A Cut Above

If you didn’t make it down to Kits Pub last night for Daryl Makk’s Comedy Detour, shame on you.  You missed an amazing show.  We laughed from start to finish.  And not just ha-ha laughs, they were big belly laughs.  In fact, I laughed so much my cheeks hurt, my tummy hurt and I hoped that the baby wasn’t getting jiggled around too much from all the activity.

Amy Trofimuk was the MC last night and my one gripe with her is that she didn’t know how to say either of the other two performer’s names.  I don’t know if it matters to them or not, but I know I get upset when someone mispronounces my name – and I’m not even trying to be remembered.  Granted, they aren’t the easiest names in the world to say but a conscientious person would learn who they are introducing and be as professional as possible.  Her material was good though and she did a decent job of keeping the show moving along.  It started very close to the posted time (thanks Daryl!) and we were out of there by 9:45 which is awesome when you have to drive all the way across the city to get home.  Here’s a little snap I took of Amy:

Donovan “Double D” Deschner was the middle act and after seeing him with his prescription haircut last night I realized I don’t see him enough.  What a polished young man he is.  His set was clean (for the most part), clever (always appreciated) and had the audience in stitches from the time he took to the stage.  I happened to overhear two women talking in the bathroom after the show and they were saying how much they enjoyed Donovan’s set.  I concur wholeheartedly.

And then came up the main attraction – Derick Lengwenus.  I didn’t write about the last time I saw Derick because the last time I saw him we were sitting at The Comedy Cave with a table full of cokeheads beside us and they were so distracting we didn’t get to see the full show.  Well last night totally made up for it.  The crowd was so attentive, there were no drunk hecklers and nothing to get in the way of our enjoyment.

What impressed me greatly about Derick was the first half of his set was all new material (new to me anyway).  I’ve seen many touring headliners even after a year that are still doing the exact same material.  Not Derick.  Even some of his jokes I’ve heard before have been tweaked, were introduced differently and had an overall fresh appeal to them.   Derick certainly isn’t afraid to poke fun at himself and I particularly enjoyed his bit about Pirate Sex towards the end.  It was great to see him again, and I think that the venue suited him tremendously. 

Derick has some great facial expressions during his show and it was really hard to pick just one shot – this one is a little out of focus but was my favourite one:

On the way home from the show, Tim and I were talking about how that was one of the best shows we’ve been to in a long long time.  And then he said Derick and Donovan were a cut above.  Most definitely.

And then Monday sees the long awaited return of Comedy Monday Night.  It is a benefit to raise money for Inn From The Cold – get out to Broken City for 8:00 on Monday night.  The last benefit was amazing and I’m hoping that the comedy community in Calgary will make this one just as successful.

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