Archive for the 'Q&A' Category

Emmett Hall

By Jeff Lawrence
February 8th, 2012

Filed under: Comedy, News, Q&A, Web Exclusive

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Emmett Hall is some­thing of a com­edy over­achiever. He is one half of heavy metal band Knights of the Night, per­forms with the Sun­day Ser­vice and is fea­tured on their monthly pod­cast (A Beau­ti­ful Pod­cast), and still finds time to hang out with Sad Mag when he’s not illus­trat­ing My Lit­tle Pony. You’ve prob­a­bly seen him all over town, but tomor­row night you can see him on the mag­nif­i­cent Cobalt stage. Read on!

Jeff Lawrence: Tell me a bit about your­self and what you do when you’re not being funny. Or are you always funny?

Emmett Hall: I am a British Columbian by birth who’s been work­ing in the ani­ma­tion indus­try for about 8 years. Cur­rently sto­ry­board­ing on My Lit­tle Pony. My face is crooked, so I am always funny.

JL: I heard you are in a band called “Knights of the Night” where you play metal dressed as actual knights. Discuss.

EH: Come­dian Ken Law­son and I real­ized we had a mutual love for heavy metal. Ken’s an extremely accom­plished gui­tar player and I can fake my way through the bass and sing. We fig­ured we could con­vince peo­ple to watch us play metal so long as we mince about in a joc­u­lar fash­ion. It’s tricky because we want to stay true to the glory of the music itself, but never stop tak­ing the piss out the bom­bas­tic chival­rous per­sonae blast­ing it out.  Our armour con­sists of long –johns and altered dresses.

JL: What do you like about doing comedy?

EH: I like that I can invent con­texts that are com­pletely unac­cept­able and inco­her­ent in any other form of expres­sion.  Com­edy is also a very enter­tain­ing way exercise/exorcise my per­sonal con­fu­sion and ego.
And most impor­tantly, in the end times…when there’s noth­ing left, there will still be some­thing funny.

JL: What do you dis­like about it?

EH: The lack of sat­is­fac­tion in per­form­ing, I guess. When peo­ple laugh at some­thing I do, then I set­tle on the objec­tive that that was merely the intended response. Gen­er­ally noth­ing more. When I bomb, the weight of the all the work and effort I put in top­ples down in the wake of humil­i­a­tion I sub­jected myself to.
How dra­matic! Non­tended response [sic]!

JL: What kind of humour do you find the funniest?

EH: Mine. Done prop­erly. So not by me.

JL: On a scale of 1–10, where do you place your feel­ings on Valentine’s Day and why?

EH: I’d give it a 2 because Valentine’s Day is so important.

Sad Mag Com­edy Show: Valen­tine Edition

Feb­ru­ary 9th

The Cobalt (917 Main Street)

Doors at 8:00PM, Show at 9:00PM

$10 cover, includes a 1-year Sad Mag sub­scrip­tion and dance party admis­sion

RSVP on Face­book

Caitlin Howden

By Michelle Reid
February 6th, 2012

Filed under: Comedy, News, Q&A, Web Exclusive

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We could not be more delighted that Sad Com­edy: Valen­tine Edi­tion will be hosted by the lovely Caitlin How­den. Orig­i­nally from Mon­treal and trained in the­atre at Ryer­son in Toronto, she has a very long list of awards for being funny and also has a pretty amaz­ing worst-show story. Read on!

Sad Mag: Who is Caitlin Howden?

Caitlin How­den: “OH, that’s me.” I emerge from the back of the room look­ing guilty and afraid.

“Why? What hap­pened? What did I do?” I put away my cell phone, which I was using for one of my many fake phone calls I have to look less awk­ward in my own body. “Did I block any­one in? You’re not going to make me to a hand­stand, are you?”

SM: How did you end up in Van­cou­ver? / What do you miss about Montreal?

CH: I spent 9 years in Toronto and I fell in love with it. I a very proud Mon­treal native, because it makes me feel just a bit cooler. I go back to both cities quite often. But I had never been to Van­cou­ver. Every­one was talk­ing about how boom­ing the film and TV scene was out here. In Toronto, there are com­mer­cials and Cana­dian TV a-plenty, so I thought I would try my hand out here. Turns out as soon as I moved out here things just dried up. The US started offer­ing the same tax cred­its that made Van­cou­ver so allur­ing to US work. So here I am! Ah, but don’t feel so bad for me. Come on, stop cry­ing. There is a happy end­ing, I have also fallen in love with Van­cou­ver. I love my Cana­dian cities like I love my men; hard to reach and in threes. (improv joke)

SM: What was your first stage performance?

CH: I played Aun­tie Em in the Wiz­ard of Oz in grade 3. I thought I was play­ing Dorothy, because that was what my brain heard. Then we showed up for first day of rehearsal and I cried.

SM: What do you like about doing comedy?

CM: We make peo­ple laugh. And laugh­ter is good for you. And it’s what I’m good at. Some peo­ple are good at hav­ing sta­bil­ity, going for reg­u­lar check ups, pay­ing their taxes, or sleep­ing at night with­out full on panic attacks.  It takes all kinds, right?

SM: What do you dis­like about it?

CH: Please refer to what other peo­ple are good at in pre­vi­ous question.

SM: What was the worst show you’ve ever done?

CH: Prob­a­bly the one where I fell off the stage while wear­ing a dress into a table hold­ing three mar­gar­i­tas, a pitcher of beer, and a group of grown peo­ple who made a face I’ll never for­get. They reacted to me the same way I would react to an open-mouthed shark falling on my face.

I had to do the rest of the 2 hour show with bloody knees, smelling of beer, and the lady-hose I was wear­ing to con­ceal my “less than a man, more than I’d like” leg hair was so torn up I went bare-legged and fancy-free. I could hear peo­ple in the front row whis­per “Oh no, the blood is get­ting caught in her leg hair”. That was a shit night.

SM: Where do you get your inspirations?

CH: I like to stand naked in front of the mir­ror a lot. It’s usu­ally my milky white skin that does the trick regard­ing inspiration.

SM: What do you like best: the­atre, improv or standup?

CH: Well, The­atre is reaaaal­l­l­l­l­lly cute, and Improv did the fun­ni­est thing last night. Stand Up and I had a one-night stand back in 2003, so… I like them all, but Improv is the one pay­ing my bills right now… .IMPROV! I CHOOSE IMPROV!

SM: What is the fun­ni­est thing you have ever seen?

CH: In this order:

See Caitlin this Thurs­day at the Cobalt! $10 gets you a one-year sub­scrip­tion, the finest com­edy in Van­cou­ver, and an all-night dance party.

Sad Com­edy: Valen­tine Edition

The Cobalt (917 Main St)

Thurs­day, Feb­ru­ary 9th, 2012

Doors at 8:00PM, show at 9:00PM

Cover $10 (includes subscription)

RSVP on Facebook

Hip-Hop Karaoke: Part 1!

By Sad Mag
February 3rd, 2012

Filed under: Event, News, Q&A, Web Exclusive

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What would make a per­son want to per­form hip hop karaoke?

For­tune Sound Club’s monthly Hip-Hop Karaoke night sells itself as the best time you can have on a Mon­day night any­where in Van­cou­ver. DJ Flipout hosts with a mix of soccer-coach pos­i­tiv­ity and sharp ban­ter, and DJ Seko plays boom­ing instru­men­tals on a full sound sys­tem. The crowd is loud and focused on the per­form­ers, and enjoys danc­ing, wav­ing hands in the air, and yelling. The stage has been blessed with “rap­pin’ ass rap­pers” (Flipout’s term for pro­fes­sional rap­pers) such as Jaykin, Kyprios, and the Ras­calz pay­ing trib­ute to the songs that inspired them to pick up the mic. But it’s equally wel­com­ing to ama­teurs, shy girls who bust out eerily accu­rate Li’l Wayne or Nicki Minaj impres­sions or nerdy dudes trans­form­ing them­selves into gangsta rap superstars.

Yet there’s still an intim­i­da­tion fac­tor. Unlike reg­u­lar karaoke nights, Hip-Hop Karaoke has no tinned canny instru­men­tals. There’s no video screen show­ing incon­gru­ous men in suits run­ning on a beach at sun­set. Most impor­tantly, there are no lyrics with a bounc­ing ball for per­form­ers to read. Per­form­ers need to mem­o­rize rap songs (which tend to have a lot of words, spo­ken fast) well enough to spit fire in front of hun­dreds of peo­ple. The crowd is patient with mis­takes, but screw­ing up can still be pretty embar­rass­ing. I asked four reg­u­lar per­form­ers why they loved Hip-Hop Karaoke.

Diana Theodora Christou

SM: How did you first hear about hip hop karaoke?

DTC: I saw a poster on a tele­phone pole and felt like the sky opened up and my des­tiny was call­ing to me!

SM: What was your favorite song that you performed?

DTC: Das EFX — They want EFX. It’s a really fun and tricky song, and I love how they rap.

SM: What about by another performer?

DTC: That’s a hard ques­tion, there’s been so many. But there was an Asian girl doing (sings) Whatta Man Whatta Man whatta mighty mighty good man!

SM: How often do you prac­tice a song before going on stage?

DTC: I usu­ally lis­ten to it every day for the two weeks before Hip-Hop Karaoke. I play it over and over again on the way to work.

SM: What do you love about per­form­ing here?

DTC: It’s a big release, and it makes me feel good about myself.

SM: Do you do any other live performing?

DTC: No, but even when I was four I loved to dance around and enter­tain my fam­ily. This is a great way to express that side of myself.

Lawrence Lua

SM: What was your favorite song that you performed?

LL: Breathe by Fab­u­lous, because it’s the one I screwed up the least!

SM: How did you get into Hip-Hop Karaoke?

LL: I came here for a few shows and then started to rap. I love rap and I love per­form­ing, it’s fuck­ing cool! Before doing it, I won­dered how it would be, to go through the stage fright and the whole experience.

SM: How long do you prac­tice for?

LL: A week or so. I usu­ally cram the night before.

SM: What do you love about per­form­ing here?

LL: The peo­ple. The vibe.

Next Fri­day: Part 2, inter­views with two more vet­er­ans and a pre­view of the Feb 13th show!
For more on Hip-Hop Karaoke, visit their Face­book Page.

Sarah Race

By Sad Mag
October 26th, 2011

Filed under: News, Q&A, Web Exclusive

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Sarah Race is an England-born and Portland-raised pho­tog­ra­pher now based in Van­cou­ver. A con­trib­u­tor to Sad Mag Issue 7/8: The Van­cou­ver Queer His­tory Issue, Sarah’s por­traits, com­mer­cial work and party pho­tog­ra­pher are all imbued with a unique and quirky style. Here she gives us a glimpse into her life and work. You can see more of Sarah’s pho­tog­ra­phy at her web­site.

Sad Mag: What do you do?

Sarah Race: I’m a pho­tog­ra­pher for hire.

SM: What is your favourite sub­ject to photograph?

SR: Quirky peo­ple.

SM: What’s the first thing you remem­ber cap­tur­ing with a camera?

SR: I was prob­a­bly 6 or 7 and I used a lit­tle Polaroid that my par­ents gave me. I took a photo of a blurry rooster.

SM: What are you work­ing on now?

SR: I just fin­ished an exhibit at the Museum of Van­cou­ver that I did with Sarah Buchanan and the Queer Film Fes­ti­val. Cur­rently I’m work­ing on start­ing up a mobile stu­dio busi­ness, The Stu­dio Shack.

SM: Where in Van­cou­ver do you live?

SR: Strath­cona

SM: What are you excited about for fall?

SR: Fall is my favourite sea­son. I like the fash­ion pos­si­bil­i­ties that fall brings. Like the abun­dance of sweaters, vests and hats. I’m also excited to go home for Amer­i­can Thanks­giv­ing and to hang out with my niece.


Sad Mag presents: The Queer Cul­tural Awards and Show

The Cobalt (917 Main St)

8:00PM-1:00AM

Advance tick­ets $6, at the door $8

Full details on Face­book.

Brennan Kelly

By Sad Mag
October 22nd, 2011

Filed under: News, Q&A, Web Exclusive

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Brennan KellyBren­nan Kelly is an illus­tra­tor and ani­ma­tor. You can see his work on Tum­blr here and here! A con­trib­u­tor to Issue 7/8, he has a lengthy list of favourite artists (and that’s just locally). Read on, then come to The Queer Cul­tural Awards and Show on Novem­ber 3rd to see his work in Sad Mag.

Sad Mag: Where are you from?

Bren­nan Kelly: I’m from Calgary.

SM: How did you become an illustrator?

BK: I stud­ied to become an illus­tra­tor in art school. In hind­sight it seems odd that you can study in a field where you attempt to cre­ate images in exchange for money.

SM: What is your favourite piece of work that you have ever produced?

BK: Haven’t made it yet.

SM: What local artists do you admire?

BK: In no par­tic­u­lar order: Mark DeLong, Kur­tis Wil­son, Teddy Sturs­berg, Alex Heil­bron, Elise Beneteau, Simon Redekop, Ben­jamin Raymer, Andrea Wan, Chris Von Szom­bathy, Andrew Dad­son, Jes­sica Delorme, Rus­sell Leng, Aaron Moran, Matthew Brown, James Whit­man and all the lovely folks at 221A. There’s lots of other great artists here, but I haven’t met them yet or seen their work. I like them too.

SM: What are you work­ing on now?

BK: Get­ting a health care card. Getting a new day job. Loop­ing ani­ma­tions. Teach­ing myself how to paint.

Sad Mag presents: The Queer Cul­tural Awards and Show

The Cobalt (917 Main St)

8:00PM-1:00AM

Advance tick­ets $6, at the door $8

Full details on Face­book.