‘““My Visit to Second City”

by Stacy Dunn

Last Saturday night, November 16,I went to see the comedy of Toronto’s Second City at the Confedera- tion Centre of the Arts. This troupe of five performers,three males and two females,and a pianist delivered many interesting quick scenes to warm the audience up at the beginning of the show. One quick scene involved four gang members dancing and sing- ing around their victim. While the gang members were occupied with their West Side Story bit,the victim left unnoticed. During the middle of the show, one player of the troupe asked a girl in the front row what she studied at school,where she worked,and what she would like to do if money was no object.After she had told this guy that she studied business, worked ina restaurant,and would like to travel,the whole troupe sang about her. A few scenes dealt withsex.Inone . scene,a psychologist played word association with a patient. He would say ‘““house’’ and the patient would say ‘‘sex’’.The patient would say ““sex’’ to anything the psychologist said,but when the psychologist said ‘‘vagina’’ the patient said Saskatchewan. At the end of the show,the troupe did some improvising. This part of the performance was my favorite because they asked the audience for suggestions for their scenes. For example,they wanted a period of time and an object. The 18th century and a toilet were given,and the scene turned out to be about a queen and her lover arguing over the porcelain object. Y ou had to be there for this scene because it was too crazy to describe. All the improvisations were weird,but the crowd wanted more.Seeing Second City,!I wished that I could do those scenes,and if you ever get the chance to see Second City,maybe you will like to do that stuff.

singers this was well carried. Thebanddiddoa ==

Picture this (if you can): a band singing INNU rock © music to a French/English audience in a constrained formal setting. This highly unlikelycombination occured simutaneously in our little town recently when KASHTIN appeared at the main stage of the confederation center...andIT WORKED!!!

This five man band rocked and swooned its audience © with lyrics nobody understood, but with music every- body seemed to relate to. Songs sung in Innu were done as lullabies, ballads, and rock tunes. At one time during the performance the whole audience was danc- ing (remember we are speaking of that big red room that is just not conducive to informal behavior).

Thankfully for all the ‘‘anglos only’’ KASHTIN didé medley of Beatles tunes, including ‘“Give PeaceA — Chance’’. With the powerful voices of the two main — number using the only traditional instrument ofthe ~ Innu people: atype of drum. Itistoo bad Kashtin — played yonly one token song as this instrument gave an incredibly powerful tempo to the tune and enriche¢} the overall performance. That small gripe aside, this | group is doing the important work of helping to | bridge the gap between native peoples and main-

stream society...and doing one memorable job of it. |

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UPEI X-P RESS|

November 21, 1991

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