A little known fact about me is that sometimes, Thursday nights around 7pm, you can catch me sweeping the stairs at the Comedy Bar on 945 Bloor Street. After all, we all do what we can to support and help the people whose work we believe in. The Comedy Bar is the newest, hippest venue that features comedy, sketch and Improv shows of all sorts every day of the week! It is the brainchild of Sketchersons co-founder Gary Rideout Jr. who, remarkably, has produced more than 400 live comedy shows. The shows are great, the staff are sweet, the drinks are well-priced, the food is good, you can play Pac Man (!), there’s an ATM, and the bathrooms are always clean. Seriously, it’s home away from home.

            Last Thursday around 7pm I was sweeping the stairs of Comedy Bar when I heard abundant howls of laughter emanating from the back of the bar. It was the sort of laughter that is so joyful and so hearty that I couldn’t help but smile as I swept. As it turns out, the cast of the Canadian Comedy Award winning Sketchersons and the cast of Ghost Jail Theatre were rehearsing sketches for their one-night only “Event of a Lifetime” united forces show The Subway Series which I caught last night, Sunday April 26^th 2009.

            The Subway Series started at Clinton’s Tavern, another great little venue for music and comedy on Bloor Street (at Clinton) where Ghost Jail Theatre reins Improv comedy supreme every Sunday at 7:30pm. Here we were greeted with free T-shirts, a Subway token, caramel popcorn and TWO Ghost Jail sets featuring special guest improvisers, members of the cast of the Sketchersons!  I love when two different, art forms work in conjunction with one another to celebrate the greatness and the fun that can come from collaboration! It was so neat to watch the Sketchersons reacting on their feet, and then later to watch the Improvisers and to know they had a script in mind and rehearsal time. I was talking to Ghost Jail member Fraz Wiest a few nights ago about the labels of “comedian” and “actor” and “improviser” and I agree that they are all so fluid; there is such overlap of talents and skills it does seem like an injustice to peg any performer as being one specific type of anything.

            Highlights from Clinton’s include: Alana Johnston, just really in general you haven’t seen Canadian comedy until you have seen her improvise, Naomi Snieckus lisping her way through knife training, Kayla Lorette doing yoga as though she were made from Jell-O, and Fraz Weist pushing one of the Sketchersons guys off the stage after he read the line, “One time, my dad fell down a flight of stairs carrying a tray of ribs” because that was all the imagery required to conjure the next improvised scene.

            We then all crammed into a single Subway car, bombarding the other innocent passengers with a sing-along and exuberant amounts of energy, and rode from Christie Station to Ossington Station and arrived joyfully at Comedy Bar.

The ambiance was immediately different. The Sketchersons have really loud music which is provided by a live band (!) and because there is a “backstage” and a curtain, there seems to be more of a proscenium atmosphere to their show. The sketches were funny, and some of them are especially clever and imaginative. Gary Rideout Jr. did this amazing hybrid between boxercise, dance and stripping which was in equal parts hilarious and impressive. Kayla Lorette was unbelievably funny as the male owner of a strip mall, and Alana Johnston was equally incredible as his feisty, fabulously trashy, wife.

It was an entire room filled with talented; to mention a few funny moments is to leave out an entire heap. At the end of the evening Ghost Jail co-Artistic Director Ian Rowe mentioned that since Ghost Jail begins at 7:30pm and the Sketchersons show Sunday Night Live begins at 9:30pm, it is possible for people to attend both shows back-to-back every Sunday even though the subway ride in between will be short one sing-along jamboree.

It warms my heart to see these two companies joining forces and supporting one another. The extraordinary achievements of the young and the ambitious in this city continue to astound, impress and inspire me. I am so proud of the achievements of these artistic entrepreneurs who work and triumph in a world that is not always conducive to making art, creating work, or having dreams come true.

Please also take a moment to vote for the First Annual TWISI awards and honor the theatre artists that you feel are the most deserving in this country. If you are a member of the Comedy/ Improv Community in this fine city, please, please, make sure to vote for the TWISI Awards, which include awards for Comedy, Sketch and Improv! Vote for your favourites or vote for yourself right now! Make your voice heard. Cast your vote before June 21^st, 2009. Click here for more information.  

It is what my grandmother would call a “misra’ble” Sunday night, the rain is pouring down in sheets and it’s freezing cold. I, however, am quite warm and mostly dry in Clinton’s tavern on Bloor Street after another hysterical Ghost Jail show (http://mt-champion.livejournal.com/6900.html). Most of the cast sits at a long table chatting, laughing and drinking beer, while I sit with the two Artistic Directors, Caitlin Howden and Ian Rowe, at a smaller table beside them. Ian and Caitlin order Spring Rolls and beer. I borrow Ian’s pen because mine has given up.

Amanda Campbell (AC): So, the first question I often ask people is, please tell me who you are, where you come from, and how you got to be so talented?

Caitlin Howden (CH): My name is Caitlin Howden. I’m from Montreal. And how did I get so talented? Ummm... oh! Well when I was little I was extremely dramatic. So dramatic, actually, that my grandmother had this shed- the crying shack- she would put me in there until I was ready to behave myself. It was really just an extra shed she had for the cleaning supplies for the pool. But yeah, Grandma Mary and the Crying Shack. I would just sit and hang out there a bunch. I think that experience really had a lot to do with who I am today.

AC: *laughs* Okay, Ian- top that…

Ian Rowe (IR): Can’t. My name is Ian Rowe. I’m from Edmonton, Alberta. Eddddddmonton. So… I’m incredibly shy, terribly, terribly shy to a point that when I was little at Halloween my mom and I went to London Drugs to get a witch’s costume and we got there and I couldn’t do it- I roostered out. I was too afraid to put on the scary hat, scary in that it was black and pointy. So, for me, if I have any talent, this is my way to get over fear. You learn to not be afraid to do this because in the moment you don’t have time to think about it. So, my ultimate fear is roostering out again. I was dumb. Ultimately, kids are dumb. Or they’re incredibly smart; they just haven’t had all the chances to learn yet.

AC: So, what brought you both to Toronto?

CH: I came here for school. I went to Ryerson. I had the choice between Edmonton or Toronto and I chose Toronto.

IR: Edmonton is an amazing place where if you want to be an artist you can. I don’t know, I guess I wanted something different. I had never lived away from home before. And if you speak English in this country and are interested in comedy, you come to Toronto, and then from there you go—

AC: Back to Edmonton… *grin*

IR: To Edmonton… or to Vancouver. But yeah, so I came out [to Toronto].

AC: So, you’re both in Toronto, how did you guys meet?

IR: We first met at an Improv show. What was it called again?

CH: Fuck You, Princess

IR: That’s right. Fuck You, Princess. She was doing it with Matt Alden, also from Edmonton and Matt and Caitlin had also produced it.

CH: At the Diesel Playhouse.

IR: Matt had been in BoyGroove (Chris Craddock and Aaron Macri’s mockumentary about the boy-band phenomenon) at the Diesel and he somehow convinced the producers that after the show closed, they should produce something else. And so that’s what he and Caitlin did… How did you meet Matt, incidentally?

CR: Fringe Touring.

IR: Ah. See, that’s one of the regrets I have, having only ever toured one Fringe show. We should tour a show.

CH: Let’s do it! Done. So Done.

AC: Ghost Jail Tour! That would be awesome, actually.

IR: It could be just us two, and we could pick up different improvisers in each city…

CH: Bring it on!

AC: And what made you decide to start your own Improv Theatre Company together?

IR: Oh, so Catch 23 [Improv Troupe] closed for a little while and some of my dear friends who are hilarious and who are so important to the community here that has been established didn’t have that place of their own anymore. And I kept saying that there should be a new Improv Troupe in Toronto… that I should start my own Improv Company and everyone I talked to said, “Yeah, call me when it’s done.” And then Caitlin, who I hadn’t seen since Fuck You, Princess- who I met at the Eaton’s Centre randomly- said, “Great. What do we do?” She was the first person to ask me that. Everyone else had just been like “let me know when it happens,” they just wanted a job… *laughs* but Caitlin said, “What should we do?”

CH: Also, I had been in a position where a few people were saying, “yeah, you can come and do our show sometimes… you can work the door… whatever” but I didn’t have anywhere where I was able to work all the time. It was not the most inviting world...

IR: No, not Toronto at that time.

CH: It was much less inviting for a new comedian.

IR: I was still doing stand-up.

CH: *laughs* Yeah. I was still at theatre school memorizing sonnets.

IR: … Stand-up is the Improviser’s equivalent to sonnets. You’re up there, and no one gives a fuck… unless they do- and then they’ll send you to Carnegie Hall.

AC: So, where did the name Ghost Jail come from?

IR: Fraz. Though not with the intention of it being a comedy show. It’s his name for-

CH: Pac Man. We were all playing Pac Mac at Andrew Bursey’s and Fraz mentioned it and we thought it would be kind of funny-

IR: I’d be lying if I said we weren’t a little inebriated….    

CH: I think it actually was that day on the street! We were all walking down Queen Street and we were talking about the name for our company and I think you said “Ghost Jail, what a funny name.”

IR: I don’t know if it was me. But I’ll take the credit, sure.

CH: It’s so hard to think of a name for your company.

IR: So hard. You don’t want it to sound pretentious or “We’re so funny!”

CH: Or lame. Like “Giggles n’ Things”…

AC: Totally. The format of the show is interesting, and a lot of people talk about how neat it is to mix the Improv with the written monologues- where did you get the idea for the format?

CH: Everything in Improv is stolen or borrowed from something else. The idea of mixing written pieces with improvised scenes came from a different variation of a show that my theatre troupe saw someone do. It was a jam session; people who you wouldn’t expect to see together would all be onstage. I loved to see people having a good time. I loved the format and the idea of the writing. Then Ian and I discovered This American Life, a show on the National Public Radio, and it had stories coming together all variations on a theme. It was beautiful. There were all these different voices coming together but they were all living in the same world. So, we mixed the This American Life idea with the writing and improvised scenes and created this really cool piece of theatre. It’s not just a bunch of random funny, sketches, but it asks you to come and live in this world for an hour. And really, that is what theatre asks of you.

IR: They are cohesive pieces. You came to see-

CH: A Show

IR: Not just a series of funny scenes… if they’re funny.

CH: Hopefully they’re funny... No. Hopefully they’re just good.

IR: By the way, the show Caitlin mentioned earlier that she saw, the writing and improvising one, that was Becky Johnson, she did it at the Fringe. She did it with improvisers and writers, and we do it all with improvisers. That makes it a different experience.

AC: What is the best part of getting to do Ghost Jail every week?

CH: Oooh. What’s the best part of getting to do Ghost Jail every week… I think we’re lucky in the sense that we really like playing with each other, as good improvisers and as good friends. It’s not just our cast; it’s also our audience. In the comedy world a lot of times the audience consists of other comedians. Our show isn’t for other comedians. It’s for people who want to laugh. And that’s so awesome, to be able to make them laugh. They exist not as peers, but as our audience.

IR: Seeing all those people-

CH: Making people laugh.

IR: Yeah. And the weeks when we kick the shit out of that rock n’ roll stage. This stage is usually used for bands, and I’ve seen bands playing here before, but there are those times when we put our feet on the monitors and we’re having these amazing moments and no band could ever make its audience draw back in wonder or lean so far forward in their seats like we’ve seen. There’s not a lot of rock n’ roll comedy goin’ on.

AC: So, an audience member comes to see Ghost Jail, and they like it, why should they come back for multiple weeks? Why isn’t it enough to just come once?

CH: Because they are essential. They’re the reason we do it. It’s a perk that we love playing together so much, but we don’t do it for ourselves. We love meeting our audience members before the show and after the show and we love getting to know them. And then, when they come back, those audience members feel like they can hang out with us after the show.

IR: It’s like, remember when you saw that movie you really, really, really liked, and then maybe a week or a month passes or maybe you’re with friends who haven’t seen it and you’re all like “Aw fuck- that was AWESOME!” and then you see it again, and it’s like, it’s still good, you still like it, but it doesn’t have quite that same “Aw fuck- that was so AWESOME” anymore. Ghost Jail is like that, but with Ghost Jail, the first time you see it you have the same initial “AW FUCK- that was AWESOME!” but when you come back it’s familiar and just as good, except it’s also different- and so you have the ‘Aw fuck- that was so awesome!” reaction every time.

CH: You also know that no one else will ever see the same show that you just saw. And that is kinda cool to see. It’s like watching a magic trick.

IR: It’s really cool to be a part of things and we really feel that with our audience and with each other, we feel like we’re creating a community. It requires so much, and so many different people doing different things. So people can be included in the community in so many different ways- performing, or coming to see the shows, hanging out afterwards, helping work at the door…and that’s another reason to come- it is something that you can be a part of and you won’t just laugh your face off, you’ll really like going to that weird bar that looks like a log cabin.   

CH: I know our audience is smart and we’re challenging them to come and laugh and make connections, and so we challenge the audience and they challenge us to up our game.

IR: They’re also coming so that they can get their thing read.

AC: I feel lame even asking this, but I know there are probably people out there who wonder, is it all really, for real, really made up on the spot? And then, if you don’t need to spend time memorizing lines or shticks, what do you do for the rest of the week?

CH: There is absolutely nothing planned, thought about, predetermined, discussed or organized about our show.

IR: *laughs* Organized…

CH: I mean that in a Mafia sort of way. What an injustice it would be to promote something as Improv if it’s not.

IR: Plus all the work! It is so much work! There are people who write brand new plays every week and it is so difficult and to those industrious, talented, hardworking people, they should all be working in television.

CH: We don’t have time for that! Also, you can see that moment when someone said something and we all lose it. There is no way that you can plan that.

* Rhianna’s SOS blares from the overheard speakers and Caitlin and Ian dance in their chairs for a moment until the volume gets turned down.*

IR: The way we spend our entire week… improvisers are like babies, they are sponges for fucking everything. We spend our weeks taking it all in. A friend of mine, Donovan Workun, says that you have to catalogue all the shit you know- relationships, Ikea furniture, music… and have it at your fingertips to draw on. What we are doing-unconsciously because improvisers are ultimately lazy- is cataloguing our lives and our experiences.

CH: I totally agree.

AC: You’ve chosen to call your company Ghost Jail Theatre, do you consider yourselves to be actors, comedians or improvisers?

CH: I think the cool thing about Ghost Jail is that it combines actors and comedians and improvisers. We really all wear different hats. But, I think you can’t just say that you’re an improviser… if you say that you’re not an actor, you are discrediting a part of what you do. I think I’m an actor who improvises and makes jokes sometimes. I think I’m actor…. And an improviser… And a comedian… *laughs* I think we’re all three.

IR: Yes. Um, Caitlin’s right. But, I think we’re all actors. The best actors I know are great comedians and can improvise whenever they need to, and all great improvisers I know are great actors. The thing you left out is… we’re all writers.

AC: Yeah, I’d thought of that.

IR: No, I’m kidding. Although, I think all actors are writers… only lazy actors don’t write.

AC: You’ve started to have three “opening act” shows that precede Ghost Jail each week, how did you decide to start doing that? How did you pick those acts?

CH: We started a repertory theatre because we wanted to be able to showcase more people. We’d created a community and we then thought “wouldn’t it be great to see more of these people?”

IR: And to give our audience more of a show.

CH: Yeah, we didn’t have the pre-show originally and as our pool got bigger and bigger and we had more people to play with us, everyone was so talented and had so many different skills that we really wanted people to get a chance to see everyone.

IR: We didn’t want our audience to show up not knowing what the heck was gonna happen. We came up with three formats last summer that we thought would be cool, so every week you’d see Ghost Jail and something else. That way, you wouldn’t see the same show every week, cuz nobody wants that.

AC: For the last pitch, why would you say that everyone reading this needs to get up off their ass and tear themselves away from that youtube clip they’ve been watching and go out to see Ghost Jail this Sunday?

IR: It will make you laugh aloud and then it will make you stay longer than you expected and you’ll have so much fun.

CH: Our brains are slowly rotting, here we are, let’s say we’re in our twenties, and this is the time in our lives when we’re supposed to indulge a little bit and to do the things that you wouldn’t want to do when you’re fifty. It makes you a better person when you do something new and different. I’m not saying Ghost Jail makes you a better person, but going out and doing something and to laugh… and to have it not be at your computer or the TV. It’s all so automated these days, we’re starving for human interaction and there is something in going to see a show and laughing with a bunch of other people who you may not know, but knowing that you’re all laughing at the same collective thing. It makes you feel good and alive. And I promise, if you don’t feel good at the end, I’ll buy you a beer.

IR: If you laughed, or even thought about laughing, at anything you saw on youtube or Facebook, you have no idea how much fucking funnier it is the moment it was created. If you’re laughing at something that is so far removed and distanced from you, and of shitty sound quality and videography… you have no idea how much better it can get. You just gotta come to our fucking show.

CH: And we’re on the Subway line!

Ian Rowe and Caitlin Howden are delightful, they are hilarious and they are smart. Come see what all the fuss is about. Ghost Jail plays Sunday, December 7^th, 2008 featuring FaceKatt, the sketches of the legendary Fraz Weist and the infamous Tim Daugulis, and Sunday, December 14^th 2008 is the Annual Ghost Jail Christmas Party! You’ll cry if you miss it, you’ll laugh if you come.

Ghost Jail plays Clinton’s Tavern. 693 Bloor Street. Sunday Nights. 7:30pm. $6.00/ $5.00 for members.

Every Sunday night, the small back room of Clinton’s Tavern on Bloor Street transforms into a magical place where anything might happen. However, the audience is assured immediately that Ghost Jail Theatre is “the comedy show that won’t make fun of you for coming.” And it’s true; there is an incredible ease to the performances that permeates the entire space and dissolves the worry one often has in the pit of her stomach during an improvised show that things might get scary, awkward, or dead.

Ghost Jail’s mandate is to “present quality, professional work in an inclusive environment that fosters and develops new talent while bringing together members of the community at large.” The theatre company is made up of six core company members, Ian Rowe (Artistic Director), Caitlin Howden (Artistic Director), Tim Daugulis, Michal Grajewski, Alana Johnston, Kayla Lorette and Fraz Wiest. At the beginning of each show, a piece of text is selected from the audience and a random line is read aloud. From this line, a theme is chosen which will connect the ensuing scenes and monologues together. There are six improvisers in the show. On either side of the stage is a notebook on a chair. Scenes are improvised in the centre, and monologues are written on the chairs while the scenes are being performed. They are then read aloud when the perfect moment becomes apparent. The scenes all connect to one another, stories and characters spring to life, punch lines become recurring jokes, everything feeds into everything, and the audience watches in awe as an hour of improvised shenanigans all circle around and fit perfectly together like pieces of a hysterical, marvelous, jigsaw puzzle.

The Ghost Jail Season opened last Monday with performances by Ian Rowe, Caitlin Howden, Tim Daugulis, Alana Johnston, Fraz Wiest, and special guests Ron Pederson and Naomi Snieckus. The scenes and monologues are consistently laugh-out-loud funny, which is extremely rare for an improvised comedy show. Their timing is impeccable, and scenes never run too long or turn stagnant. The beauty of having all six actors on stage almost all of the time, is that you are also able to watch the “offstage” actors’ reactions to the comedy that is being done “onstage”. It sometimes feels like watching the behind the scenes blooper reel for a very funny televised show. You also never know when an actor will fall into a scene unexpectedly.

Ghost Jail Theatre is undoubtedly funnier than anything on television- especially anything on Sunday nights at 7:30pm. It is cheap. It is inspiring. It is fun. There are drinks and the cast members hang around after the show to hobnob. You really can’t go wrong. So, you should come. You will laugh until you hyperventilate. Seriously.