Montreal Sketchfest dispatch # 2 (Holy Fuck Comedy Hour, O Dat Dum, Chocolate Feelings, Joketown)

Read Xavier’s previous reviews from Montreal Sketchfest here.

The host of the 9pm show, local alt comedian Leeland Beckman, had his bass guitar already amped up when he latched onto an audience member’s story from earlier in the evening about their colonoscopy, then riffed something hilarious about hurtful hemorrhoids, but not before awkwardly apologizing for what he was about to sing. A true human among comedians.

One of these rabbis never saw the other perform the briss ceremony, so he MUST be 5-0. Chocolate Feelings.

Finally, some local Montreal blood to sweeten the night of sketch comedy, Chocolate Feelings are mostly Matt Enos, Anton Golikov, Alex Botros. They’re such masters at revisionist historical sketch comedy, if I had them as history teachers in HS, I would’ve aced those classes. What cool/funny positions shall the statesmen of Pompeii and their citizens take before the big disaster? What happens when mob talk is taken literally: there’s a real rat in the organization — toss ‘em in a fish tank and now they’re sleeping with the fishes… I guess you just had to be there.

O Dat Dum

O Dat Dum, 2015 winners of the sketchiest sketch troupe (whatever that means) at the Toronto sketch Fest, were up next. As the name implies, they tackle subject matter too dumb for most. And there’s no safer space than the alt comedy scene. Good, since they brought together performers from other well-known troupes already at the fest. Deadpan gazes as they repeat phrases, each one pronounced a bit differently for heightened comedic effect. You think you know dumb, until they take you to their level. Dum. That’s not a typo. Just efficient & economical, don’t try to overthink it. These folks are scary good and even had the New York performers eating from our laughter trough as well. With scenes like blind daters who upon meeting find out they’re hot dog empire rivals, these folks are my new spirit animal.

Cool Guys don’t always have it so cool sometimes. Holy Fuck Comedy Hour.

Instead of having to drive to NYC to discover funny talent before they’re stars in our TV’s/laptops, the tables were turned as the Annoyance Theatre sic’ed their cabal of performers from the big apple on us townsfolk to put on the Holy Fuck Comedy Hour. Like a pack of trained wolves, they took to the stage, hungry to make us laugh at solid sketch gold, spun from fast-paced, silly ideas. Two of their performers also gave workshops on separate days, each providing different insights into the Annoyance Theatre’s way of cranking out the knee-slappers quickly & efficiently. During HFCH, performers did a series of sketches intermixed with absurdist standup: a bachelorette show with Paul Giamatti as one of the hopefuls; sex doctor to the stars reveals his famous clients’ deviant bodily additions, “cool guys” in a nondescript location (because sometimes the “where” is not important) singing in unison, then taking turns shouting about not having it so good, despite their “cool guy” body language.

Any lover of the comedy scene would have easily gotten their fill by then if they had sat through the 7 & 9 pm shows and could have easily gone home. But given the fact that recently-born weekly in-house sketch show Joketown is running during Sketchfest, I didn’t want to miss it, and neither did the people around me, as they remained in their seats for the long haul.

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