, and the almost new, year-old Comedy Bar, 38 sketch crews from across the US and Canada, though heavily skewed by a majority of Toronto crews, began their 5 day (Nov. 10-15) barrage of sexual innuendo, physical humour, awkward situations, offensive lyrics, and generally ridiculous over-the-top humour. Four of the tropes are made up of U of T students and blogUT has made it our, honestly very easy mission, to track them all on stage. The four U of T groups are Statutory Jape, Skule Night (one guess on their faculty affiliation), The Boom and Shoeless.

Our mission started on Wednesday the 11th at Theatre Passe Murraille at the SketchFest Toronto Sampler #2 to see our goal, The Boom and Shoeless, as well as two other Toronto tropes, Flamingo Bandit and Raisin Gang. As I arrived I was pleasantly surprised to see an extremely busy box office. Since I am pretty much a newbie to the Toronto comedy scene it was great to discover that the state of the scene was good and healthy, even for aspiring comics. There was some decent merchandise — your typical buttons with the Sketchfest skewed pacman ($1) and new shirts with the festival marquee ($15) and the previous year’s version ($10), all available if you want to support the event.

The small to medium-ish venue was almost completely sold out with the exception of some balcony seats. Already the audience was lively and jonesing for a show, an atmosphere that was helped along by the fact that there was a cash bar in the theatre ($5 Steamwhistle, red/white wine), presumably so you can get drunk at the show to compensate for perhaps lackluster groups. Some of the balcony seats also were lucky enough to have tables, though no food.

The show started slightly late and began with the fest’s introductory video clip, which could be previously viewed online, although it has since been wisely removed as there was no way of stopping or muting the video, which got extremely annoying after repeated visits. Ironically, at the show the video had a tech glitch and was mute, creating a weird silence — never usually a good omen at a comedy show. However, in this case it did not foreshadow disaster. This led into a short host segment where it was obvious who had Facebooked all their friends to come, as the Raisin Gang and Shoeless both got massive applause.

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Image from Wikipedia

So I went caving, aka “spelunking,” this weekend. I came away with so many bruises but it was all worth it considering how much fun I had. Now for those of you who don’t know what caving is, go here.

I swear that having escaped all of those — what I consider to be — “near death” experiences really changed my perspective on things like how strong our instinctual survival abilities are. I had to climb, crawl, lean against walls and whatever else, whilst holding a tiny flash light in my hand, as I was sure I was close to plunging to my death. Alright I might be exaggerating a bit, considering how much of a wimp I am. I kept having to ask my fellow cavers (yes I made up that word) to help me out, like by telling me how the heck they were able to climb up or down and in or out in the first place.

If you’d like to give caving a try, why not join our very own U of T Outing club (UTOC)? There are several opportunities to go caving with them at their cabin near the Niagara Escarpment. The club also offers other amazing outdoor events and activities.

In my honest opinion, Saints Alive! is one of the best student productions I have ever seen! I laughed almost the entire time and the music was stuck in my head even after the performance. The performers were so talented and, in, addition to acting, sung marvelously as well. Each actor had his or her own unique quirkiness and charm. The piano accompaniment was solid and lively and the musical numbers were choreographed well; not a single note was off tune (to me, anyway, the tone-deaf girl).

The actors were so well versed in their dialogue, as any actor should be, I kept thinking to myself, How could they possibly remember all those lines and lyrics? They pulled off such a grandiose play with ease.

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The Toronto International Film Festival has just ended and I thought I’d review some movies for blogUT. But I’m not going to. Why? Well, you’d think a volunteer would have had the chance to see a lot of films, but the truth is I only actually saw one film the entire time. Oh, sure, I saw lots of bits and pieces of films during the “make sure people are not illegally recording the movie” shifts, most of which involved extreme sex or extreme violence, but the actual full-length film I saw was the viewers’ choice.  It was screened at the Elgin on Saturday, and entitled “Precious” (which, come to think of it, involved extreme sex and extreme violence too). It was the film Oprah came into town for. I figured that since it’s coming out in wide release soon, I’ll save you my opinion and you’ll be able to read about Roger Ebert’s thoughts.

So today, fellow blog readers, I’ll instead give you the down low on what it is like to be a volunteer for TIFF. You begin by signing up to volunteer. If you are chosen, you will go for orientation sessions and sign a simple contract which involves you promising not to stalk the famous or becoming star-struck when they arrive. You get one of those ubiquitous totes with little freebies, such as: shaving cream, a Stella Artois glass, coffee and a volunteer shirt. On the shirt is the logo of NBC Universal, the main sponsor, so you become its walking billboard.

When the time comes, you sign up for shifts online. ID is needed at all times when picking up TIFF-related stuff. There have been horror stories in which some people steal volunteer shirts and sneak in repeatedly for free films and, mostly, celebrity-stalking.

There are various theatres you can sign up for, ranging from: Roy Thompson Hall, where all the major premieres and gala screenings are held; Ryerson, famous for midnight madness films; Scotiabank, AMC and Varsity, which handle press and industry screenings or public screenings. First-timers (i.e. me) are mostly allocated the latter three theatres.

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If you missed out on the Hart House Wide Open House, then you might as well move to Antarctica and have Morgan Freeman narrate your life (bad movie pun). The Open House was beautifully organized chaos. At the heart of its complexity and diverse nature there was a radiating source of beauty and vibrancy.

There was live music, food, free prizes, beautiful people and a BUTTON MAKING CLASS! What else can the human soul long for? Oh and did I mention they had an awesome mini club fair?

For those of you who missed the event, I shall try my hardest to embody its pulsating atmosphere in this article.

MOVE OVER Martha,  Hart House is the new party hostess. With great free stuff,  food, entertainment and activities the Hart House Wide Open House was a success!

Sit back and relax as I take you through the Open House:

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If you’re a fan of Jane Austen, this is definitely one event you want to sign up for. The Toronto English Country Dancers are offering a workshop on regency fashion and dress, followed by a ball with dances that were danced in regency England.

The workshop includes a dance class, hair and wardrobe makeover session, refreshments and a ball in the evening. No partner is needed. The workshop and ball are happening on Saturday, September 19th at the St. Barnabas Anglican Church Hall on the south side of Danforth Ave. (right at Chester subway). The total cost is $30 if you register early or $40 at the door for students.

The easiest way to register is to send an e-mail to: JaneAustenDancing@gmail.com or call (416) 929-0513.

For more information, please visit: this site.

Also, if someone does go, I really hope that they blog about it! *hint hint wink wink*

Photo from here.

I went to the Taste of the Danforth on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately it was raining when I got there so there was a lot umbrella clashing and mugginess in addition to the crowdedness that always comes with street festivals.

What I was looking forward to — loukoumades! They are deep fried balls of dough soaked in honey.

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