Improvisers play off interviews with local celebs

 In Events, News, Visit Creemore

The Monkey Toast crew is returning to Avening Hall. 

The improv troupe bases its skits on interviews with local celebrities conducted during the improvised talk show with host Ron Tite. On Feb. 11, Tite will welcome to the stage author Tish Cohen, who splits her time between Toronto and Glen Huron, and John Millar, executive director and founder of the Creemore based NGO Water First.

With improv, anything can happen and the comedy evolves based on the direction the actors take and sometimes suggestions from the audience. With Monkey Toast the skits are inspired by the live interviews, happening on stage. The cast could launch from one nugget taken from a conversation about one of Cohen’s books or the science of water treatment. Anything can happen.

Cohen is the author of four novels: The Search Angel, The Truth About Delilah Blue, Inside Out Girl, Town House and four books for teens and middle grade readers. Her new novel is set to be published next year.

“It sounds like a great night and a great way to bring the community together and have a lot of fun,” said Cohen. “I also like the idea of actors taking whatever story you’ve told and taking it one step further. It’s along the lines of having a book adapted to film, you have somebody else interpreting your stories which is interesting as art. Everybody who touches it turns it into something, they spin it in their own way and I find that kind of fascinating.”

The Monkey Toast show at Avening Hall is presented by Peter Madore of the Mad and Noisy Improv Company, based in Creemore, and Sara Hershoff of The Creemore Echo. When Hershoff asked Cohen if she would be interested in being a guest on the improvised talk show, she had no idea that the author had a family connection to improv.

It turns out Cohen is the niece of Viola Spolin, who is recognized as the mother of improvisational theatre, and her son Paul Sills, co-founder of Chicago’s Second City, of which he was the original director. Together they created the techniques used at Second City and many other improv troupes since. Another uncle of Cohen’s, Severn Darden, was one of Second City’s early cast members. He went on to have a Hollywood acting career starring in Planet of the Apes movies and others.

Cohen said she has not done improv, or theatre since high school, but she grew up surrounded by actors and comedians on her father’s side of the family. She said her mother’s side, although not in the business, is also very funny.

At 14, Cohen moved to Los Angeles and has lots of good stories about her family, some of which have inspired her own writing.

“They can go to town with my family in terms of the stories,” she said.

John Millar is also slated to appear as a guest on the improvised talk show. He is the man behind Water First, which works with more than 25 First Nations in Ontario and Quebec to help them equip themselves to solve local water quality issues. About one in five First Nations in Canada are under boil water advisories and often have the lack of local expertise and functional equipment to operate and maintain water treatment plants. The organization began as Tin Roof Global, providing clean water to schoolhouses in Uganda. A name change and several years later, the majority of Water First’s work is dedicated to First Nations.

Many of the Monkey Toast players are alumni of Second City Toronto, along with Tite, who conducts the interviews and sets the tone for the show. He is not only the host, he is also executive producer of the Canadian Comedy Award-winning show.

Tickets for Monkey Toast, The Improvised Talk Show cost $25 in advance and are available at The Creemore Echo and through aveninghall.com. Tickets cost $30 at the door. The show starts at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 11. Doors open at 7 p.m. Food will be for sale and the bar will be open, with proceeds going to the ongoing operation of the hall.

Recent Posts

Leave a Comment

0