---

Nestled in in the heart of East Vancouver within the quintessentially chic Havana Restaurant lies its theatre that attracts performance sof a wide genre, ranging from monologue readings to variety shows.The venue’s location on the hip and bustling Commercial Drive was reason enough to get me through the dark night’s downpour of rain. The other strong driver was I’m a newbie to sketch comedy so was curious to see what the buzz is about.

As defined, sketch comedy comprises a series of short scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long and usually pre-scripted. While the performance was relatively short, the sketches provided an overdose of laughter with a lot of whimsical and zany topics, ranging from how to properly eat vegetables to rewriting classic Christmas carols. While the topics were light, the content was rich – calling out overpaid professions, entitled celebrities and poking fun at alternative lifestyles.

This Winnipeg comedy troupe was clever to draw in the audience through engagement, whether it was a member taking a selfie with a performer on stage or one asked to narrate a sketchbeing acted out. The participation increased the excitement of the overall audience as everyone was turning around to see who was being called upon and felt engaged.

The DJ added high energy music and sound effects at the appropriate places which increased the thrill. While on the note of melodies, Dana’s vocal solo should be called out as she impressively belted out reworded Christmas carols with her strong and beautiful voice.

Being a newbie to sketch comedy, I stuck around in the restaurant after the show to ask some audience members who looked well versed in this genre their opinion. Unanimously, everyone loved it and said it ranks high in terms of what they’ve seen.

So, the verdict is in… go check it out next time they visit our city!

© 2020 Darren Cordeiro