My! Fobby! Father!

On the phone, after telling my father that I was going to try some amateur stand-up comedy.

Dad: It must run in the family. I'm the funniest guy at my work.

Rob: Really dad? Maybe you should do stand up.

Dad: Oh no, but you can use my jokes. Why is golf better than sex?

Rob: Dad...stop...

Dad: Because you get more balls!

Rob: Thank you...dad, for that bit of comedic gold.

Dad: I know! Let me tell you another one!

Rob: Oh god no.

Dad: How is golf like sex?

Rob: I'm sensing a pattern here...

Dad: Because you practice your grip on the shaft! Listen your mother is laughing! I'm already funnier than you!


I've been upstaged even before I go onstage. This has to be some sort of record.

Fringe Fest 2009 - We Call This Comedy

Pow! You hear that? That’s the sound of the 2009 Montreal Fringe Fest knocking my teeth out. ‘We Call This Comedy’ is the first show for my Fringe Fest bonanza and it did exactly what it set out to do, make the audience laugh.

For a Fringe a festival show the show is a bit vanilla, the format is simply the two Montreal comedians (Ali Hassan and John Hastings) each doing a half hour of stand-up. In between the two sets the two do some collaborated work in the form of songs and hypothetical letters to annoying apartment neighbours.

I’m familiar with both of these Montreal locals’ work having seen Hassan MC at the ‘Comedians of Color’ and ‘Comedy Without Borders’ events and Hastings at Comedy works and at a fund raiser for the Filipino women’s centre. Despite the fact that I’ve heard most of their jokes before this show still was able to get a lot of laughs out of me as they’ve obviously tightened their craft and execution.

In the first half of the show Hastings explores his experience growing in a waspy Ontario household and the process of telling his parents that he wanted to go to theatre school. As he points out, this would be a crushing blow to any parents who hope to have children who are “productive members of society.” The rest of his set, leaned a bit too much on sex jokes, but hey, its the stand up comedian’s bread and butter.

Before Hassan took the stage, the two shared some songs with the crowd. Sadly I had already heard this material at an open mic night at Comedyworks, and sadly the gags from the songs seem to work better in a more intimate setting, rather than a large venue like the Just For Laughs studio. Nonetheless, they were still entertaining.

Finally Hassan took the stage to provide half an hour of his material. In previous shows, I’ve seen Hassan do a fantastic job slinging around race humour like it was second nature, so I was upset at the fact that he did almost no jokes on race issues, rather he focussed on the topic of food and his experience as a chef. While funny, I couldn’t help but think he opted to stick to less controversial topics (like the fact that his mother was in the crowd) to ensure he reached as many people in the audience. While probably a smart plan, and certainly very funny, it’s not his best work.

Overall though the show does a great job ensuring that you feel that you money was well spent, of not for the comedy then at the very least for the samosas handed out at the end of the show prepared by Hassan himself. Food and comedy? Can’t beat it.

My First Podcast!

Here it is! The first podcast! While technically its something like the third of fourth, I wanted to upload it first because it was supposed to be for Asian Heritage Month but my mp3 encoder gave me problems.

Anyway, this episode is on Japanese underground music, and is co-hosted with my good friend Parker Mah. Just click on the link below to listen to it, or right-click and 'save as' to download it and throw it on your iPod.

Podcasts are the New Mixtape - Japanese Underground

As well, I decided to have a separate page for my podcasts which is here. While I'll probably cross-post, I like having things in good order.

Podcast Tracklist:

Song/ Artist/ Album

Mind Power (pts 1 & 2) - Osaka Monaurail - Thankful
Una Sera Di Tokyo - Takeshi Terauchi - Beat, Beat, Beat (Vol. 1 + 2)... Read More
Blah! Blah! Someswing - Gagle - Hidden Music Value
Manai - Ino Hidefumi - Living Message
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Firecracker - Yellow Magic Orchestra
Bisk - Waltz - Ticklish Matters
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with POLYSICS guitarist Hiroshi Hayashi
S.O.S. - Electric Eel Shock - Go Europe!
反吐、反吐、汽車 - Nanao Tabito - Heavenly Punk Adagio
Yamasuki - Yamasuki Singers - Le Monde Fabuleux des Yamasuki
Sakura - Elfin Saddle - Ringing for the Begin Again
Opening Theme of Mario - Tokyo CubaBoys Jr (Ashura Benimaru Itoh - Solo Guitar)

Update

Its over! My work at Festival Acces Asie has come to an end. It was a great time with great people, and while there's still a bit of report writing to tend to, the final event (Viva Confusion!) ended yesterday and we were up late cleaning up, and attending hte after party. Good stuff!

Ideally this will mean I will have time to update this blog. However, I won't be doing anymore movie haikus as I started a different site with my buddy Al just specifically for haikus. Its The Haiku Review.