Hot Thespian Action, (l to r) Garth Merkeley, Jane Teastar, Shannon Guile, Ryan Miller and Jacquelin Loewen
Raise your hand if you love Winnipeg. Well some kids from The Peg are coming to Toronto next week for the sketch fest to try to make us laugh. I don’t know anything about these guys except that their name, Hot Thespian Action, kind of looks like Hot Asian Action if you read it really quickly. Here is what the gang had to say:
How would you describe a Hot Thespian Action show to somebody who doesn’t see a lot of sketch comedy?
Garth: Sketch comedy gets lumped in a lot with Saturday Night Live. SNL has to produce 90 minutes of material each week. Fortunately, we get a lot more time to polish and re-polish our material so each sketch is a stand-alone work.
Shannon: Unlike SNL, we don’t use any props or costumes. It’s all done with mime and our physical presence. And for the record, we ARE wearing clothes. But neutral clothes. Black. Usually black. A lot of other sketch comedy is character-based, full of zany, wacky people and the straight characters around them. Ours is more idea-based. We take a look at life and we switch it around and the comedy comes from that new view. We’re always looking for that nugget of truth that lies behind every idea. You want the “That’s so true!” reaction.
Has performing at the CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival had any influence on your comedic careers so far?
Jane: It’s a good platform for people who might not go to a Fringe festival, where we perform a lot, because it seems too ‘hip with the kids’ and rag tag. But they see the CBC Comedy Fest and they think “Ooh. That sounds really classy. I’m fifty five and older, I’m going to go to that.” People trust the CBC name more, which, in turn gave us a bit of legitimacy.
Jacquie: We ended up getting a commission to do a national holiday radio special. We wrote and performed a show called “Pitching the Turkey” for the radio that aired on Thanksgiving day. It was new territory for us, but a great challenge.
So what’s the deal with Winnipeg? I freaking love the Weakerthans.
Jane: I like how the Weakerthans have become the new Guess Who. When did that switch get made? They really should tell Winnipeggers about it. We REALLY hate it when things change.
Jacquie: You know what’s weird? I was listening to this live recording of the Weakerthans performing in Germany. And it was really weird to hear a bunch of Germans singing “I hate Winnipeg.” I was like “You’ve never even been here! What the hell do you know?”
Jane: I hate…Munich! How do you like THEM apples?
Are you guys friends outside of the group?
Jacquie: We have no other friends. If this breaks up we’ve got nothing. We have to be nice to each other or we’ll have no social lives.
Shannon: If we weren’t as good friends as we are, the troupe wouldn’t be as good.
Jane: Watching a documentary about Monty Python, I’m so glad we’re friends, because they really weren’t. They never just hung out with each other. And Graham Chapman was a TERRIBLE alcoholic for years and NONE OF THEM KNEW. How can you not know? They didn’t know until he was having the shakes on the set of Holy Grail. We would know.
*Glares at Ryan*
*Ryan starts to look uncomfortable*
Ryan: What?
Check out Hot Thespian Action at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival:
Friday, November 13th – 9:PM
The Comedy Bar
with Free Love Forum and Approximately 3 Peters
Saturday, November 14th – 7:PM
Theatre Passe Muraille
with Fully Insured and Last Call Cleveland
