May 26-31. 8pm, 9:30pm. $1-$6 each; $30 festival pass. Comedy Bar, 945b Bloor W. www.projectproject.ca.
Take one of the biggest and most buzz-making comedy troupes on the local scene and cram them into a tiny and not-entirely-legal room somewhere in Parkdale and you’ll get a feel for how ProjectProject has been living since last year.
The gang of improv-ers has since the fall put on weekly shows in a certain underground box of a room — picture the sort of place where the French Resistance would hide out — while its home-to-be was under construction.
The home, Comedy Bar, will finally open (in part) next week, just in time for ProjectProject to move in with its inaugural Combustion festival; a week-long showcase of ten acts including Vancouver’s !nstant Theatre, The Doug Dank Project from Atlanta and Halifax’s Picnicface, makers of multi-million hit YouTube video Powerthirst.
The festival is modeled after ProjectProject itself, says organizer Julie Dumais, in that it brings performers together while forcing them to work outside their comfort zones.
“The goal of ProjectProject is it’s never just about a good configuration of people, it’s about a good configuration of people trying something out,” she tells me, over raspberry smoothies on Queen Street West. PP is an extended family on par with those of certain cults and includes Dumais, Bob Banks, Adam Cawley and Mark Andrada in its core group, though they and the supporting cast overlap with acts like 10,000 to Flight, PB&J and The Sketchersons.
“The Combustion festival is mapping that on a larger scale. The idea is to present work... in a new context with new combinations and new chemistry with other artists.”
!nstant Theatre will be mashed up with Doug Dank on Thursday night, for instance, while on Tuesday performers will be matched randomly, and for the first time, for a “blind date” semi-formal set. Combustion also brings a rare display of improv animation, with performers doing voices while clips of Flash animation play out on the big screen, directed by Rene Dellefont.
“That’s a super fun one,” Dumais enthuses, noting there’s also a “more adult, but not in a mature way” cartoon set on the fest’s late-night schedule.
The festival will mark the soft opening of Comedy Bar, an ambitious new spot co-owned by Gary Rideout Jr. of The Sketchersons, who was nice enough to show me around the place last week.
Comedy Bar used to be an Eritrean restaurant, though after four months of reno the only thing left is a violently orange mural of a couple dancing by the seaside.
“I guess this is Eritrea,” he says, pointing at what will be the stage with a broom handle. Rideout and his partner decided to keep the mural though, sadly, they had to trash the restaurant’s hookah room to make space for the audio/video equipment.
Eleven days from opening it still needed work — the stage was a pile of loose lumber, the floors bare concrete — but Rideout is confident that despite the delays that half of the expansive, underground space will be ready in time for Combustion. So, the box office, stage, seating and the bar in other words.
The other half? With the writers lounge and studio space fit for webcasting? Check back closer to the Fringe, he says.