Improv duo performing at dinner-and-a-show
Two of Canada’s top improv comedians will be performing in Creemore.
Improv teacher Peter Madore is bringing a comedic duo to Creemore, with the help of his students.
Madore has been doing improv for 15 years, starting out in Toronto, but when he moved to Creemore he thought he may have to leave it behind.
“I was the only guy. I really thought I was done. I thought, I’m never going to find another opportunity to do that here,” said Madore. In talking with neighbours, he discovered there was some interest. Madore had taught improv classes in Toronto and some people expressed taking a class locally. It started with one class a couple of years ago and Madore has since taken a break from it, taking time for his studies but he recently revived the class.
“After that first class there was so much more interest from the students to understand what does this look like when it is produced and performed in a really professional way?” He said that brought about the Monkey Toast performance at Avening Hall and then another show in Collingwood two years ago.
Then recently, the students put on a class show at The Sovereign. Madore said it was a lively, high-energy performance by the six-member troupe with friends and family members in attendance.
“It was really the energy behind the group that propelled me to really see this as a possibility of doing a show. I couldn’t have done it without them because I have had outstanding support from all of these people who took the class,” said Madore. “It’s really a group effort.”
He said the next logical step was to offer a professional show, to step out and offer something different entertainmentwise, in this area. Madore has booked improv comedians Adam Cawley and Rob Norman to perform in Creemore on August 6.
“They are the leading figures of improv in the country so it was really a no-brainer to go to them,” said Madore, who knows them through the Toronto improv scene.
Second City alumni and best friends Norman and Cawley, also known as RN and Cawls, have been performing together for 10 years since meeting in a sketch troupe.
“That kind of disbanded but we enjoyed each other so much that we stuck together,” said Cawley.
He said they continued to work together, including their time at Second City and in addition to their duo created Mantown with two other comics, which won the Canadian Comedy Award for the best improv troupe in 2013. The following year, Cawley won The Canadian Comedy Award for Best Male Improviser in Canada.
In Creemore, after warming up with some traditional improv sketches, they will perform a 30-minute or so one-act improvised play inspired by a single suggestion from the audience, with each one doing multiple characters and changing scenes.
“This is where all the improv technique comes in with trusting your partner and listening, paying attention to every little minute detail but the thrill for us of not exactly knowing how anything is going to go,” said Cawley.
Madore hopes to develop the concept into a dinner-and-a-show series in the future.
Tickets for buffet dinner and a show at The Sovereign on Saturday, August 6 costs $50. Dinner is at 7:30 p.m. Reservations for dinner and show are recommended, and are being accepted at Sovereign Bistro and Grill, 157 Mill St., Creemore or phone 705-466-9999.
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Adam Cawley is a three-time Canadian Comedy Award winning actor, writer and improviser. He is also an alumnus of The Second City Mainstage. He created, co-wrote and co-stars in the TV show, GUIDANCE, which currently airs on BITE TV. He was a writer for George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight and was hired to develop ‘American eh’ new satirical TV series for Insight productions. His video writing and acting on The Second City Network has been featured on Perez Hilton, Topless Robot and io9. He performed at this year’s Just for Laughs festival with MANTOWN (winner for Best Improv troupe in 2013). He has been seen on: Spun Out, Odd Squad Warehouse 13, Covert Affairs and more. In 2014 Adam won The Canadian Comedy Award for Best Male Improviser in Canada.
Rob Norman is a Canadian Screen Award-winning actor, director, improviser, and author of Improvising Now: A Practical Guide to Modern Improv. He has worked for Second City as director of The National Touring Company, Second at Sea, and currently serves as the Department Head of the Longform Program at the Second City Training Centre. As an improviser, Rob performs with MANTOWN, RN and Cawls, and Filthy: The No Rules Improv Cabaret. Rob currently stars on the CityTV sketch comedy series Sunnyside.
