There’s almost no laughing out loud - and even quietly - nowadays for Franco Taddeo. She has been spending his afternoons with a picket line outside McGill University, where he could be employed just as one assistant librarian.
About the plus side, though, Taddeo is equipped with per night job. He could be a fixture about the city’s comedy scene and, without question, one of the most cerebral comics around. On Friday evening, Taddeo, 43, is going to be putting his labour woes behind him and his awesome wits towards the test, centering on what could now be a full-time job. Together with headliners Scott Faulconbridge, Freddie James and Derek Seguin, Taddeo will let loose in LOL MTL Comedy Night at Théâtre Maisonneuve set up des Arts.
“I act as a librarian only when school is in session, meaning I get summers off,” Taddeo says. “My heart really quickly scans the blogosphere to the McGill support staff on strike. They're the backbone and also the hardest hit.”
Nonetheless, Taddeo can be hard hit. He wanted a reliable day job to make up for your ever-volatile comedy vocation through the night. “My sons didn’t ask for their dad to become a struggling artist. The and dental advantages of the afternoon job be useful. The salary helps as well pay things like mortgages.”
Taddeo fears the strike is seen as a long one. “So, it’s likely to be full-full-throttle comedy to me now.”
Curiously, the genesis for LOL MTL came to exist in Jamaica. That’s where promoter/producer Sheldon Kagan was vacationing when he caught CBC-TV’s The National on satellite. About the newscast, Kagan took in the snippet of Taddeo performing with the Winnipeg Comedy Festival.
“I guess he liked what he saw as they made contact with with me almost immediately when he got back to Montreal,” Taddeo relays. “He was impressed that we was from Montreal and informed me which he didn’t know much about comedy but that they liked what he heard. He asked easily wish to do something inside a top-notch venue that would showcase Montreal’s comedy talent.”
One doesn’t require the expertise of a psychic to guess Taddeo’s response. Taddeo then submitted a summary of Montreal comics, from where Kagan picked this current lineup. Taddeo and Kagan developed the LOL MTL theme to spotlight this city’s obsession with matters tied to the letter ‘P’: politics, potholes and poutine, and others that is better left unprinted in a very family newspaper.
“The show will be part celebration in the city and part group therapy,” Taddeo allows, before adding: “How is that this different when Montrealers is able to see anybody individually at comedy clubs inside city? Sheldon’s approach was: ‘But you’ll never see the four of which together on one stage with the clubs, because they are all headliners.’ ”
Factual that. But it’s still a tall order, even for a few from the city’s premier comics, to market out Théâtre Maisonneuve’s 1,300 seats at a cost which is between $35 to $45 a ticket, specially when audiences can catch them at clubs for half the retail price or perhaps less.
“Sheldon is going for the demographic that would go to the comedy festival which visits his other shows,” Taddeo responds. “His web marketing strategy is when you would like to see this business individually, you’d pay a minimum of 15 bucks - so this means $60 for us four, not to mention costs of parking, dinner, drinks and babysitters 4 times.”
If this online strategy pans out, the impresario is going to continue together with his Kagan Komedy Series. To the initial show, Kagan wanted the total Montreal experience.
Fot it end, he conscripted the anglo Montrealer in Faulconbridge, the Franco in Seguin, the immigrant (from Chicago) in James (additionally a dynamite R&B singer), and the child of immigrants in Taddeo.
“He wanted that whole perspective of how we see Montreal and just how each person’s vision is framed of their comedy in relation to the town,” Taddeo explains.
Taddeo sees the Montreal comedy scene being a melting pot of influences. “We take what’s best of the American model. We incorporate British samples of might know about spent my childhood years watching. After which it we add french factor.”
So what’s funny about living in Montreal?
“Where to begin? How about, first off, the belief that driving through this city on a daily basis has us reconsidering the faiths we were raised in,” Taddeo suggests. “This past summer’s traffic dangers/chaos has forced Montreal to alter its motto from ‘Joie de Vivre’ to ‘Joie de SURvivre!’ ”
About survival, Taddeo will be contacted to complete a little improv about the comedy circuit to remain afloat. “I involve some time that has been freed up,” he deadpans.
“While I'd personally normally be helping students write about the theories of Marx, Hegel and/or Adam Smith, I’ll now be practising their theories over a picket line whilst creating a little more time for it to target Cosby, Carlin and Pryor. When life provides lemons, create a proletarian struggle - or make jokes. No matter what, it's all regulated about adapting your routine.”
LOL MTL Comedy Night, featuring Scott Faulconbridge, Freddie James, Derek Seguin and Franco Taddeo, comes about Friday, Sept. 9, 2011 at 8 p.m. at Théâtre Maisonneuve in Place des Arts. Tickets: $35 to $45. Call 514-842-2112 or go to www.laplacedesarts.com
Just for Laughs went under. Down Under, that is.
The Montreal-based chuckles group, ever assuming the role of cultural imperialist with annual events in Toronto, Chicago, Paris and here, invaded Australia the other day to stage its first fest on the fabled Sydney Opera House. Greater than 16,000 spectators were treated to the comedy stylings of Louis C.K., John Cleese, Martin Short, Demetri Martin, Margaret Cho, Dylan Moran and Russell Howard.
“We are already overwhelmed by the response from this first festival - through the audiences as well as the artists,” says Only for Laughs founder and CEO Gilbert Rozon. “From now on, our goal would be to grow this event, to get even more Australians laughing.”
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