Saturday night saw the return of MonkeyToast, an improv talk show, to its new home at the Comedy Bar. Not knowing this was a well-liked show with such alum as Colin Mochrie, I arrived to the club and found out that all 100+ tickets were sold out. Luckily, it was a short wait-list and I was able to get in a few minutes before the show started.
Ron Tite has replaced David Shore, the original talk show host who left for the UK. From his questions posed to the celebrity guests, the MonkeyToast players would improvise various comedy sketches. First up was John Catucci, host of The Food Network's "You Gotta Eat Here!" Being a funnyman himself as well as the bus driver for the DoodleBops, he did a funny monologue about the glamorous life of a "Canadian celebrity" and was an amusing interviewee. Oddly enough, the sketches from his answers were the weakest of the night. Perhaps it was nerves. A group of Italian nonnas telling dirty jokes to Rob Ford didn't pan out, although it did result in a funny recurring gag: "Is this the worst Star Trek episode ever?" The second sketch about a rather disgusting English tea-house and an equally nauseatingly gross food critic also got tepid responses.
The second guest, city councillor Mike Layton, fared better. His interview was rather dry but he was able to get in a couple of digs about the local politicians. Since his ward included the hot Ossington strip, the resulting sketch about over-zealous "patio cops" got some belly laughs. The final sketch about kids visiting the city council as well as neighbours fighting over the incessant problem of dogs vs. children (in this case, a man who lets his child run wild and poop all over his neighbour's lawns while he pushes his dog on the slide) ended the first half with some huge laughs.
After a short break, the show was interrupted by "aging diva" Evelyn Reese, who harangued the new host about his inadequacies compared to David Shore. The final guest was Olympic gold medallist and world champion rower, Marnie McBean. She might be retired from competition but she still had huge arms and elicited gasps from the crowd when they found out her old diet regiment consisted of 5000-7000 calories a day. Her interview gave us a "5-am Crazy Rowing Moms" skit. It also ended the night on a high note with the "Rowers' Anthem". Two rowers decided to enlist Bryan Adams to pen for them a song to get them up for a competition, being that the Dutch and Chinese already had their own songs. Even if the Dutch tune was actually sung in Dutch-accented English about that great culinary treat: the Dutch Strudel, and the Chinese was warbling in Mandarin about knock-off iPads. But Adams got everyone on board (even the Dutch and Chinese) to sing a rousing song a la "Raising Flag" with such powerful lyrics as "Every stroke you do, you do it for you".
It was a great evening of comedy. There are 3 more shows in April, May, and June. The host dropped a hint that one of the guest for the next show will be Erica Ehm.
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