Well, it was a lovely evening as my husband Peter and I decided to go to the lovely Gladstone Hotel and see Monkey Toast in which our only son Kerry was performing along with several other fabulous improvisers whose names I can never remember. Peter and I don’t get out of the condo as much as we’d like to, other than to take the occasional cruise, so we were really looking forward to the show.  We got there early of course to get a good seat and Peter bought me a lite beer to sip during the festivities.  As a retired accountant, I made sure he tipped a proper amount.

The show began with that nice David Shore boy introducing the cast.  My Kerry looked handsome, although he could have taken more time to iron his shirt.  It was nice to see so many female performers as well; I remember the struggles for women’s rights so you go girls!  David seemed angry off the top of the show as he was ranting about bags of dog poop. It was quite funny, although I don’t think he needs to resort to talking about poop so much; he’s smarter than that.  He actually reminds me of a Jewish version of my son.

The first guest was a nice young comic named Harry Doupe.  He claimed responsibility for David’s mysterious bags of dog poop, which I thought was very smart and funny. As a former dog owner, I know of what they speak!  He also spoke about Marineland, which reminded me of some delightful trips Peter and I took with the kids when they were little.  And I disagree with Mr. Doupe—everyone DOES love Marineland!

The comedy that followed was truly inspired.  Apparently, the world was being taken over by gangs of dolphins with guns.  I have often been scared by the thought of all the violent gangs running roughshod over our fair city, so I thought this was a great metaphor and artistic statement on the state of our city streets in today’s world.  Although, I was a bit upset when one of the dolphins shot my son. Those performers are so good I almost thought he was really shot!

In another scene, one of the performers—I think his name is Paul—played an older man smoking a pipe.  At the end, it turned out it was a soap bubble pipe the whole time!  Oh, I giggled to myself thinking about that whole room being filled with bubbles instead of the horrible stink of pipe tobacco. Peter’s father used to smoke cigars and those smells never go away!

The second guest was a young man named Kevin Shea who used to run Global Television.  I don’t watch much of Global as I usually just put in a videotape of my British mystery shows.  My favourite is Miss Marple!  But Mr. Shea spoke eloquently about the tough business of Canadian television and the sorry state the Canadian industry is in because of a lack of proper funding.  The show took a serious turn here, which I thought was good and respectful.  The cast did some wonderful comedy about strange television stations, including one where it was all done through interpretive dance!  How they moved their bodies in those ways, I’ll never know! Ever since Peter and I had our hernia operations, we haven’t been able to move like that at all.

The last guest was the lovely Geri Hall from This Hour has 22 Minutes.  I do watch that show occasionally, although Peter prefers The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos.  She was lovely, and such a husky voice!  I hope it’s not from smoking—that’s bad for you.  She spoke of a wonderful joke she played on Stephen Harper.  I don’t like him so I was glad to laugh at his expense.

The cast did some wonderful scenes, including one about the Swine Flu and Stephen Harper (played wonderfully by my son).  It’s amazing to see those improvisers be so topical.  Why, they must read the paper every day!

They also had some hilarious laughs about places in Ontario where people live.  Every time someone mentioned Oakville or Owen Sound, I had to laugh out loud.  I know people from those places!

The show ended with a scene about a couple of religious people getting sexy in a church. It was quite risqué but by that time I had had a couple of lite beers, so I was into it!

Well, the delightful show ended and we applauded loudly for all the performers.  Peter and I had to leave right away, as it was close to 10pm by that time and much too late for us to be out.  As well I had to get up early the next day to complete work on my son’s taxes.  He needs to keep better records of things.

We chuckled to ourselves as Peter drove the station wagon back home to Etobicoke.  That’s a funny place too, but maybe not as funny as Oakville though!