The Very Late TOsketchfest23 Review

We know you loved our TOsketchfest reviews during the festival March 8-19, 2023, so here are some bonus reviews from our own Zillah Ferguson.

West 2 West

West 2 West are a duo that consists of Kenneth Cheung and Chase Jeffels, but their energy is that of at least double the amount of people, happily bouncing around on stage. 

They started their half hour show, center stage, donning beanie caps, the entire room pitch black – save for the spotlight on them – as they deliberated between one another on how to start the show. The synchronicity in their body movements and their call and response in the first act mimicked twin dialogue. Eventually, they both agreed on the world being pretty messed up (replace the word messed with another choice four-letter expletive that I’m sure your clever mind can imagine). True, this world is quite the messed up place, but it’s acts like West 2 West that certainly help to joyfully take the audience out of the mess of it all, if even for only half an hour. 

The sheer fun that Cheung and Jeffels have on stage is evident and quickly translates to the audience, some of whom have minimal involvement (really, just the right amount of participation) in the show. The majority of the show, however, is spent with the audience viewing Cheung and Jeffels in comical situations like their superhero ability being tested, learning how death can unintentionally occur when one’s roommate doesn’t wash the dishes, conferring on there being more to life than what the two of them shoot out of their holes, and a race for validation (amongst other things) wherein which competition, marriage, a baby, divorce and comradery all occur. 

Similar to how it began, the show ended with the duo positioned on stage exactly as when they first arrived. In the same vein, they pondered aloud as to how to end the show and arrived upon a conclusion that those in attendance can confidently attest to: having seen West 2 West, maybe the world’s not totally messed up after all.

SUMMER DAD

“What if I told you that there was a new way of being? Life was so much cooler in the early 2000s.” Oh, you better believe Summer Dad will show you the way and take you there. Follow them on a half hour ride of back-to-back sketches, featuring commonplace situations with just a tinge of absurdity and a lot of hilarity.

While some may think that balancing a group of nine (Chris Johnson, Chrissy Sharma, David Hudon, Ellie Goodman, Jordan Shore, Kaitlyn Stollery, Kevin Forster, Rachel Powell and Taylor Hreljac) in a short amount of time could be challenging, rest assured that each set of sketches allows for each member to shine and serve multiple characters at a measured, balanced and unrushed pace. Each sketch felt like a snippet from parts of different shows, harmoniously pieced together in their humour: stress over coming out to pun-laden accepting parents (who are the least bit surprised), a dirty talking diner tipping a server by relaying their pathetic life, playing house and basement apartment (amongst other delightful vocations of life), deadly cooking pantomimed, a musical number straight out of the Y2K era and cringe vibes at a restaurant. 

By the time the last sketch – a sobering return to the opening one – rolls around, you’ll be feeling for Summer Dad like you do at the end of our short, but sweet Canadian summers: wondering where the time went and wanting more.

BLEAK

In Comedy Bar’s packed-out Main Stage space on Bloor Street, Bleak started their show with some seriously heavy subject matter, as their name would suggest. However, they quickly showed that things are not always as they seem and often time betray assumptions.

The audience were flies on the wall in the first sketch, privy to the deadpan, factual reactions of an apathetic, all too truthful therapist and their bewildered patient. The duo, comprised of Alex Kolanko and Rebecca Payne, didn’t let up on their focus of the darker things in life, but they did so in a way that allowed the audience to identify with various situations and have fun with it. It felt therapeutic in the best of ways. 

Not many would be able to successfully mix talk of death, threesomes subject to change, scat jazz and space travel (to name a few topics), but Bleak expertly navigate weaving through the subject matter, all while making the audience positively lose it with resounding laughter. The fun that Kolanko and Payne have together was so evident and spread throughout the crowd, even when they weren’t emerging from it. That playfulness, paired with their chemistry allowed the audience to feel light in the midst of what could or may appear to be grim and somber on the surface. 

With the amount of laughter in the air, one would have thought that the audience were in a studio, attending a live taping of a hit sitcom in its prime. I’m not a doctor, but I can positively say that you’ll get a noticeable dopamine boost from having experienced Bleak, who are positively exhilarating.

THE NITRO GIRLS

Hailing from New York, The Nitro Girls lit up the stage with their infectious energy and sketches that had their Toronto audience consistently bursting out in laughter. The troupe of five made up of Brian Gurien, Johnathan Ross, Lanee’ Sanders, Nat Silverman and Randy McKay had such a great ease together, regardless of whether all of them or a combination of some graced the stage. 

Some sketches felt all too relatable: detailing all the joys (read: heavy sarcasm) of working in an office, the bewilderment of learning what children like and need, and wondering which order their friends would die in, should they be in a horror movie. Conversely, there were other sketches that were perfectly silly and outside the realms of reality, but the audience happily went there, because they were just that funny. Those particular sketches felt like sweetly twisted Saturday morning cartoons: seeing the lengths one would go to in order to win a company-wide weight loss competition, ordering pancakes gone wrong on a first date and a court interrogation about bodily fluids at a Beatles concert. It’s easy to picture them as animated versions, which is a testament to the writing and individual characterization. 

It's too bad that The Nitro Girls aren’t local, because the show they put on delivers, enticing one to see more of their act. It should then come as no surprise that they have been repeat and celebrated performers at The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival.

The 2023 Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival took place at Comedy Bar and The Theatre Centre.