Sylvie Hill

The Ottawa XPress – June 9, 2005

[UPDATE! Pete makes a cameo appearance in the 2005 movie, Greg et Gentillon about two comediens from Aylmer who go to Toronto to make the bigtime, only to have one of the duo join the famous loud rock band, Maximum RnR !]

Taking his inspiration from heavy metal, stand-up comic Pete Zedlacher tells XPress, “I’ve seen Metallica seven times and I always leave, like, exhausted and my voice is raw from singing all the lyrics. That’s how I want my audience to leave; just exhausted afterwards with their stomachs sore and their voices raw from laughing so hard.”

Yuk Yuk’s and Absolute Comedy dole out the summer laughs

Zedlacher is all about fun and gags – and beyond signing boobs and performing about 25 shows a month, he’s also provided tour-of-duty entertainment for Canadian troops in Afghanistan. See him at Yuk Yuk’s between June 9 and 11 (88 Albert Street, 236-5233) but for a preview, visit his site at www.zedlacher.com.

Next up at Yuk Yuk’s is Terry McGurrin (June 16-18), known for his tell-it-like-it-is humour on stage and in his CTV series, Comedy Inc. Also straight off TV is Stewart Francis (June 23-25). A favourite in the U.K., and a former guest on Craig Ferguson’s The Late Late Show on CBS, Francis’ gags are described by one Scottish critic as “razored-down one-liners with disarming set-ups lurching into twisted and bitter pay-offs, drier than a Manhattan martini.”

Need more laughs? Just a month away, and advanced tickets are going fast for Laugh out Proud, the funniest and best of Canada’s gay and lesbian comedians, July 7 to 10 at Yuk Yuk’s, starring Martha Chaves, Richard Ryder, Trevor Boris, Ted Morris and Heidi Foss.

Toronto’s Chaves was born and raised in Nicaragua during the tumultuous years of the Sandinista revolution and her comedy is nothing short of explosive. Richard Ryder will then bitchslap the audience, leaving them begging for more. And don’t miss the 26-year-old crowd-pleaser Trevor Boris – a fast-paced, hip, and edgy comedian bringing pink humour to the masses with a ‘Get on board or get out!’ style.

Hot on their heels at Laugh out Proud are Ted Morris and Heidi Foss. Foss is a two-time Canadian Comedy Award nominee for best female stand-up in Canada who has written for the CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

XXX

It’s Italian Week at Absolute Comedy Club (412 Preston Street, 233-8000) and that means busy Preston Street will get even crazier than on most weekends. It all starts off with Tony Vendetti June 9 to 11. Performing since 1986, funnyman Vendetti is known for his razzamatazz style. “When I do comedy, I’m 100 per cent energy,” he says from his home in the Italian community of Thorold, Ontario. “I’m Italian and I’m just being me.” There are a lot of funny things that go in to being him. Expect some great storytelling from this guy.

Also at Absolute Comedy, June 16-18 will be killer nights featuring The Doo Wops and Vic Lippucci, and then it’s addio Italy and hello to Maritime comics The Boys From the Shore (June 22 to 25) featuring Darryl Purvis, Jay Malone and Mark Ferrell.

Rather than typical Maritime humour (according to Purvis, just “a bunch of fishermen jokes, which drives us nuts”) this laid-back former class clown and his partners have taken a different route. His first words ever on stage: “So my penis fell off, let me explain.”

“It’s a joke about how bad I am with women,” he says, and explains it’s about how Toronto women have emasculated him and his mates. When XPress asked what’s the problem, he said it has a lot to do with being transplanted from Antigonish to the Big Smoke. “There’s a lot of them! When you come from a town of 5,000 and you grew up with all 20 of the women, it’s a little overwhelming to walk down the street.”

And finally, celebrate Canada’s birthday June 30 to July 2 with homegrown comedy at Absolute Comedy featuring Sugar Sammy and Mark Bennet.

– Sylvie Hill