Monkey Toast: The Improvised Talk Show will be going Global in 2012!  Not only will a UK version of the show be starting in London, but the original Toronto show will be re-launching with a brand new host.  More details to come.

Second City Mainstage alumnus and two-time Canadian Comedy Award winner, David Shore, has recently relocated to the UK.  David will perform The One-Man Harold over two nights in London.  The shows will take place at The Hen & Chickens Theatre on Tuesday 5 July (7:30pm) and Monday 18 July (9:30pm). Tickets are £7.

Developed by Del Close at the I.O. Theatre in Chicago, The Harold is the most commonly known type of long-form improvisation.  From an audience suggestion, a Harold team consisting of five to ten people performs an opening that inspires a series of scenes and group games.  As The Harold progresses, characters from different scenes begin to interact and story lines start to come together.

The Harold was designed to be performed by a minimum of five people.  David Shore will perform it completely alone.  He will play every character in every scene and group game.  David was the first person to perform The One-Man Harold in Canada, and will be the first to perform it in the UK.

The One-Man Harold

Starring David Shore

Directed by Rich Fulcher

Music by Christopher Ash & Dylan Emery

The Hen & Chicken Theatre

109 St. Pauls Road, London, N1 2NA

Tuesday, 5 July (7:30pm) & Monday, 18 July (9:30pm)

£7 plus £1.50 membership fee

For advanced tickets click here.

Monkey Toast returns to the Comedy Bar for one night only, on April 16th, 2011.  We’ll be joined by special guests, musical comedian, Mae Martin, from CTV’s Dan For Mayor, Paul Bates, and from Maclean’s Magazine, Andrew Coyne!!

This show’s improvisers: Lisa Merchant, Jan Caruana, Paul Constable, Sandy Jobin-Bevans, Jennifer Goodhue and Kerry Girffin.
Music by Jamie Lamb.
Hosted by David Shore.
Saturday, April 16th.
Doors: 7:30pm
Show: 8pm
$10
The Comedy Bar
945 Bloor Street West
www.monkeytoast.com

For advanced tickets call 647-898-5324 or click here.

Hope to see you there!!

Monkey Toast has just been nominated for three 2010 Canadian Comedy Awards!  Along with receiving our seventh nomination for Best Improv Troupe (in seven years), Jan Caruana has been nominated for Best Female Improviser (she won the award in 2009), and Sandy Jobin-Bevans has been nominated for Best Male Improviser.

Also, Monkey Toast Players’ Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus were nominated for Best Male and Female Improviser respectively, from their show, The Carnegie Hall Show, which was also nominated for Best Improv Troupe.  Paul Bates was nominated for Best Performance by an Ensemble (Television) for Dan For Mayor, and Sandy Jobin-Bevans was nominated in the same category for his role on Hotbox.  And lastly, but not leastly, Colin Mochrie is nominated for Canadian Comedy Person of the Year.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

After seven years, seven venues and six Canadian Comedy Awards, Monkey Toast came to an end in Toronto with two sold out shows on Saturday, May 1st.

The Comedy Bar was packed and there was a feeling that tonight would be special.  Unlike regular Monkey Toast shows, tonight’s shows had only one guest booked for each (Comedians Andy Boorman, and Nathan Macintosh), the rest of the night’s guests would be randomly drawn from the audience and The Monkey Toast Players.

Many in the crowd bought tickets for both shows and they would not be disappointed.  The first show’s cast was Paul Constable, Naomi Snieckus, Scott Montgomery, Jennifer Goodhue, Albert Howel and Jim Annan.  Music Director, Jamie Lamb, who started the show with me seven years ago, was the accompanist for both shows.

Comedian Andy Boorman got things going, and he was quickly followed our first randomly drawn guest from the audience… Whose name I can’t remember, but I do remember that he’s originally from Gananoque, and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember or correctly pronounce the town’s name on the show.  I believe I even called it Bangkok at one point.

Our next guest was Monkey Toast Player, Aurora Browne, who was eight months pregnant and thus unable to perform.

Our next random guest from the audience provided the first surprise of the night, as the lucky audience member was none other than former CTV weatherman, and star of the 1970’s classic, Canadian sci-fi series, The Starlost, Robin Ward!  Albert Howell and I both freaked out, because we’re old sci-fi nerds and watched the show as children.

Robin Ward was a gracious guest and told us about all the problems they had in the making in The Starlost.  I was taken aback by the fact that I used to watch this man on TV when I was eight years old and he now looks younger than I do!  The interview lead to a hilarious and very accurate scene about The Starlost, that most of the audience didn’t get, as they weren’t geeks like Albert and me.

Below is a cast photo from The Starlost.  See if you can figure out which one is Robin.  Here’s a hint, he’s the one that looks like Robin.

The crowd went nuts as our next guest was Monkey Toast Player, Jan Caruana.

We talked about Jan’s Maltese background which lead to a Maltese Falconesque scene where Albert Howell’s character kept spitting when he spoke.

Next up was a cancer doctor/researcher who was originally from Boston.

After the interview, I was puzzled by the scene that Albert and Scott were doing as it made no sense.  But then our next big surprise of the night happened…

 …as Toronto Mayor David Miller, lept onto the stage.  I was in complete shock!

OK, this photo was from earlier in the show, but I had no idea the Mayor would be showing up let alone jumping out from  backstage.  I had been trying for weeks to get the Mayor back as a guest for one of our final shows, but was told that he was all booked up.  Special thanks to Don Wanagas in the Mayor’s office, and Lisa Merchant for making this happen.  The Mayor, as always, was a good sport and sat down for an interview after gracing the stage.

The first show was over, and we’d only run about 45 minutes long (maybe an hour).  I only cried about three times and it was now time to get ready for the LAST MONKEY TOAST.

What a crazy last night at the Gladstone!  Comedian Ron Sparks began the night by bending time.  Given only 5 minutes for his 7 minutes of new material, Ron forced it all to fit into only 9 minutes!

Next up, professional mascot, Markwell Ottolino-Perry, who is the mascot of a certain baseball team in town (but we’re not allowed to say which) refused to reveal the mascot secret of which part of the costume they actually see out of.

This led to the discovery that Monkey Toast Player, Matt Baram, has quick-change pants, which he made good use of by revealing his bare bottom to the audience.  Not to be outdone, Paul Bates, revealed his aqua-marine underwear.  There’s proof to it all somewhere on Facebook.

Lastly but not leastly (is that even a word?), friend of the show Dave Bidini told us how he’s going to the upcoming Vancouver Olympics to check out the party, not the sports.  That lead to a scene with Matt and Aurora Browne as broadcasters from the Olympics.  Due to a problem with the stage, Matt’s chair, fell into the stage as he sat down.  Luckily he wasn’t hurt, but Aurora laughed so hard that she almost gave birth (literally, she’s like 5 months pregnant).

All and all, a very memorable show to end our time at the Gladstone Hotel.  Hope to see you all at our new home, the Comedy Bar.

Monkey Toast rang in the new year a little late, on January 17th, but what a show it was!  We learned from comedian Ron Tite, that if an airline loses your bags, start a Facebook group to get them back.  Best Health editor, Bonnie Munday, taught us that parabens really aren’t that bad and conspiracy expert, Richard Syrett, taught us that Hitler was the fifth Beatle.  John, Paul, George, Ringo and Hitler.  Who would have guessed?

Dear Friends,

It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that Monkey Toast will be ending its run in the spring, as I will be moving to the UK.   I have loved performing Monkey Toast here in Toronto.  I can’t thank you, our audience, enough for being a part of something that’s very special to the cast and myself.

We will wrap-up Monkey Toast’s seven-year run in Toronto with 10 final shows:  two at the Gladstone Hotel in January, and then the remaining shows on Saturday nights at The Comedy Bar, where we will be moving to at the beginning in February.  We will end with two final shows on Saturday May 1st at 8pm and 10pm.

I hope that you will come out to our final series of shows.  They wouldn’t be the same without you.

Below is a list of our final show dates.

At the Gladstone Hotel on Sunday nights, 8pm, $10:
January 17 & 31

At the Comedy Bar on Saturday nights, 8pm, $10:
Feb 13 & 27
March 13 & 27
April 10 & 24
May 1 (8pm & 10pm)

Tickets for the shows at the Gladstone are available at the door.  For the Comedy Bar, advanced tickets can be purchased via their website (beginning on Tuesday), http://www.comedybar.ca, or by calling the box office at 647.898.5324 or at the door the night of the show.

I sincerely thank you for your continued support,

David Shore
Producer/Host
Monkey Toast
“…the best comedy deal in town.” - Now Magazine
www.monkeytoast.com

We had a great time at the 10th annual Canadian Comedy Awards in Saint John, New Brunswick this past weekend, and we took home two awards to boot!

Congratulations to Jan Caruana for winning Best Female Improviser, and to Kerry Giffin for winning Best Male Improviser!!  This is Jan’s first time winning the award and Kerry’s second.

Over the past six years, Monkey Toast has been nominated for 17 Canadian Comedy Awards winning 6 times!

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.  Hope to see you all at next years awards!

In March, This Is Not A Reading Series asked us to perform at the launch for Jonathan Goldstein’s new book, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!  The event took place at the Rivoli and the beyond capacity crowd was filled with fans of Goldstein’s CBC Radio show, Wire Tap.

Jonathan and David really hit it off.  Who knew that two neurotic Jews would get along so well? 

Thanks to Chris at TINARS and the good people at Penguin books for putting this event together.