Being there / by Katherine Hajer

Yesterday the ever-prolific Karen, one of the best writers I have the honour to know, had her debut show at Toronto's Second City comedy theatre. She's been taking a writing course there for months, and the show was a collaboration written by all of the writers in the course, performed by bona fide Second City actors. The show ("Yank My Cheney One More Time") was free, and was the usual Second City mix of sketches and blackouts. There was even one song-and-dance number thrown in.

Karen confirmed to me after the show that there was only to be one performance, so I almost feel bad blogging about it (in a "sucks to be you 'cos you missed it" sense). I'll put it this way: if you ever hear about one of these free shows happening and you have the time at all, by all means go! It was written so that there was a little bit for everyone, so everyone got a chance to have lots of good laughs. Given that I've sat completely stonefaced through comedy club shows I've paid for, I thought getting to go to a show where I actually laughed at the vast majority of the gags (and someone or other laughed at all of them) was great.