Hey all,

Hope you are good wherever you are. Here in Vancouver it has been hard raining for a bit. I have to do laundry urgently because all of my pants have little skunk stripe spatters up the back from soggy bike rides to comedy shows. Which is a good problem to have really.

Last night I helped out behind the scenes at GutterClown Cabaret, created by the deeply dedicated and talented Priscilla Costa. While many folks are having a hard time building an audience, Priscilla has a packed house every time for her cabaret of weird and wonderful solo and duo clown performances (with a little burlesque, standup and solo sketch thrown in for good measure).

I think what Priscilla has created and tapped into is not just a show, but an event that is the focal point of the boundary-pushing clown community. She teaches classes on how to get connected to your clown character and feel what should happen next in your body, she generously gives feedback and encourages performances to have a structure while pushing things as far as they can go and she truly lives and breathes clowning and brings an embodied performance every time she takes the stage.

I have had a feeling going out to shows in Vancouver, that people are 'back' from the pandemic, but that there is some sense of community that I felt before in comedy that I am still grasping to retrieve now. Since so much about modern life encourages isolation (hustle culture, hyper independence, always on our phones) I believe I am not the only one craving a sense of community.

It's neat to see someone who figured out how to build connection and community, patiently and with a lot of hard work. It's nice to know it can be done. The next GutterClown Cabaret is January 31st at The Revue Stage on Granville Island and you can follow Priscilla on Instagram @priscillaclown for updates.

Upcoming Shows (Vancouver)

Speaking of shows, the next Am I The Asshole Show is this Friday November 14th at 7pm at Little Mountain Gallery in Gastown.

Tickets can be found here.

Fringe artist TJ Dawe is sharing a story and Allie Entwistle, Georgia Irwin and Rae Carson are in character. Trust me, these are all phenomenal performers.

💚 Life is pricey these days, so if the cost of the ticket is providing hesitation, here is a discount code for 50% off the $17.94 ticket price at checkout. Use code: 50AITAH

💚 If there is no cash in your pockets there are a limited number of free tickets available using code: AITAHfree. You must arrive by 6:45pm as we cannot hold free seats in the event we sell out.

I hope you had some decent moments this week and if you had some bad times, I hope you jotted down a joke about it and I hope you share that half baked thought with a friend.

Cheerio,

Em

--