Where Calgary's Comedy Celebrities
Strut Their NEW Stuff
The cream of Calgary's comedy crop perform their newest material. This isn't the stuff you've seen in their club shows or on their TV appearances. It's the brand new material that they are sharing with the world for the first time, and you can be there to witness it.
Right before the May 5 Red Carpet Comedy show, Andrew Schultz from Citytv here in Calgary caught up with Donovan Deschner to chat a bit out what RCC is doing. This video clip aired the morning of May 4:
It’s a pretty good summary of the show for those that have never seen it. We’ll be back in September with more shows. Subscribe to this blog or join our e-newsletter for all the details as they are announced.
We could have not asked for a better wrap-up to the first season of Red Carpet Comedy! About 90-minutes of new material was created and I’m sure that some of it will live on in the comedians’ regular acts. Thanks to everyone that performed last night; Donovan Deschner, Don Wood, Dan Guiry, Brian Stollery, Mike Tod, Ian Wallace, Jeff Toth, and Trent McClellan.
As always thanks to Heather Schellenberg from Schellenberg Photography for capturing the evening on film (or the digital equivalent to film). Some photos of all the acts are online on our Facebook page. (Click here to view the album.)
Congratulations to Don Wood on being last night’s More Time In A Day Prize winner! He’ll receive 10-hours of Virtual Assistance from More Time In A Day!
Our summer hiatus has begun (we don’t want to compete with ice-based drinks on patios), so we should be back with Season 2 this fall. In the meantime, we’ll let you know via this website and our Facebook page where you can catch some of the various Red Carpet Comedians in and around Calgary. For example…
It was announced last night that Cory Mack and Donovan Deschner have teamed up to workshop their latest theatrical shows. Cory Mack’s, “The Goose Queen of Kindersley”, and Donovan Deschner’s, “Egolution”, will be presented from May 19 to 22, 2010, at Motel in The Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts. Tickets are available online for this weekend of shows which is called “Me, Myself & You”.
Enjoy the patios!
On March 31, 2010, Cory Mack phoned into CJSW’s, Am I Right??, to talk to Evan and Jesse about the April 7, 2010, show. She shared her views on the room, what it’s like to write comedy, and the experience for the comedians and audiences alike. While you can download the whole episode via their podcast in iTunes (it also has a great talk with comedian Kyle Kinane), Cory’s section is also embedded below:
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Thanks to Evan, Jesse, and CJSW!
The final show of the first season of Red Carpet Comedy on May 5 will feature a large group from Calgary’s Underwear Affair. In preparation for their June 5 run to fight cancers below the waist they are holding numerous “Participant Nights” to rally support and enthusiasm amongst the runners and walkers. People that are not a part of the event are still more than welcome to attend the show… you’ll just see an added 5-minute speech from an Underwear Affair organizer, otherwise it’s a regular Red Carpet Comedy night.
If you are curious about what the Underwear Affair is all about, you can check out a video featuring Captain FancyPants’ first attempt at stand-up comedy which he used to share some details about the event:
The Underwear Affair has arranged for free tickets for any of their participants for the May 5 performance. You can simply enter the special promotional code on the ticket buying site. To get the code, you can contact Captain FancyPants through Facebook.
Tickets are otherwise available now as usual and the Facebook event page for the May 5 show is online. The show will actually feature the “material that made it,” as the performers will be allowed to do some of their regular material so long as it was first featured on the Red Carpet Comedy stage.
With this being the last show before the summer hiatus it’s expected to fill up quickly. Reserve your tickets now!
Wednesday night’s Red Carpet Comedy proved without a shadow of a doubt that there are no hack premises in comedy, only hack comedians. Thankfully… none of the Red Carpet Comedians are hacks of any kind. Each of the eight performers had a complete new set of comedy to share and by the rave reviews of the show it’s pretty clear that some of that material will find its way into some regular set lists.
Congratulations goes to Amanda Brooke Perrin for winning the More Time In A Day Prize. Also, a special thank you to Cory Mack for kicking off the show with style.
Photos from the event, courtesy of the wonderful Heather Schellenberg, have been uploaded into a Facebook album. She has been getting photos of the past few shows and really out-did herself with this set. Thanks, Heather!
The next show is slated for May 5 and will be the “Best Of” Edition wherein each performer will be allowed to share some older jokes so long as they were first said on the Red Carpet Comedy stage. (Click here for the May 5 Facebook event.)
On April 3, 2010, the creator and producer of Red Carpet Comedy, Donovan Deschner, stopped by the CBC Daybreak Alberta studios to talk with Russell Bowers about creating and refining comedy. You can listen to the interview as published in the show’s podcast:
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Tickets for tomorrow night’s show are still available and the line up for May 5 is already taking shape. Hope to see you at one of the shows!
To wrap up the 2009/2010 Season of Red Carpet Comedy there will be two special theme shows taking place. These performances will allow you to see the Red Carpet Comedians challenged to write material on “over used” stand-up topics and to see the jokes that actually made it into their shows.
April 7 – The Hackety-Schmackety-Doo Edition
Each of the performers on the April 7 show will be encouraged to write new and fresh material on topics that he or she considers to be “over used”. Amongst comedians we call such topics or premises “hack”, so this evening of comedy will endeavour to prove that there is no such things as hack premises, only hack comedians (which none of our performers are). Every comedian has their own definition of hack, so you’ll still hear material on a wide variety of subjects.
Date: April 7, 2010
Doors Open: 7:00pm for drinks and dinner
Show: 8:00pm
Tickets: $10.00 (Click here to order.)
Click here for the Facebook event page.
May 5 – The Material That Made It Edition
The May 5 show will be the sixth Red Carpet Comedy performance. Within the five shows that preceded it, a LOT of great material has been written, rehearsed, and first performed on our stage. It’s about time that we all heard what material made it into the regular shows of the performers. During the final show of the 2009/2010 Season the comedians will suspend the “only new material” rule for up to three minutes to hear the jokes, stories, and material, that stuck around after the first attempt on the Red Carpet Comedy stage. You’ll get to hear how they changed (if at all), and see if it’s still funny the second time around.
Date: May 5, 2010
Doors Open: 7:00pm for drinks and dinner
Show: 8:00pm
Tickets: $10.00 (Click here to order.)
Click here for the Facebook event page.
Thanks to the comedians and audience members that made last night’s Red Carpet Comedy another successful show and great evening out. The continued courage with which Calgary’s comedians try new and experimental things is hard to believe sometimes. A special congratulations goes out to Cory Mack for having been awarded the “More Time In A Day Prize”. She’ll be enjoying 10-hours of a Virtual Assistant over the coming month to work on whichever projects need working on. Honourable mention goes to Don Wood whose set made all the comedians take notice. Well done both of you!
Photos from last night (as provided by Heather Schellenberg) are online now. You can click here to view the Facebook photo album.
The next Red Carpet Comedy show will be on April 7, 2010, and have a special “theme” for the evening which will be detailed more on this blog next week.
It’s time for the fourth instalment of Red Carpet Comedy! Last week we contacted all of our potential performers (local professional comedians) to let them know that they could reserve their spot and some of them have already signed up. So far we’ve received confirmation from: Tony Binns, Cory Harding, Brad Muise, Charles Payne, and Don Wood. Also, the spot for a local “up and coming” comedian has been given to Katryna Chan. (We still have openings for another four or five comics… so the line-up isn’t complete just yet.)
Here are the details of the show…
Date: March 3, 2010
Doors Open: 7:00pm for drinks and dinner
Show: 8:00pm
Tickets: $10.00 (Click here to order.)
Click here for the Facebook event page.
Comedians: Click here to sign up.
As always the show will feature the most recent work from all these comedians and will be a treat for the audience. We hope to see you there!
Last night’s Red Carpet Comedy gave me two reasons to be overwhelmed. The first was the incredible work of the performers. Not only are they all creating tons of new material but the “hit to miss ratio” is swinging toward the “hit” side. It is continued effort like that which will show the country why Calgary could VERY easily be the next great comedy destination.
Secondly, I was taken aback by the generosity of the audience. All revenue from last night’s show was donated to The Red Cross for Haiti Earthquake Relief. During the closing of last night’s show I announced that we had raised over $300 and to help add to that sum I put my “Two Card Montes” up for sale based on donation. Well… that pulled in over $100! The total donation made was $434.25. Thank you all (comics and audience members) for your generosity.
Photos from the show are already online through our Facebook Fan Page. We were fortunate enough to have two photographers capturing the event. We have images from Heather Schellenberg available here and still more shots from Steve Nagy available here.
The first recipient of The More Time In A Day Vitual Assistant Prize (10 hours of virtual assisting for a deserving comic) was Karen O’Keefe. Not only did she have a great set but went out of her way to attend by rushing between her competition spot in Yuk Yuk’s Great Canadian Laugh Off and our show. Congratulations, Karen!
The announcement was made last night… Wednesday, March 3, 2010, will be the next show. Comedy Fans: mark your calendars. Comedians: start writing.
