Living the Dream
When it’s going well, being a professional performer is the most fabulous job ever. I am having the best time (see the cheesy grin, left). It all happened so fast. I hadn’t had a job in six months and suddenly I landed a theatre job with Summerworks out of the blue. Just after rehearsals began I had a tv audition for “Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures” which I nailed (thanks to casting director Deirdre Bowen’s stellar direction) and got the part. So now I’m...
Read MoreTesting your material really does rock!
Pelayo Matute – a real mentsh! Back in July of last year I wrote a post about how testing your material in front of others is imperative. Well last night I had a concrete example of why it works! At my friend Inge’s last artists’ salon I decided to try out some material for a gig I was doing with Dawn Whitwell the next night. I ran my set and everyone gave me their thoughts. There were many helpful notes, but the most useful came from my friend Pelayo who suggested some...
Read MoreHaving a Blast at Absolute Comedy
Last night I did my set in a real comedy club for the first time. Absolute Comedy at Yonge and Eglinton in Toronto is a lovely room to play. With a paying audience, great food and unobtrusive table service, this is a pretty classy joint. On a Wednesday night the audience knows that there are new comics on the bill and they are ready to laugh and refrain from heckling (although there was quite a chatty bird in the front row – she was clearly having a ball and joined in throughout the...
Read MoreMarilla who?
I am a British-born actress and stand-up comic who does lots of voice work (for commercials, cartoons and corporate clients) and sometimes, when I'm very lucky, tv and film. When I was in England I did mostly theatre. Now I'm in Canada I spend the majority of the time writing and performing stand-up. When I'm not making episodes of Talking Bollocks, that is. And that's me for you.