I’ve reviewed a lot of comedy shows over the years (See for yourself here on SesayArts). But I just saw what I believe is the funniest holiday comedy show I’ve ever seen.
It’s called 101 Holiday Movie Moments, it’s directed by Second City veteran Carly Heffernan, and it’s playing until December 31 at the Comedy Bar on the Danforth.
The show shines because of an inspired premise, an amazing cast, incredibly fun audience interactivity, and a vibe of goodhearted holiday silliness. Most of all, it shines because it has brilliantly solved all of the holiday show challenges that I never before recognized as challenges.
Let’s start with challenge #1 – the premise.
Most holiday comedy shows are a series of unconnected sketches of variable quality. It’s a loose collection of silliness, with some good, some not-so-good, and a handful of great. Here, by contrast, all the jokes, improv and general silliness serve a single deeply silly long-form story, which begins right away, when we encounter a cardigan-clad, slyly unassuming Paul Bates.
He’s sitting stage left reading a book in an armchair, and he’s apparently surprised to see us arrive at his home. Happily, he is the Narrator. As it happens, we’re just in time for him and a very funny cast to tell us a holiday story. This story will incorporate no fewer than (yep) 101 holiday movie moments. A moment might be a movie title, or a speech, line or phrase drawn from the pantheon of holiday movies — good and bad – that have filled theatres and television screens for decades. And the number 101 is a contractual promise. To prove it, each moment and its source movie will be counted down on a tv screen right when it happens.
This premise is brilliantly designed to keep our interest. We’ve all seen more of these movies than we probably care to admit. And this story will dial up to 11 the Christmas movie clichés that power them: the protagonist who’s forgotten the magic of Christmas, the return home to a Christmas-centric location under threat, the unexpected holiday romance, the sudden presence of snow – and many, many more. The familiarity that has likely bred some contempt, plus the countdown, create sustained interest and a ton of laughs.
Challenge #2 is the audience interactivity.
We’re familiar with the usual kinds of interactivity at comedy shows – where the audience is invited to shout out the name of an object, a profession or a title, and then the inventive performers make use of it. Or when an audience member joins the troupe on stage to play a role in the improv. It’s usually a ton of fun, but it’s also momentary.
We get those elements in 101 Holiday Movie Moments , but now they’re in delicious service of the larger holiday story. One lucky audience member takes on an ingenious and important role in the storybook town. And the entire audience participates in ongoing interactions tied to the holiday movie theme, which include a drinking game, a callout game, a noisemaker activity and a series of readalongs. With all this interaction, the audience feels like one big, laughing family. We’re not just watching: we’re co-creating this hilarious show with a couple of hundred of our closest holiday buds.
Fun!
Challenge #3 is the roles.
In the typical holiday comedy show, the cast play countless roles in countless sketches. Some are better-realized and more fully-formed than others, but none endure for longer than the sketch’s three or four minute duration. And each character is wiped away by a new character who services the next sketch’s new premise. The experience can be funny, but it’s also a blur.
By contrast, the Second City veterans in the amazing cast of 101 Holiday Movie Moments can lean hard into their individual, holiday movie-centric roles – and these become progressively funnier as a result. Paul Bates’ Narrator sets the tone with his homespun holiday cheer and deadpan narration . . . which moves from setting up the premise to slyly skewering holiday plot cliches and orchestrating the audience interaction. Funniest of all is when the characters trample the fourth wall (his words, not mine) and pull him right into the story to play unfilled roles.
Second City veteran Ann Pornel stars in the narrated story as the Scrooge-like girlboss from the big city who needs a small-town holiday romance meet-cute to force a holiday epiphany. On-stage almost the whole time, she plays it big, small or in-between, with quick wit and charm- – whatever it takes to advance her character arc . . . and get a laugh.
Andrew Bushell clearly relishes his dual role as the love interest inn-owner and the over-the-top villainous tycoon who is threatening the inn (the Succession theme is his hilarious bumper music whenever he exits).
And the cast is rounded out by two weird local Inn staff – a bug-eyed, borderline creepy Kris Siddiqui as a kind of handyman; and a white-wigged Kirsten Rasmussen as an elder staff member. Both are sources of flat-out hilarity: they’re having way too much fun facilitating the story, fleshing out their characters’ and the town’s unique peccadillos — and doing their part to help the countdown along.
Oh – and about that countdown. 101 is a big number, so you’ll find additional hilarity in learning which films the cast lean hardest on to make it up. If you’re thinking A Christmas Carol, you’re right . . . but how many different versions of it do you think they know? If you’re thinking Die Hard, Home Alone and A Christmas Story, well, you’re probably right . . . but you’ve also got to see the depths of bad Christmas movies they’ve plumbed, not to mention the non-Christmas movies they occasionally allow to count
In case you’re wondering, children will definitely enjoy the interactivity and silliness of this show – however, make sure to select a 4 pm performance. Evening performances like the one I saw include incidental profanity and sexual innuendo which in my estimation could be dropped with no impact to enjoyment of the show.
So my bottom line is simple: I heartily recommend a trip to the Comedy Bar for 101 Holiday Movie Moments. If you go, I guarantee you’ll be engrossed by the holiday movie plot and the fast-moving countdown; in fact, you’ll laugh more than you have any right to expect. You’ll even feel a closeness and camaraderie with your fellow audience members that will amplify the fun and (dare I say it) warm the heart. And so long as you don’t over-indulge during the drinking game, you’ll also walk away with clear, fun memories of the performances and interactivity.
Maybe that’s not quite enough to classify as a Christmas miracle . . . but I’ll take it. And so should you!
101 Holiday Movie Moments runs until December 31 at Comedy Bar Danforth. Reserve tickets on comedybar.ca.
© Scott Sneddon, SesayArts Magazine, 2023
