Cathartic Laughs

Comedy, Events & Workshops by Em Cooper

CHECK OUT UPCOMING SHOWS!

Spring is coming in Vancouver. With it the slow emergence from hibernation-mode and (hopefully) the integration or implementation of some of the things we've been learning over the winter...

CLOWN COLLEGE

I took my first full clown workshop recently with Deanna Fleysher. It was amazing. While my partner jokes that I was attending clown college, it felt more like learning how to drive a car...where someone explains where to put your hands on the steering wheel, where to focus your eyes on the road and when to shoulder check. These are all things that you will do automatically once you learn, but it feels very mechanical when you have to think to do it.

I recently tried Gelli printmaking with my mother and brother. It's a new process to all of us. You roll the paint on the soft, jelly plate and use stencils and other techniques to pull a print with acrylic paint. My mom has always made sure that we had access to learn the arts, but has never felt comfortable playing in them herself. Watching her second-guess herself while applying the paint and going through the other mechanical steps of the process, then slowly warm up to the idea of experimentation was very relatable. We are all struggling with some version of, 'Is what I am doing even right?' that in the act of creation.

In the clown workshop, going back to the basics of how to breath, hold myself and connect with the audience was really valuable and hard work. I am looking forward to hosting The Am I The Asshole Game in character as Mossford L. Putnam, to see if I can remember these things while performing. I guess it will be like a little comedy road test.

Comedy, particularly stand-up, can feel like a solo pursuit so getting to play in a group with all the lovely people who attended that workshop reminded me of the joy that comes from discovering silliness with other people.

MAKING THE REVOLUTION IRRESISTIBLE

The news has been hard to process lately. I find that taking some sort of direct action, ideally with other community members, is the way to help process the fuckery out there. To that end, there is a free Virtual Training opportunity from the folks at Beautiful Trouble.

This training is designed for folks in the arts (broadly defined) to use their skills to work to create movements for social change. Having worked with Shit Harper Did and having hosted the comedy show Rape is Real & Everywhere before #metoo exploded, I can tell you that combining your artistic strengths with a social message can be a really powerful way to bring people into awareness and participation. As artists, we often practice ways to skip people's thinking, and go straight for the feeling. It's an incredibly important skillset in the ol' culture wars.

The Beautiful Trouble folks are the real deal. Their book (and website) are amazing resources/documentation of creative direct actions that have happened all over the world. Super helpful and inspiring to see what other folks are getting up to to resist creatively.

I'm really curious about this training and think it will be really cool! I am hoping to tune in unless work interferes. Maybe see you there?

Details: March 18th at 4pm PST (7pm EST)

​SIGN UP HERE​

UPCOMING SHOWS

I'm massively excited for the lineup of the next Am I The Asshole Game on Friday March 13th at Little Mountain Gallery.

The cast for this show is unbelievable. An-Te Chu has a hilarious story where he might have been an asshole and Christine Bortolin, Karla Monterrosa and Emmett Hall will all play characters giving him questionable advice in a Dating Game style format. Ultimately the audience decides if An-Te is a jerk but in the meantime we will all get to bask in the creative cacophony that will unfold on stage.

These folks have made me laugh so. very. hard. as individuals, and I am so curious to see what happens when they get to play off of each other's unique energies. I'm anticipating a bit of magic.

GRAB TIX HERE

Details

Friday March 13th, 7pm-8:15pm
Little Mountain Gallery, 110 Water St, Gastown
$17.96
Special Newsletter Online Discount Code: 75AITAH

Go to the ticket link, proceed through checkout, at the end there is a place to enter the discount code. Put in the above code for %75 off ticket. Code not valid at the door.

That's all for this month. Hope you enjoy a laugh, write a joke or maybe start a revolution. (Putting down social media and reaching out to a friend counts as a revolution.)

Take care,

Em Cooper (they/them)