You Can’t Do That on St. Catherine Street : Sketchfest Review Tuesday Night

 

Stefan Petersen and Morgan O’Shea

Hosts Stefan Petersen and Morgan O’Shea

Montreal Sketchfest Tuesday edition was absolutely hilarious. The night was like a six layered cake, but made with comedy. This would be the kind of cake you tell yourself to stop eating after the first slice but keep going back for more. Many different troupes performed, and the hosts were hilarious, all of which came together to create a fantastic night of this week long festival.

Chocolate Feelings

Chocolate Feelings

The first troupe to perform was Chocolate Feelings; these three dudes from Montreal were very funny. Without giving jokes away, the performance involved spider fights and was very BIG. There was crowd interaction, costume changing and overall a lot of laughs.

Tall Sigh

Tall Sigh

Next up was a female duo, Tall Sigh. These ladies form Toronto had some very funny sketches. One of which included some of the funniest alcoholic drinks I’ve ever heard of, and another put Zooey Deschanel in her place. Throughout their set, they continued to play on the idea that a dream is a wish your heart makes – which resulted in hilarity.

Ghost Town Comedy

Ghost Town Comedy

To round out the first half of the show, the large troupe of Ghost Town Comedy came on stage. Their sketches were awesome; with a very large troupe they had a lot of characters in each scene. From bank robbing yogis to douche-correcting Siri their set had a variety of humour. Everyone could laugh along to Ghost Town Comedy.

Genius Gold

Genius Gold

In the second half of the show, things started to get even funnier. Possibly due to beer, probably due to the prime of the first half. Genius Gold was first, and they were my personal favourite. This duo (well trio, if you count old man Sal, a “fan” they brought up to sit on stage) absolutely killed the audience with comedy from start to finish. Beginning with smoking cigarettes on stage, to having a mime-pocalypse this troupe was hilarious. I don’t think I stopped laughing once during their entire set.

Marty Topps

Marty Topps

Next, Marty Topps continued the hilarity with a set completely dedicated to Tapout Gear. With a keytar, and some great background music paired with it Marty was fantastic. It was almost too funny to believe he was actually going for it, which is never a bad thing.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Ladies and Gentlemen

The headliners of the show, Ladies and Gentlemen had hilarious sketches centred on the idea of a holiday called “Boat Day”. These two guys really were ladies and gentlemen, with many character changes throughout their set. I felt like I was in the little harbour town the sketch was about. Through the relation of boat day to Christmas, the set was both very relatable and very funny.
The icing on the cake was the hosts – both were very funny. With their jokes between troupes, there was never a dull moment throughout the evening. These guys were very funny both together and separately, which I really appreciated. I didn’t know what to expect from this evening, and laughing through the short breaks between troupes was the perfect surprise.

All in all, tonight was a very hilarious affair. I was sad to have it end. Luckily, the festival continues throughout the week and I definitely suggest going for at least one night! If not, I insist upon googling these troupes and watching some of their youtube videos – laughs guaranteed.

Sketchfest takes place until May 25th. Most shows are at the Theatre St. Catherine (264 St. Catherine E). See website for schedule.