It could have been a bust. Instead it was a 2002 silver screen hit.
Paul Gross and Leslie Nielsen star in Men With Brooms, a romantic curling comedy that employs all the Canadian stereotypes from beavers to Tim Hortons.
Set in the fictional town of Long Bay, Ont., the film centres on Chris Cutter (Gross) and three estranged friends and curling mates. They are Neil Bucyk (James Allodi), James Lenoxi (Peter Outerbridge) and Eddie Strombeck (Jed Rees).
After a decade absence, Cutter has returned to town to attend the funeral of his one-time mentor Coach Foley. Coach's cremated remains have been placed in a 42-pound rock, and in a videotape he asks his old team to take one last crack at the Golden Broom, curling's counterpart to the Stanley Cup.
Enter Gordon Cutter (Nielsen), Chris' off-the-wall magic mushroom-eating father. The two have unresolved issues the size of Quebec, but, hey, Gordon has curled in two Briers and he's the team's only hope.
Men With Brooms plays at the Arden Theatre on Sunday, March 19 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10.
In one of its rare overtures, the Arden Theatre is offering two-for-one tickets for Niyaz running Saturday, March 18.
Niyaz is a Montreal-based group committed to creating music with deep messages of hope against injustice and oppression.
Juno Award nominees Azam Ali and Loga Ramin Torkian are on tour in hopes of uniting people from different cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds through song.
The concert is a presentation of Niyaz's latest album, The Fourth Light, a salute to 8th century feminist poet Rabia al-Basri who promoted equality of the sexes and the doctrine of Divine Love.
Providing support to Ali and Torkian is a three-piece band and female whirling dervish.
Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Two-for-one tickets are $42. Call 780-459-1542 or at tickemtaster.ca.
Tonight's guest at Mark Ammar's Saturday Sessions is Lionel Rault, a singer-songwriter with a long-standing reputation in the folk-blues-roots genre since 1969.
An inductee in the Edmonton Blues Hall of Fame, Rault has appeared at concerts, nightclubs, festivals, and on television and radio.
With five independent releases to his name, he has performed with some of the heavyweights such as John Hammond, Jesse Winchester, Taj Mahal, Eric Bibb, David Francey, John Lee Hooker and ZZ Top to name a few.
The jam starts at 4 p.m. at LB's Pub on 23 Akins Dr. No cover.
