In a world growing more divisive by the minute, blessed are the mirth makers.
Yes, we could all benefit from a good laugh right about now and, once again, improv comedy will deliver, this time in the form of “Impros All-Pros” on Friday, February 21 at the Gordon Best Theatre on Hunter Street West in downtown Peterborough.
Presented by klusterfork entertainment and sponsored in part by kawarthaNOW, the show’s first half will see local improv comedy artists Meg Murphy, Jennine Profeta, and Janet Van De Graaf joined by longtime improv comedy quartet The Coincidence Men.
After the break, Coincidence Men members Kerry Griffin, Gord Oxley, Marcel St. Pierre, and Ralph MacLeod will prove that their being held in high regard on the crowded Toronto improv comedy circuit is more than justified.
Tickets to the 8 p.m. show cost $20 in advance at www.klusterfork.com and, if available, at the door.
“We need a distraction right now, if nothing else,” says Griffin, an actor, director, improviser, and multiple Canadian Comedy Award winner who relocated from Toronto to Peterborough in 2021.
“I was working at Second City in 2016, directing a show, when a certain (U.S.) president got elected. We were trying to be topical and satirical and all that, but it reached a point where it was hard to satirize reality when reality is so absurd. How do you make fun of something that’s so gonzo?”
“We don’t strive to do anything political or topical,” Griffin says of The Coincidence Men. “We just want to get on stage and have fun, and be a little silly. Unless you’re doing something directly satirical, like The Daily Show or something where you’ve got to attack those issues, I’m a fan of comedy for the sake of comedy, and for a release and a distraction. Let’s forget about all the crap that’s so serious and frustrating and have some fun.”
Each member of The Coincidence Men has indeed had fun since they first performed under that name at the Social Capital Theatre in east-end Toronto. The quartet continues to headline its monthly Stupid Good Comedy Show at the same venue.
“We came up in the improv and sketch comedy scene in Toronto around the same time in the nineties,” says Griffin. “We all kind of knew of each other. We would see each other at shows and occasionally work together on various things.”
“At some point, roughly 2011, we did a show together at the Social Capital Theatre and we had a wonderful time. Everything clicked. We were on the same page and making each other laugh, and making the audience laugh. We were like ‘This is great. Let’s play more with each other.'”
The act’s name, notes Griffin, grew out of “something that happened onstage that somebody later termed a coincidence. Somebody said ‘Yeah, well, that’s us … the coincidence men.’ We thought ‘That’s a fun name. Let’s do it.'”
“We’re all of a similar age. We’re all nerds for not only improv but various pop culture things. Our brains are on the same wavelength. We all grew up with Monty Python and SCTV. We clicked and stuck together as a troupe.”
Each member of The Coincidence Men is an accomplished actor and comedy artist in his own right.
A founding member of the award-winning improv troupe Slap Happy as well as a Second City alumnus who has directed five revues for its stage, Griffin has appeared in more than 100 television and radio commercials as well as appeared in episodes of Schitt’s Creek, Covert Affairs, and Murdoch Mysteries. Locally, he has appeared regularly on stage at Globus Theatre in Bobcaygeon, and most recently starred alongside klusterfork co-founder Linda Kash in New Stages Theatre’s holiday production of A Christmas Carol Comedy.
VIDEO: The Stupid Good Comedy Show – The Coincidence Men (March 2022)
Oxley has performed in countless improv and sketch comedy shows in Toronto, and formed one-half of the Gemini Award-nominated comedy duo Fast & Dirty, while St. Pierre has performed across North America with Second City and Monkey Toast, and acted in episodes of Kids In The Hall, Air Farce, The Rick Mercer Report and Designated Survivor.
MacLeod, who co-founded Toronto’s Bad Dog Theatre Company with St. Pierre and co-owns The Social Capital Theatre, has produced, created, directed, starred in and/or written hundreds of live shows as well as appeared in YTV’s Extreme Babysitting and Undercover High.
As impressive as those credits are, the comedy magic really happens when the four come together to deliver on their declaration of “We Do Stupid Good.”
“We don’t use stupid as a pejorative or as a negative thing — this is a good kind of stupid,” says Griffin.
“We don’t always necessarily go for the smartest humour, although there is an element of that, but we are quite willing to have a stupid good time. That’s what we want to bring the audience into, saying ‘Let’s just have fun.’ We’re playing, you’re going to be part of the moment, and we’re going to have a stupid good time.”
“We enjoy being silly. We do try to go for some sort of grounded, relatable human experience kind of scenes but, inevitably, we delve into the absurd. Also, we’re all big fans, whether we want to admit it or not, of dad jokes and puns.”
Improv comedy, emphasizes Griffin, is a team sport — a marked difference from comedy of the stand-up variety. The Coincidence Men’s performance symmetry provides full evidence of that.
“If you try to make the other person look good, than we all look good,” says Griffin.
“Stand-up is very much a me-against-the-world kind of thing but, with improv, you have that team; you have that support and collaboration. The greatest things in improv happen when we surprise each other on stage. That’s the beauty of improv. It’s more than the sum of its parts. We get to places in improv we would never get to on our own.”
“It really is (about) being inspired by your fellow performer. That’s the joy of it. And the audience becomes part of that. Part of why improv is so great for the audience is they know they’re in on the creation of this thing living in this moment.”
Not lost on anyone, least of Griffin, is the fact that Peterborough has staked out a formidable place on the improv comedy landscape.
That’s due in no small way to the efforts of klusterfork entertainment, founded by Linda Kash and Pat Maitland with support from Ian Burns. Since its inception, it has provided improv comedy training and workshops as well as presented improv showcases, most of those also at the Gordon Best.
“The improv community in Peterborough is fairly small but, for a city of its size, it feels like it has grown during the short time I’ve been here,” says Griffin.
“Peterborough is a great little arts community. That’s one of the reasons I moved here. There is a growing improv community here. It’s a little bit of a mini hotbed and, if it continues doing what it’s done the last couple of years, I think it’s going to continue to grow.”
As for the Impros All-Pros show, Griffin says “Expect the unexpected — we’re going to have fun and it’s going to be a little crazy,” adding the comedic talents of Murphy, Profeta, and Van De Graaff will greatly up the merriment level.
“Our shows are typically 45 per cent riffing on the human relatable condition, 45 per cent absurd silliness, and 10 per cent dad jokes and puns, so there’ll be a little bit of everything.”
For information on The Coincidence Men, visit www.coincidencemen.com. For more information on klusterfork’s workshops and classes, visit www.klusterfork.com.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of klusterfork entertainment’s Impros All-Pros.
