http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIZhFpElqHc

This video also kicked off our January show (in place of the sketch video we normally use). For the February 29 show we’ll be back to featuring a Kaboom… Hooray! Comedy! sketch. (Also, the Kaboom folks have a show running tonight if you’re free and up for some laughs.)

Donovan shared something from his first career in show business – magic. In the video you can learn to do a simple magic trick and all you’ll need is a rubber band. Plus, at the end of the instructional portion, you can also see a few more tricks he performed for the camera. (While the video was meant for kids, many adults have liked it as well; so we decided to post it on our blog too.) Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFm3SZ6CJYc

A corporate group was in Calgary from Fort McMurray (warning sign #1, just ask any comic that has performed there) and on their last night in town they decided to take in a comedy show. The night previous they had all gone to see strippers (warning sign #2). Most of the group was quiet and respectful. One woman, however, was not. She had arrived drunk (warning sign #3) and despite the comedians’ best efforts (which began with politely asking her to be quiet several times) she persisted in her yelling out and heckling to the point that it ruined the show for comedians and the rest of the audience alike.

Afterwards, members of her group apologized to our production staff for her actions (they were embarrassed by her). The audience members that weren’t affiliated with them were shocked, saying that they had never seen anything like it and that it wasn’t what adults do. Wednesday is a night that we’re not going to soon forget.

It’s a huge risk to perform on Red Carpet Comedy. The comedians take these risks in the hopes of progressing their art form and becoming better at what they love to do. Our regular audience gets that and enjoys watching the process. We have taken solace in the fact that our heckler is now hundreds of kilometres away and we all hope that she never returns to a comedy show. Despite her attempts to break us apart, we are closer than ever, having survived this shared experience.

Here’s the photo of the comedians (pretty much heroes) that did their best in a supremely awful situation. Thank you all for your professionalism.

Also thanks to Steve Nagy for the photographs and Zoë Klintberg for running the box office. We couldn’t do what we do without you.

Our next show is February 29. You can purchase your tickets in advance on our site or come to the door that evening. More details on performers will be released soon. And, you can guarantee, that our heckler will be no where to be seen that night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFoMVVDWCYs

We also discovered that one of our regular photographers, Steve Nagy, who works with the Children’s Festival on their social media, can tell a joke or two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azNGsW9Yykc

For more hilarity be sure to join us next week for the January Red Carpet Comedy show (Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 8:00PM).

A special thanks our photographer, Steve Nagy, and our sound support, Ian Wallace. Also a big thank you to everyone from CASS that helped to make the event such a success. If you happened to miss the show, it was kicked off with this latest Kaboom… Hooray! Comedy! sketch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvtJPq-4OZ0

This time of year is always very busy for comedians (and performers of all kinds) so we’re going to take the month of December off from Red Carpet Comedy and be back with another all new show of great laughs in 2012. Mark January 25 in your calendars, have a wonderful holiday season and a very happy New Year!

While the purpose of this show is a little different than usual, the format of the show remains the same. We’ve lined up some of Calgary’s comedy celebrities to tell only their new, never before heard, jokes and stories. As with every Red Carpet Comedy, you’ll see the highs and lows that come when comedians take huge risks with nothing to fall back on.

The Facebook event page is available by clicking here and if you’d like to arrange for tickets to the event you can call CASS at 403-283-0611.

As always we would also like to thank the people that work behind the scenes on Red Carpet Comedy shows – on Wednesday that was Jaron James on sound and Zoë Klintberg working the door. Thank you both for making the performers look and sound great.

To kick off this show we played another Kaboom… Hooray! Comedy! video sketch. It featured many of the performers that were a part of the show. If you missed it, you can watch it now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kux7I0vBz1E

You can catch the next live show of KABOOM! on this coming Wednesday night (November 2) at 8:00PM (click here for details).

The next Red Carpet Comedy will be on November 30 and will be a special presentation. In addition to seeing what Calgary’s comedy celebrities have created between now and then on you’ll also be supporting a local non-profit organization. Calgary Alternative Support Services has helped us to turn this show into a fund raiser for their Christmas Hamper Program. Tickets will be $20.00, with every penny of that going toward the program. For more information or to reserve your tickets, you can call CASS at 403-283-0611. We’ll post more details here and on our Facebook page closer to the date.

For this season we’re kind of “teaming up” with Kaboom… Hooray! Comedy! and kicking off every RCC show that we can with one of their video sketches. It was David Petersonman that began everything for us on Wednesday night. If you missed the show and haven’t seen the sketch yet, do yourself a favour and watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fob0AE6EOxU

The next Red Carpet Comedy is set for October 26 and the line up is filling up quickly as comedians are snapping up the opportunity to create lots of new material and perform it for an audience that always loves to hear it. More details will be posted on this blog and on our Facebook page soon.

On September 28, 2011 the third season will begin with a bang. Not only will there be several comedians trying their new material, but crowd-favourite, Lori Gibbs, will be rehearsing for her upcoming taping of “Comedy Now!”.

You can get your tickets for the show online (they are $10 each), RSVP through our Facebook event or simply come to the door the evening of the 28th and we’ll find you a table. We are at the same venue (though the name has changed) and our schedule for the evening remains the same as well: doors open at 6:00PM, and the show starts right at 8:00PM.

With this fresh season also comes a bit of a facelift for our posters…

With the start of our new season, we’ve also started booking a few more shows ahead than usual. We’ve confirmed the rest of our 2011 schedule with shows on September 28, October 26, and November 30. That’s a lot of opportunity to watch your favourite performers live and die with each new joke. We hope that you’ll join us!

Photo by Steve Nagy (http://www.wheresnagy.com)

Fortunately the Red Carpet Comedians aren’t taking the summer completely off – a couple of your favourite performers have teamed up with our venue, Club Paradiso, to present The Hiatus Triple Feature. The first one, which happened in June, was a lot of fun. The audience got to see what Amanda Brooke Perrin, Donovan Deschner and Cory Mack perform when they are not doing all-new material. There is still a chance to catch another one of these triple features, on July 28 you can see the tried and true material from Lori Gibbs, Don Wood and Chris Griffin. Tickets are $12 and available through Club Paradiso at (403) 265-5739.