A Light Snack

After buying some fresh fruit from Chinatown, I decided to do a light brunch of Dim Sum at Rol San. I ordered har gow, siu mai, fried squid, shrimp rice rolls, turnip cakes, and egg tarts. At Rol San, the food comes out after you check items of the Dim Sum list instead of being pushed around on carts. This meant that, for example, the squid came out hot and crispy. It was a pleasant brunch, and not overly heavy. On the other hand, I didn't indulge too much in the squid or the turnip cake and had some leftovers. One thing I did noticed eating about Dim Sum alone was that when the food wasn't that great when they cooled. The flour became heavy, the shrimp tasted noticeably stinky/fishy, and the squid got greasy and limp. Not sure if it was the cooking style or perhaps unless you eat at a fancy place like Lai Wah Heen, they don't use high-end ingredients.

Afterwards, I attended "The Premiere", a Fringe comedy show at the St. Vladimir theatre. I wasn't even aware that the St. Vladimir residence even had a theatre. Last time I was there, I was studying Distributed Algorithms with a cute grad student from Romania in the lounge (no visitors allowed anywhere else). A production of Les 3 Garcons from Montreal, the premise was 3 hapless performers putting on a variety show: the big doltish oaf, the keen beginner, and the egotistical veteran. The 12:30 pm show was sparsely attended: around 10 people were in the audience.

The comedic hook was that they were singularly untalented and woefully under-rehearsed, whether it was dancing, singing, or performing circus feats. I think there is a cultural divide between French and English Canada with regards to slapstick. I can't help but think of another Montreal production, the "Candid Camera"-style gag show produced by Just For Laughs which I just don't find funny. In any case, slapsticks such as a smarmy Catholic cardinal, a circus strongman bending an "obviously fake" steel bar, a Vegas-style performer over-emoting "Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)" only got a few chuckles.

But they did get hearty laughs with the more physical acts: a 3-man Swan Lake, a magic act gone wrong, some cheesy acrobatics. These made us laugh at first with their antics. Then we realize that there are some skills being shown, which makes us appreciate their talent and allow us to laugh even more. The acrobatics were straight up typical acro-yoga/circus poses with a bit of clowning. The stand-out was the magic act. The keener sneaked out to show us his tricks and they were so silly you had to laugh. For example, making one finger appear on the other hand by tapping the hands together (known to kids everywhere). My favourite, which still gets a chuckle from me, involved making another kleenex tissue paper "magically appear" out of the tissue box when you pull out the current one. Ha! When looked like that, that is a pretty good "magic trick". But then he proceeded on to real ones: pulling out several metres of streamers from the oaf's mouth; and a levitation trick that was quite magical and got the biggest laughs of the show when the secret was "accidentally" revealed.

Overall, I got some good laughs despite a few cricket-chirping stretches. If Les 3 Garcons concentrate on these types of physical comedic acts, the show would be an unqualified hit.