Last month, on the first Monday when I caught the second regular CRUSH IMPROV – BOUT TIME show at the Elmdale Tavern, I thought I’d do something diff’rent.  Instead of just making a regular blogpost about it,  I headed onto Twitter, asked for a few prompts, and planned to use said prompts to write a half-hour short story, in honour of the improvisational theme of the evening.  That plan failed rather utterly when no one would give me a single prompt…oh, internet, you eternally delight in reminding me how unpopular I am, don’t you?  I swear, if it wasn’t for the porn…

The point is, this time around I’m skipping the pretentions of inspiration and getting back to basics with a reg’lar old post.  Which is just as well, as this is a pretty busy time…lots of shows starting up these days.  In fact, I just saw the dress rehearsal of THE SHADOW CUTTER at the GCTC last nite, but I’ll say more about that after I’ve seen it again (during my volunteer shift) on Saturday.  In a surprising twist, however, I liked it a lot.  Spoiler Alert!

Also, there’s the ever-mysterious ‘super secret project’ I’m slowly working on for the Ottawa Fringe Festival.  And…you know what?  You want to know what it is?  Gather ’round.  It’s quite silly, really…the whole thing is a hoax.  It’s true.  There IS no secret project.  It’s  just a rumour that gets people talking about the Fringe, and Natalie Joy Quesnel uses it as a ruse to get me to help her clean her office.  That’s it.   I only go along with it because I’m desperate for the attention.  End of story.

But onward and forlorn…tonite, as mentioned, was the third monthly installment of Crush Improv’s ‘BOUT TIME series, which is increasingly popular from where I’m sitting and always a very good night out.  Met up with my old chum the Crystalline Entity, long missing from these Visitorium pages, as well as Smooth Tim Oberholzer and…heck, I even got to say hello to the lady miss Heather Marie Connors-Scheerschmidt-Etcetera herself!  I felt mighty special indeed.

Tonite’s show temporarily retired Bout Time juggernaught The Neighbourhood, in favour of two new teams: BRUCKHEIMER with the Brad McNeil and CRYSTAL BASEMENT’s Thea Nikolic and Jody Haucke, and LANKY WHITE GUYS (Chelsea Stirling, Joel Garrow and Dan Dicaire).  I was especially please to see Jody and Thea in there, as I’d caught my first Crystal Basement show at the Atomic Rooster a few weeks back, and was sitting in such a noisy part of the bar I could barely hear what was going on!  Nice to catch them in a more refined venue like the Elmdale.

The action went as usual, with a first half of short games and a second half of two long-form improv’s.  Both teams were grand fun (the Beastie Boys game got particularly vicious), but in the end host Al Connors had to give the win to Bruckheimer.  I’m a little tipsy at this point (a quart is a LOT of beer, did you know that?), so I’m not going into too many specifics of the show now…but there ARE a couple of other cool tidbits I need to share.  First off, NEXT Monday the classic Crush gang…Brad, Al and Cari Leslie…will be right back at the Elmdale for a special performance called ‘The Lab’.  Why, you ask..?

GLAD YOU ASKED.  It’s because they’re warming up for the OTTAWA IMPROV FESTIVAL hitting Arts Court from the 16th-20th, and which my own sorry ass only found out about tonite.  Troupes from all over AND here, five nites o’fun…it sounds like a merry old time, you folks, and I hope I can make it out to at least one night.  Like I said, busy time.  So, there’s all that.  But thanks once gain to the Crush gang and friends, they’re pretty consistently the funnest Monday of the month these days.  Which is why I’ll be right back there NEXT Monday, hopefully trying harder to remember what actually happened.  Hope to see you there, and Peace, love and soul,

The Visitor (and Winston)