Come on Down to Joketown!
Joketown. With Alain Mercieca, Lar Vi, Kiki Razzle, Emery Fine and Nancy Webb at Joketown.
Have you ever had a dream in which you and your friends could fully express themselves on a stage while cleverly incorporating what they’re awesome at? That’s what the monthly Joketown event appears to have made come to life. Creator D.J Mausner and Alain Mercieca have created a world in which stand-up comedians, improvisers, actors, clowns and hopefully one day magicians can strut their stuff. Every month, in the town of Joketown (which elects a new mayor through applause) the performers have only one week to create a 10-15 minute segment with their newly formed team. The challenge is that the team members must concisely create a scenario which not only works in Joketown but do a performance which will stand out to the audience in order to claim glory for the month.
This January segment will already be the 16th edition of this fantastic idea. What’s interesting is that the sketch you get from these four teams (which are chosen from a hat) can be a completely different from one another yet what they create all works in the world of Joketown. The theme is also chosen by the Jokemaster who also hosts the event.
The current mayor who goes by the name of Emery Fine will have to work hard to defend his title by once again receiving the greatest amount of applause for his performance. As mayor he has faced issues such as working to reduce the amount of wacky neighbors, zoo theft, ball-pit fiascos and Joketown inhabitants who use knock-knock jokes instead of a doorbell.
An interesting trait of Joketown is that for every edition there are at least four new people each time. This means that for those seeking to take part, they have no reason to shy away from the madness. Joketown is always ready and willing to receive new inhabitants. In Joketown, you do not have to be challenged by the conventions of normal world object sizes and heights. In Joketown, you can even use background prop people who make you soar across the stage; nothing imagined is left out. Here it can come alive.
Editor and illustrator Tracy Hurren and Alison Naturale helped pushed the reality of Joketown even further by offering to create a publication in which documents the happenings of this town and updates can be found on the Joketown Facebook page HERE. There is also a Joketown radio program HERE.
The latest installment of Joketown took place at Theatre St. Catherine on January 28 8 p.m. $10 at the door or $7 in advance. Tickets HERE. If you missed this one, there will be others!
