THIS IS THAT LIVE presented by the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival at the Randolph Theatre (736 Bathurst). Saturday (March 5) at 7 and 9:30 pm. $39. 647-505-1050, torontosketchfest.com.
For Pat Kelly, the success of This Is That, the satirical news show he hosts with Peter Oldring on CBC Radio, is all about balance.
“We showcase what we’re both good at,” he says from Vancouver. And since it began six years ago, they’ve refined the show. “We’ve gotten very dialled in when it comes to setting each other up,” says the Second City alum.
When they write and improvise their news bits, which feel like a mix of The Daily Show and The Onion, Kelly plays more of the small-town Canadian characters. Oldring, according to Kelly, tends to favour more “flamboyant artistic characters.”
They’re on a live cross-Canada tour whose only Ontario stop happens this week at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Fest. Audiences can expect a peek behind the studio door, and a format like the radio show’s.
“But there’ll be more improv,” promises Kelly. “And we use all the space. There’ll be lots of bouncing around onstage.”
There’ll be lots of the sly digs that the show’s fans expect, like the episodes “Canadian entrepreneur finds international success selling firewood for $1,000 per bundle” and “Canadians react to new Hollywood movie claiming Neil Young was born in California.”
The fake-news slant is often so believable that some listeners were fooled into thinking reports were the real deal.
“That’s a compliment!” exclaims Kelly. “We want to make the shows sound as much like CBC Radio 1 segments as possible. But we’re not out there to trick people. We take pride in this kind of mimicry.”
One of the show’s inspirations is Christopher Guest, director of mockumentaries Best In Show and A Mighty Wind. Many of This Is That’s new videos for the CBC website have that Guestesque flair for the bizarre.
Kelly and Oldring’s future plans include more live shows and a book series to bring their comedy to the page.
“The premise of all this is not to take ourselves too seriously, and we think that can come through nicely in a book.”
Being the host of a news show, even if it’s satirical, keeps Kelly on top of the breaking headlines.
When I ask about his reaction to the 2016 U.S. presidential primaries, he says, “It would be absolutely horrifying if Trump became president.”
He pauses. For effect?
“But also fascinating because of the comedy that would come from that.”
stage@nowtoronto.com
