SHUT UP AND SHOW US YOUR TWEETS! written and performed by Adam Cawley, Dale Boyer, Rob Baker, Darryl Hinds, Reid Janisse and Caitlin Howden (Second City, 51 Mercer). Now in previews, opens Tuesday (September 29) for a limited run. See Comedy Listings. 416-343-0011.
Sandy Jobin-Bevans was destined to make things up. After all, he was born in Flin Flon, Manitoba, which he explains is the only city in the world named after a fictional character.
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“It’s named after Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin,” says the clean-cut Second City alumnus and director of the institution’s latest show. “He was a cartoon miner. Bobby Clarke’s also from there.”
Knowing lots of random facts has served his comedy well, especially in his post-show Second City improv sets and his work with the renowned troupe Slap Happy.
The revamped cast has great writing skills. Jobin-Bevan’s got a history with newcomers Rob Baker, Adam Cawley and Dale Boyer, whom he directed in the touring company.
“I’m not going to have to beg them to write new material for the show. I’m going to have to disappoint them by cutting. We’re two weeks away from opening, and as we say here, it’s time to start killing your babies.”
The new show is one of the troupe’s most political yet. McGuinty, Miller and Harper get skewered, and one sketch imagines life if Alberta had taken over the country. The health care situation in the U.S. also gets a nod.
Then there’s the title, a play on the popular social networking site Twitter.
“Maybe 10 years from now people will be saying, ‘Oh, tweets, remember those? They must really have thought they were cool with that title.’ But I’m not one to criticize titles. I helped write Honk If You Love Cheeses.”
Although he’s best known these days for the new Comedy Network series Hotbox – as well as his ubiquitous TV commercials for Club House spices – Jobin-Bevans’s history with the Second City goes back to his first days in Toronto in the late 1990s. He worked in the box office at the Old Firehall.
“I remember Dan Aykroyd phoned once to buy tickets for himself and John Goodman,” he says. “He kept wanting to give me his Visa number. But I kept refusing. Imagine Dan Aykroyd paying for a ticket.”
