Without airing too much of the Irrelevant Show’s dirty laundry ahead of their 20th anniversary reunion in St. Albert, Batman’s sweater will be in the mix.
Cast members Neil Grahn and Donovan Workun spoke to the Gazette about the sold-out show at the Arden Theatre Jan. 18 despite the near complete lack of any commercial upside to doing so.
They said choosing the Arden as the venue was easy. Selecting about 20 skits from the thousands the popular Edmonton-based CBC radio comedy show and podcast’s cast have performed since 2004 for the best-of mash-up, less so.
“For me, it's just something that grabs me in a scene, you know, like, I said, 'Hey, we should do Batman Sweater,'” Grahn said Friday. “It's a scene where Batman's returning a sweater to Winners and he's put holes in it because of his ears, and it turns into a back-and-forth between him and the woman working the return counter at Winners.
“I just love the thought of Batman at Winners returning his sweater and just struck me as, just, ‘I sure hope we get this in, and I'm not even in it.’”
Workun and Grahn will be joined by fellow cast members Mark Meer and Jana O’Connor, with live sound effects by Dave Clarke, on-stage proceedings by Peter Brown and special guest Marianne Copithorne. Singers Jocelyn Ahlf, Kieran Martin Murphy and musical director Jan Randall will also join.
The telephone handset-mounted microphone is sure to appear.
“Donovan has a lot of fun because he does this pilot sketch where he's like a WestJet or Air Canada pilot," Grahn grinned. "And he's just so happy ... you could probably just give Donovan that microphone and just let him riff for five minutes and it would be hilarious.”
A better place
Workun said after a few tense years with sensitive audience members and cancellations, comedy seems to have found its footing again.
“I think comedy is in a good spot right now,” he said. “I think comedy has gone through a few changes and you know, there's always those weird swings.
“I spent the summer last year doing the great Outdoors Comedy Festival, and I'm doing it again this year. I toured across Canada opening all the shows and I’m kind of the mascot of the whole event and I work with all these, you know, huge American comedians and their comedic sensibilities are a lot different than Canadian comedy sensibilities.”
He said the Yanks tend to be more willing to go after touchy subjects than the maple variety, and their audiences eat it up.
“It’s just that looseness, not being afraid to just say whatever you want to say,” Workun said. “So I think we did go through a phase where everybody was really, really careful and didn't want to step on toes or hurt feelings or be mean. And I mean, I think that's still relevant and a good idea, but I think we found the middle ground now.”
The best place
The group and St. Albert have a long love affair with one another.
“I would say I'm more of a St. Albert fan than an Arden fan in that the support there has just been fantastic,” Grahn said when asked about the venue.
Not to be upstaged, Workun said some of the best shows he’s ever had were at the Arden.
‘It's a fantastic theatre to do shows in,” he said. “I don't even know what it is in the Arden, but it seems really intimate and you know, it's just a great venue and I love performing there.”
A lot can happen in a week in Fortress North America but one thing is for sure: the Irrelevant Show reunion will be anything but, and could be “historic,” Grahn said.
“It could be our last Canadian show ever.”
