Toronto has great comedy shows going on all the time, and it makes me sad that more people don’t know about it and come out. But then, I think that a lot of the charm of these shows comes from their intimacy. You can see the faces of the actors, and there have been times when I’ve actually seen spit come out of their mouth when they were speaking! You just can’t beat that.
On Saturday night, I went to the Second City John Candy Theatre to see a duo called the Lusty Mannequins. This duo is made up of Ashley Comeau and Conner Thompson. These two complement each other perfectly. Conner quietly and unobtrusively plays the straight man, allowing Ashley to go over the top with her characters. And she is fearless!
Live comedy theatre can be hard to describe because it is such an “in the moment” experience. There are rarely any props. The set? The imagination of the audience fills in those details. There is just Ashley and Conner up there on the stage. Oh, and the piano player off to the side. I’ve forgotten his name, but as he lamented in the closing number, he “sat there for an hour and only played three songs”. LOL. The piano adds so much atmosphere and setting. It’s astounding.
There were such a variety of sketches, all of which had their own characters, settings, and themes. I was left wondering how the two of them could come up with so many amazing ideas.
I laughed the whole way through the show. Which proves of course that there isn’t anything fancy needed to put on a great show. Just excellent writing and excellent acting, which the Lusty Mannequins deliver.
Keep your eye open for any shows featuring the Lusty Mannequins and if you see one, go! I only paid $10 to see the show, and I feel like I got away with stealing!
Ashley and Connor are the Lusty Mannequins
Monika
April 19, 2010
That does sound very good! And it’s quite rare that the girl gets to be the funny one in the duo (vs playing the straight (wo)man to a man’s jokes). Nice!
mekms
April 20, 2010
So true about the woman usually being the straight one (I love cartoons, but they are full of examples of this-Marge/Homer, Lois/Peter, Wilma/Fred).
You will notice from the picture that Ashley is very pretty and could easily go glamourous. But as any great comedienne knows, you can’t be concerned with beauty when you are going for a laugh. Just another choice that a woman has to make. Not that you can’t be beautiful. You just have to be willing to look any way that it takes to get the character right. Ashley played a feral girl character that made me laugh my ass off. Her snarls and barking wouldn’t have got her on the cover of Vogue. Ha ha.