DOSSIER DE PRESSE

Comedy Picks: Nov. 19-25 : Sugar Sammy...

par Bill Brownstein - blog
2012-11-19

If you were lucky enough to cop some tickets for his sold-out concert Tuesday at the Olympia, you will be catching some Sucre en français. This show marks the official Montreal premiere of Sugar Sammy's En Français SVP! – the all-French show he has been touring around the province. It will be a long wait for those who want to see the show again. Sammy will be back only Feb. 28 and March 1 of next year for the next En Français SVP! Spectacles. For reservations, call 514-845-3524. For non-franco fans, Sammy will soon announce details for coming shows. Stay tuned.

Fresh off his command performance as Nicely Nicely Johnson in the Segal Centre production of the classic musical stage piece Guys and Dolls, hometown boy Mike Paterson returns to his stand-up roots, Thursday to Saturday at the Comedyworks (1238 Bishop St.). Perhaps more importantly, inquiring minds will want to know if Paterson has regrown his trademark mullet – which he had to chop for the production. “It was all for the best so I could take advantage of the entire range of non-mullet parts available to me on stage,”  Paterson said. “Even though I'm going to look like any other regular, fat, bald guy without it.” Perhaps. But Paterson has come a long way. Prior to making mirth as a comedian, he started out as a pin-setter at a local bowling alley – where legend has it that he took a few too many errant bowling balls to the cranium. Later, he tried to earn his daily bread and beer as a wrestler, but spent much of that time pinned by his opposition on the mat. He has fared better as a wit, particularly after being nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award as best male stand-up and being showcased on his own Comedy Now! special on CTV and the Comedy Network.  Paterson, a graduate of Dawson College's famed DOME theatre program, does have an impressive set of pipes and is also part of the lip-sync combo Never Surrender and the musical duo Dan-d-Lyons. He has also distinguished himself the tube in the CBC kiddie series Edible Incredible and the more grown-up CBC series 18 to Life. Plus, he writes and directs raucous street videos, and he has shilled for Brault and Martineau, Hydro-Québec and – how can we forget? – Jig-a-Loo. Renaissance dude, or what? Call 514-398-9661.

The Works stays open Sunday for BOOM! (Best of Open Mic), pitting seven of the past month's best open-micers duking it out for a weekend spot at the club. As a bonus, show is hosted by ex-international war-crimes prosecutor Jess Salomon and also features Paterson as well as his Guys and Dolls co-star, the ever-hirsute Massimo. This will be the last BOOM! until 2013. Tickets are $7. Call 514-398-9661.

Tuesdays are no longer a comic void in town. Check out the action at Grumpy's (1242 Bishop St.) with its weekly Drop the Gloves Open Mic. Action begins at 10:30 p.m., but those aspiring to take a shot at the mic should show up at 9 p.m. to sign up. The lineup may change from week to week with a slew of newbie and established wits, but hosts remain the same: the indefatigable Walter Lyng and the effervescent Bianca Yates. Admission is free, and, even better, 4-buck brews are available.

Alan Park is a Just for Laughs vet who had his own Comedy Network special. The Torontonian is edgy, whether ruminating on Big Foot – he hopes someone will catch the critter, so he can taste it – or vibrators – “women who use them give birth to kids who stutter.”  He was recently informed that yawning is considered to be a sexual come-on in certain societies – “although I prefer to wait until my wife is asleep.” Park flies into the  Comedy Nest (2313 Ste. Catherine St. W.), Thursday to Saturday. Call 514-932-6378.

The Comedy Nest Presents series returns Friday at 10:30 p.m. This is the series that allows the comic to perform as well as to program the show by picking the other wits to unwind on stage with them. This week's attraction is the enormously unwell Darren Henwood, a Scot who has somehow found his way into the Montreal urban sprawl. He lives to shock as well as to titillate and will no doubt amuse with tales about his adjustment to culture in this town.  Also on the bill, of his choosing, are the musical comedy team of Aural Turpitude plus Jason Hatrick, Kara Crabb, Nour Hadidi, Dana Lavoie and the inimitable Genius Gold. Admission is $10; $6 for students. Call 514-932-6378.

bbrownstein@montrealgazette.com

Twitter: @billbrownstein