Learning how art works: Jessica Mensch
James Irwin totally cheats on his writing assignment and asks a friend for help reviewing Jessica Mensch’s new mixed-media show, “The Fuzz.”
Review: Andrew Hood’s ‘The Cloaca’
Andrew Hood’s narrators are cloaked versions of this bottomless well of his own imaginative, sour voice. And it’s the voice that’s on display at every turn. The Cloaca is his second collection of short stories, out via Invisible Publishing, based in Halifax, Hood’s newly adopted home.
New Theatre Company Raises The Stakes
Dawson grads, represent. Montreal has a new independent theatre company. After honing their chops in Dawson College’s theatre school, a group of recent and soon-to-be graduates have lit out on their own. Raise The Stakes Theatre is set to mount its first production this Wednesday and Thursday at Théâtre Ste-Catherine.
Review: The Alternative Show
Andy Kindler, meta-comedian, makes the perfect host. Watching him interject between comics with jokes about jokes, he emits just enough self-effacing humility that you feel (temporarily) that everyone else on the bill is more important, giving the sense that he’s the Billy Crystal of Just For Laughs. A little background check proves it’s true. As well as hosting the Alternative Show, he also delivers the festival’s annual State of the Industry Address, for which he’s legendary. But while he rightfully concedes audience attention to the featured comics, he’s much of the reason people came in the first place. Perfect.