The Scene – Our show at the Comedy Bar

Errol: When we did our show at the Simian Showcase, Adam Ward invited us to join The Scene at the Comedy Bar. This sounded like all sorts of fun and we agreed. On Monday, April 9th, we got an email asking if we were available that Sunday. And we were! Huzzah!

Debs and I arranged to meet at 6pm, because she had written a song (title still unknown) that we needed to practice. Because I couldn’t see the place on Google Streetview ^[13], I decided that I should arrive half an hour early to give myself time to look for parking.

Fortunately, parking wasn’t so bad. It was a block south, but I didn’t have to pay! Huzzah!! Seriously, that makes me so happy. You may be wondering, “Why don’t you take the TTC you selfish, materialistic, fast-food consuming, lazy slob?” Because I have a lot of gear! I had a keyboard, the dolly for the keyboard, my music stand, my ukelele, and my ipad^[14].

After passing by the place a couple of times because I still don’t have it in my head that there is a lower level to the street, I finally entered and was impressed by the layout. It was a new location and to the side were a few tables and couches! I like couches. I was then greeted by Mark, whom I later found was the Technical Director.

He showed me to the stage where the venue was taking place. It was impressive and even had a cute ticket booth! All sorts of cool.

Debs: I was a little late because the subway did some really crazy thing where it skipped Bay entirely and went from Yonge/Bloor to Museum somehow^[15]. I think we went through the hidden part of Bay Station. It was pretty cool, like a timewarp! I found the place right away though and saw Errol sitting at the bar, drowning away his sorrows because he wasn’t sure if I was still coming.^[16] Or actually, he was probably just tweeting.

Errol: I was tweeting AND I was seeing how well I would do if I did the songs by memory! Not very well, unfortunately.

Debs: There was still time before our soundcheck, so we found ourselves an awesome couch and practiced the new, still unnamed song while I shoved some food into my mouth. Then we did a quick soundcheck and of course, I changed the setlist again. And our family/friends started to arrive!

Errol: I asked around to see how geeky the crowd was. I was told it varied from week to week. Debs and I argued about what songs we should play. I wanted to play songs where she gets to sing more. She wanted to sing songs where she gets to insult me. Soon enough, however, it was showtime and we went in to watch the show! Exciting!

Debs: Errol decided that he had to pee midway through the third act. He kept saying he would be fine, but in the fourth act when Adam told us to go back stage, he did pee. Errol, not Adam. I was grateful, because Errol is very conversationally honest about his bodily functions, even on stage.

Errol: Hey, at least I didn’t didn’t mention this on stage this time! It was quite funny, however. We were watching the beginning of the 3rd act, and Adam tells us we had 10 minutes. Debs and I both nodded, “Oh thanks!” and then went back to watching the show. Adam had to then inform us, “That means you go backstage.” Ohhhhhhhh…. all this lingo they use…

Debs: It’s because we had to have a big entrance with the flashing lights and the dancing! We were having trouble cutting down material, but we ended up being able to play 7 songs – wow!

Errol: We added “Still Alive” right at the end because Nelson really wanted it… and I thought it would be fun too. However, I do agree a geeky audience is needed for that song.

Debs: My friend Jordan came up and sang it with us, that was pretty cool though! While we were up there I learned two very important things:

1) Errol is a high maintenance diva! He asked for water in the middle of the set and a disembodied arm magically appeared through the curtains holding one. That was MY glass of water, Errol! ^[17]

2) Effects are awesome! The sound/lightning technician, Mark had amazing intuition. He reverbed me on my low “AT-ATs in the Snow” notes – it was the coolest thing ever and it was hard to resist interrupting the song to experiment more.

Errol: I personally liked it when he cut the lights out for “Still Alive”. 😀

Debs: Yeah, that was awesome. And it was funny when he said that he had cued “Still Alive” to walk us out but then had to change it quickly because we played it.

Adam has an improv duo, Pond & Ward, and they closed the show along with special guest Brandon Hackett. We were excited because we hadn’t seen Adam onstage before, plus we knew both Simon Pond and Brandon^[18] – they were both actors in the Simian Showcase! Oh man, they were having so much fun on stage and we laughed so hard as they paid homage to the mighty walrus through walrus kung fu and aquatic high-fives.^[19]

Errol: Justin, or Negasi as he’s known on FAWM.org, has a thing for walruses. He was waiting for them to suggest a word so that he could yell out “Walrus”. Of course, he was teased for almost all the acts, especially by me, so he deserves his walrus fun. Furthermore, he understands my songs and probably was the only one laughing for a lot of them, so he’s ok in my books!

Debs: Errol was really hungry after the show, so we went to Disgracedland, which quickly endeared itself to me because it had delicious vegetarian/vegan options AND… a Star Wars Guess Who Game! Unfortunately we couldn’t play it though because a lot of the pieces had fallen off the boards.

Errol: I was sad for the night to be over, but I had to get back home and left everyone at the restaurant to have fun. The poutine was good. I stole some of Joseph’s. Thanks everyone, we had a great time!

And next time, we will have pictures. We don’t have many pictures for this show…