Author: bradleyfung

Marianne Rico – Aerialist

Marianne - Circus Artist

This week I spoke with Marianne Rico, an aerialist with experience including silks, hoops, and pole dancing. She shared some advice for newcomers, what it’s like competing in the circus arts and the launch of her Youtube channel.

Marianne’s journey as a dancer started at the age of six or seven, and only stopped at nineteen when she felt like she had exhausted all of the resources at her local studio. However, her time away from dance was short-lived as she decided to try a silks class after being inspired while channel surfing in her second year of university. Like many others, Marianne’s first interaction with silks was when she came across the now-infamous performance of P!nk singing while suspended by silks in the air. Just another reason you should love P!nk. (There’s a joke there for the real Pink fans). Spurred on by this performance, Marianne completed four weeks of silks classes but shared that she struggled with the level of upper body strength required just to get high enough to perform any tricks. However, the room in which the silks classes were held was fortuitously located beside the room in which the pole dancing classes occurred. After watching their classes from afar, she mustered up the courage to attend her first pole dancing class. I have trouble committing to a background on my phone.

The Ups and Downs of Pole Dancing

When Marianne first began pole dancing, she faced a negative stigma with people immediately assuming pole dancing was synonymous with stripping. She says that the vast majority of people she spoke to underestimated the strength required to perform any tricks, and overlooked the fitness benefits offered by this style of dance. Similarly to silks, Marianne describes the physicality of pole dancing as utilizing a lot of muscles that generally aren’t called upon in day-to-day life, but at its core require a lot from her shoulders and lats. Luckily for Marianne, her background in silks provided a base to overcome the steep learning curve that affects many dancers coming straight from a “traditional” dance background. This outlet also provided a means of expression and fluidity that Marianne didn’t always find in silks, propelling her to spend the next two years bouncing between the two forms. Over this time she progressed to learn more complicated tricks and combinations, but this came at the expense of a lot of burns and bruises from the pole itself. She says that to perform any of her tricks, “you’re just holding [yourself] by maybe like one or two parts of your skin;” this necessitates wearing as little as possible to maintain a firm grip, but consequently exposes more of your body to injury.

After a year and a half into pole dancing, Marianne decided to enter her first pole dancing competition, travelling down to Seattle with some fellow dancers from the studio. Marianne prefers to compete in the Lyrical category, rooted in strong, emotional storylines and soulful songs as opposed to the focus on entertaining the audience present in other styles. In her first competition, she underestimated the stamina she needed to complete her three-and-a-half minute routine and upon a poor finish was dissuaded from competing again until last year. Marianne says that the biggest hurdle that she got over in this interim period was the stage fright she felt the first time she competed. She describes dousing her hands in liquid chalk to combat the nervous sweats because just in case it isn’t clear, “you need to have really dry hands to grip onto the pole”. With this added experience (and liquid chalk) in hand, she ended up placing and even winning her first competition. While Marianne says that winning was a great experience and one of the highlights of her career, she adds that her favourite part of competing is the community she has found. Watching dancers from all levels of experience and in a myriad of styles, as well as getting to know the other dancers themselves is something she always looks forward to when competing.

Hoops and Other Aerial Arts

Over the past few years, Marianne has shifted her focus to hoops, even moving to teach hoop classes in 2016 and compete in this field as well. As one of the many circus apparatuses Marianne has gained experience with, this form stood out to her since it placed less of a direct emphasis on upper body strength that was needed in silks and pole dancing. This is not to say that it comes without its difficulties; Marianne says that the first month for any hoops student is spent on the ground building up strength and confidence to eventually perform in the air.

When comparing silks, pole dancing, hoops, and the other skills she has learned, Marianne says that she has greatly benefited from experimenting with so many different forms. Some tricks are able to be translated between the apparatuses, and moving between them has helped her improve her overall fitness and strength. As a whole, she has found that the aerial arts provide a never-ending opportunity to learn new skills and tricks; there is always something that is “just a little bit harder, or a little bit scarier”. Instagram has been a great resource for her to get inspired by other artists, or directly learn new tricks from the footage that they share with the community. Marianne explains that she had reached a point where she was struggling to find teachers to further expand her skillset, so turning to the deluge of content on Instagram was a great way to train without a teacher.

Self-Expression

Despite the benefits that Instagram provides, Marianne expressed her frustration at the shadow banning of pole dancing content that has plagued this platform. She says that this has been a large impediment to separating pole dancing from the stigma of stripping, and “to actually show it as a sport”. Producing content to share online was one of the ways Marianne became more comfortable with herself when she first began pole dancing, and this content has similarly resonated with like-minded individuals all over the world. She says that as a community of performers, they are trying to normalize pole dancing as a form of fitness and show that that “there’s so much strength and a side that nobody else gets to really see”.

Marianne’s personal journey towards self-expression is intertwined with her Christian family and the religious lifestyle that she continues to lead. She says that when she first began pole dancing her family and friends struggled to reconcile their preconceived negative connotations with who they knew before. It took a while to show them the benefits that she was gaining from this pursuit including the physical strength she was building, growth in her self-confidence as well as a means to improve her mental health. Furthermore, the fact that she was the only one she knew in her community performing as an aerialist felt “so unique and personal” to her and pushed her to find others who were equally as passionate as she was. Looking back on her first pole dancing class she remembers being so uncomfortable she told her friend “I don’t know what to do with my hands,” which in all fairness is something I ask myself in any activity. It was a slow buildup to become more comfortable with herself and get to the point where “I can walk around in eight-inch heels and not care,” perform for large crowds at taboo conventions and begin her own business photographing other aerial artists.

As a general rule, Marianne says that “I don’t believe in being perfect but I do want to achieve a high level” in anything she pursues. This continues to push her to learn new tricks, reach new (literal) heights and try out even more techniques. It is a testament to her range that I didn’t even mention that she’s also versed in trapeze. To keep up with her performances as well as her own photography, make sure to follow Marianne on Instagram. Also, check out her Youtube channel if you’re curious about venturing into the aerial arts yourself.

Follow A Musing on Facebook and Instagram for more content on Marianne and the other creatives in this series.

And check out last week’s article with writer and director, Dide Su Bilgin.

-BF

Dide Su Bilgin – Writer & Director

Dide Su Bilgin - Wrier & Director

This week I spoke with writer and director, Dide Su Bilgin about the influence of improv on her work, select projects from her filmography, and the upcoming release of her brand-new podcast.

Dide Su’s passion for filmmaking began at a young age when her parents bought her a stop-motion animation kit containing a simple camera. With these basic tools, she started filming stories showcasing the day-to-day lives of her toys, and this emphasis on character has followed her throughout her filmmaking career. Dide Su also moved around a lot during her childhood, living in Hungary, Turkey, Connecticut and San Diego before coming to Vancouver. A constant presence throughout these moves was what she described as her “travelling film Bible,” a set of binders filled with SNL DVDs indicative of her love for comedy. I’ve only ever moved across Vancouver, and even I can sympathize that weight matters in a move; individual DVD cases simply did not make the cut and therefore necessitated the binders.

Improvisation in Filmmaking

As university approached, Dide Su debated whether she wanted to study animation, design or one of several other creative pursuits. Eventually, she came to the realization that filmmaking afforded her the opportunity to combine all of these interests into one. While studying Film Production at The University of British Columbia, she successfully auditioned for the UBC Improv team and continued a passion that she had developed late in high school. While she said that joining the improv team was a great experience in its own right, it also gave her several skills that she was able to translate into her directorial work. At first glance, the structured schedule of filmmaking and the freeform landscape of improv may not offer many obvious parallels. However, Dide Su says that there are always opportunities for spontaneity and experimentation in filmmaking, but it is often up to the director to take advantage of these moments. She says the takes where she momentarily veers away from the shot list are often the takes that prove most valuable once filming is completed. Having more options to choose from in the editing room can be a luxury and grant her more flexibility to effectively shape the narrative.

Finally, Dide Su has found that “the false confidence that improv provides you is key,” when trying to navigate the inevitable hiccups presented to her as a director. The many moving parts on a film production can bring “a level of excitement you might need to tone down or focus,” and Dide Su says her time in improv has helped her massively in this regard.

Select Directorial Projects: Plain Jane and “Too Good”

Dide Su made her directorial debut in university with a self-written film titled, Plain Jane. In addition to Film Production, she studied Cognitive Science, and this had a large influence on the inspiration behind this film. While learning about the various forms of amnesia she was inspired to write a script starring a hoarder who finds herself in a hospital. With her script in hand, Dide Su remembers bringing it to class with confidence but subsequently feeling devastated upon receiving a heavy critique. Elaborating on taking criticism as a creative, she says that feedback is always good, and “a lot of understanding criticism in your own work is understanding biases that you’ve had for a long time”. However, she says that creatives also have to acknowledge that you can’t please everybody and that the external reception of your work will often be out of your control. The most important lesson she took away from this experience is learning to prioritize addressing what is in her control, saying that “if you’re not happy with it, then it’s important that you alter it”.

Moving from her first directing gig to one of her most recent projects, Dide Su recently shot a music video with Haley Blais, for her song, “Too Good”. From their first meeting, Dide Su was excited to collaborate with another artist who already had a loose idea of where she wanted to take the video. She describes this process as a “moulding of minds” to build a story around Haley’s original concept of a beauty queen running away from her contest. The video was shot handheld in the earliest stages of COVID-19 hitting Vancouver, which created a great juxtaposition between the prom dress Haley was wearing and the backdrop of a “weird dystopian downtown Vancouver”.

One scene that stood out to Dide Su was the closing scene in which Haley runs on the beach into the low tide, eventually disappearing in the distance. In the pre-production planning, Dide Su had intended to include a shot at low tide, but she didn’t expect to be able to do it given the shooting schedule and projected weather patterns. But on the day of shooting, a low tide presented itself and given the handheld nature of the shoot, they were able to quickly capitalize on the moment. Once Haley began running into the tide, Dide Su says that her experience in improv kicked in and they continued to roll as Haley ran further and further away from the camera. Dide Su describes this as “one of the greatest moments” of this shoot, having the ability to be spontaneous and capture what proved to be a key feature in the video.

Speaking on the differences between shooting music videos and films, Dide Su describes music videos as great exercises to improve her filmmaking as a whole. She says that to clearly communicate a narrative in such a short amount of time, “you really have to convey it in the most efficient way possible, or leave it abstract” to capture the feeling of the song. This particular shoot helped Dide Su break out of a writing slump she was in, and focus all her efforts into telling a simple story within these constraints. She also comments on the teamwork needed for filmmaking in general, saying that “there’s something really comforting” about tackling such a big project with every individual cast and crew member moving towards a common goal.

Writing for Films… and Podcasts?

As a writer, Dide Su has never written for anyone else, describing her writing style as clear to her but perhaps less so for another director. Another obstacle is that she thinks that it would be very difficult to hand over a script, remove herself from the shoot, and not be “that writer on set… like two inches away from being in the frame”. We’ve all seen Dance Moms. Dide Su has always enjoyed writing character-heavy scripts, and she attributes this in part to creating characters on the fly in improv. But much like improv, one of the greatest difficulties she encounters as a writer is identifying the point at which to end a scene. She says that she can find herself overindulging in a scene when she is enjoying what she is writing, and passing over the right beat to end the moment and progress in the story. Despite her passion for her work, Dide Su also stresses the importance of not letting filmmaking consume her life, explaining that “if you don’t live life, what are you going to write about?”. The answer to this question is how we have six Transformers movies.

During this downtime for the film industry, Dide Su has found herself pivoting her writing towards her own cultural identity to bring attention to Turkish cinema and female directors. Another endeavour is the launch of her very own podcast, Blood In The Water. In this podcast, she interviews guests about the hot-button topic they cannot pull themselves away from in a conversation. The first episodes of Blood In the Water cover service animals, fast food chains and Norwegian black metal, which coincidentally all share the same tier on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Stay tuned for its release, and I’ll be sure to share it when it comes out.

According to Dide Su, the common thread in all her experience as a director has been the joy of meeting “people who are so excited about making films, telling stories, and trying something new”. If this sounds like you, follow Dide Su on Instagram and check out her website to see more of her work. If you missed it before, also check out the music video for “Too Good” by Haley Blais.

Follow A Musing on Facebook and Instagram for more content on Dide Su and the other creatives in this series.

And lastly check out last week’s article with comedian, Maddy Kelly.

-BF

Maddy Kelly – Comedian

Maddy Kelly - Comedian

This week I spoke with comedian, Maddy Kelly about the road to find her comedic voice, her monthly show, All You Can Eat Laundry, and the state of women in comedy.

Experimentation & Reinvention in Comedy

Maddy began her performing career as an actor when she was seventeen years old and started stand-up comedy two years later. For some of her earliest sets, Maddy took poems she had written in university, rewrote them into songs, and sang them while she played the ukelele. Maddy said that while these sets were well-received, she soon found herself pigeonholed into the archetype of the “cute girl with the ukelele”. That’s far more notoriety than this blog has ever received, but I digress. After six months of performing these songs, she abandoned her foray into musical comedy in search of other styles. She notes that this wasn’t due to a lack of appreciation for the genre, but rather due to the fact that “I was never going to be that good of a musician. And I got sick of carrying the ukelele on the bus”.

Faced with the task of reinventing herself as a comedian, Maddy experimented with self-deprecating humour for a year. While again initially successful, performing this material resulted in an ironic division within herself. She explains that due to being the punchline of her own jokes, audiences would respond in a manner that she felt belittled the time and effort she had put into writing them. This high personal cost for a laugh resulted in Maddy growing to hate audiences laughing at her jokes, which she paints as “a terrible cognitive dissonance” for a comedian to experience.

Maddy shifted once again and challenged herself to only perform clean material for the following year. While she admits that “I definitely talked about drugs and drinking,” she eliminated much of her old material from her sets. One of the reasons she challenged herself to do this was when she realized that there were no contemporary female comics that had sustained success with only clean material. Also, while watching touring comedians come to Vancouver to perform in the JFL Northwest comedy festival, she was inspired that while most comedians had some dirty material, very few relied exclusively on dirty material to fill their hour-long sets. Finally, on a more personal note, she wanted to stand against the hypocrisy often presented towards female comedians, and thought “why is the only time that I get agency to talk [is] if I’m talking about my body?”. She said that while this was a great exercise to test her writing, the resulting sets didn’t necessarily feel natural, and therefore weren’t a perfect fit either. This year, Maddy decided to put no restrictions on herself, which resulted in writing what she considers “probably the dirtiest joke ever”. I selfishly didn’t ask her what this joke was; I thought I’d save it for you to watch live.

All You Can Eat Laundry

In 2017 Maddy began running her own monthly show, All You Can Eat Laundry alongside Sophia Lapres and Jake Pascoe. Let it be known that this show is not called Dirty Laundry, Eating Laundry, or even Eating My Pants, all of which are incorrect iterations Maddy has been asked about. In its inception, they wanted to create a space to host comedians with non-conventional material who didn’t have a platform to perform in Vancouver. The name of the show simply came from when Maddy passed an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant that was next to a laundromat, which when you think about it, seems like a natural pairing. To keep the show fresh over the last three years they have introduced several new features including readings of sitcom scripts with Maddy’s mom as a featured performer, drinking games to kickstart the second half, and dress codes defining each edition of the show. All You Can Eat Laundry has been featured by JFL Northwest, hosted drop-ins from comics including Guy Branum and Fortune Feimster, and showcased an immense roster of local talent. Maddy said that she has also seen herself evolve greatly since their first installation, citing that she considered herself the least alternative of the three founders when they started. But with each month, she grew more comfortable experimenting with her comedic stylings, eventually performing a bit that at its core was, “putting the mic up to my Spanx and slapping a lot”. If that’s not the sound of self-growth then I don’t know what it is.

Women in Comedy

Starting out in comedy as a nineteen-year-old girl, Maddy says that she faced significant obstacles breaking into this industry. She says that while making fun of one another is a huge part of the comic culture, she regularly suffered from imposter syndrome due to both her age as well as the male-dominated lineups she has been on. Expanding on this notion, when she is offered a spot on a new show, “there’s part of you that thinks that you got it because they needed a woman,” and not due to her talent. This can consequently diminish her confidence in her material and undermine the work she has put in to get where she is today.

When Maddy spent a summer in New York to work on her comedy, she faced an unusually binary experience. Performing at open mics from four in the afternoon to two in the morning, it was the first time in three years that she was the only female performer at most shows. But conversely, she also had the opportunity to perform at all-female open mics which are not currently present in Vancouver. To speak more about the community in Vancouver, Maddy said that “things have changed massively from when I started,” with more women on the lineups, more women in the audience, and even changes in the language used by other comedians to introduce her to the crowd. However, she is also frustrated that the general landscape of comedy continues to be plagued with cases of sexism, discrimination and sexual assault, forcing everyone regardless of gender “to do this whole thing again”.

Comedy After COVID-19

Prior to obvious changes brought on by COVID-19, this year has been busy for Maddy. In the span of two weeks, she performed at The Vogue opening for Ronny Chieng, then made an appearance on CBC’s The Debaters, a show that she credits as a major influence on her comedy. Her debate topic was “Should everyone start a band?” which I think is somewhat appropriate in retrospect due to Maddy’s roots in musical comedy. Arriving two-and-a-half hours early to the set, she said that this experience was “definitely the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life”. In addition to these pre-show nerves, the set-up of a stationary podium and mic eliminated the ability to walk out the jitters like she could at a stand-up set. But once she got her first laugh, she was able to relax into her material and enjoy herself; she cites this experience as a highlight of her career in comedy.

When I asked her about an unexpected aspect of being a comedian, Maddy talked about how life touring on the road is devoid of much of the glamour presented by celebrity performers. Between driving through late-night snowstorms, having no financial security, and going “two weeks without eating a vegetable,” she said it can be tough to keep your spirits up and ready to perform. Expanding on the hidden eating habits of a comedian, she spoke about how audiences may not realize that comics have to eat dinner twice; once around 4 before a show, and again approaching midnight once the show is over. Something as simple as scheduling meals around shows let alone other commitments is “what makes [comedy] a lifestyle” for her.

While she has some natural apprehension to get back on stage, Maddy is excited to embark on the next evolution in her career. She says that “I’ve changed as a person in the last three months. I really wonder [what] my jokes and delivery will be like when I get back out there”. I’m definitely excited to see her back on stage and you damn well should be too. To keep up to date with her shows and other comedic moments, make sure to follow Maddy and All You Can Eat Laundry.

Follow A Musing on Facebook and Instagram for more content on Maddy and the other creatives in this series.

And check out last week’s article where I chat with Producer, Brent Mosher about the release of his debut EP.

-BF

Brent Mosher – Producer

Brent Mosher - Producer

This week I spoke to producer, audio engineer and DJ, Brent Mosher about his musical roots, the soundscape of space and the release of his debut EP, Event Horizon.

An Education in Music: Formal and Otherwise

Brent started in music like many others, learning to play the piano as a child, and then enrolling in band classes as a teenager. After a brief stint playing the baritone, he moved to the drums and percussion for his five years in high school. Percussion afforded him the opportunity to focus on beats and rhythms, something that eventually led him to develop an interest in DJing. Brent had a friend who was relatively new as a DJ but was nevertheless tasked with playing music for a house party that they both attended. While Brent was looking over the control board, his friend turned to him and said, “Hey man, I want to go make out with my girlfriend. Can you take over for a little bit?” When I’ve been asked this question, it has never been accompanied with any real responsibility; its more like “hold my beer,” or “get out of the hot tub”. Returning to the story, this “little bit” turned into two hours, and despite being a bit overwhelmed, Brent’s surprise debut was positively received by the crowd. This pushed him to delve deeper into electronic music, get a controller of his own, and begin exploring life as a DJ.

At the start of his studies at The University of British Columbia, Brent began recording mixes for his personal use but soon outgrew the audience of his dorm room. He received his first real opportunity to play for others at the end of his second year when he was hired to play half an hour at a party hosted by The Calendar. He remembers only a few people being at the party during his timeslot, but due to his performance, he rose to later and longer sets until he found himself closing the night. Brent faced a steep learning curve to keep up with these opportunities, saying that as a performer he had to learn that for this type of event “you’re playing for the people in the room… not necessarily what you want to hear”. Other key learning moments were learning to mix without train wrecking, “when you have two beats that aren’t aligned when you’re playing them,” and dealing with the unpredictable climate of the crowd, weather, and power outages of a party.

As his university degree came to a close, Brent realized that he didn’t want to pursue a career in the field of Kinesiology, his chosen major. He also realized that while he was DJing on a consistent basis, he didn’t see a future for himself in this field either. Neither the life of a commercial DJ playing weddings nor the life of a resident DJ playing clubs every weekend presented him the opportunity to use the music he wanted to play. Moreover, he wanted to shift from playing other artists’ songs to learning how to produce his own music. He completed his kinesiology degree as a nod to his parents and the time he spent at university but decided to continue his education at the Nimbus School of Recording. A surface-level look at Brent’s journey at Nimbus thus far includes modules in sound engineering, electronic music production, and post-production game audio production, but the star of this article is his most recent final project. This resulted in the release of his first EP, Event Horizon.

Event Horizon

While the inciting incident to create his EP was to satisfy an assignment, the inspiration behind it came from the onset of COVID-19. Brent describes the beginning of quarantine as a time in which “anxiety and depression were at an all-time high,” and a period in which he found himself wanting to be far away from the troubles on Earth. His first song, “Day by Day”, imagines “what would it be like to just get in a rocket ship and blast off” from our rock. The title is also a mantra of how Brent got himself through the initial turmoil of quarantine; taking all of life’s sudden changes one day at a time. In this song he took vocal samples of conversations about space and processed them with a vocoder, introducing the sci-fi quality that is consistent throughout the four songs. These vocal samples are the glue that Brent uses to hold the EP together, and this was the first time he had released multiple songs with the same thematic overtone. Despite the environment in which this song was made being a place of adversity, Brent describes his dream for the music video as much more jovial, with an astronaut dancing around his rocket ship. Speaking on behalf of the astronaut, Brent says that “because he’s just hurtling through space, [he] might as well dance”. I know videographers read this blog, let’s make this happen.

Following “Day by Day” is “Landing Zone”, a song about the moment when our hero arrives on a calm, desolate planet. As the astronaut explores the landscape of this planet, he discovers that he is not alone, encountering hostile aliens in the third song, “Contact”. Brent describes “Contact” as “the most chaotic song on the EP,” as well as the song that would best fit into a club set. He built this song around a simple driving bassline, using other techniques to evoke alarms, flashing lights, and a fight between warring spaceships. He also dots the track with “ear candy,” which he denotes as the extra bits in a song that “tickle your brain a little bit”. ***Not to be confused with what my uncle assured me was delicious, homemade taffy***. Finally, the last song on the EP is the title track, Event Horizon. Brent says that he spent the most time on this track to achieve it’s celebratory and light-hearted sound. It began as a specific in-class assignment in which he received ten sounds to make a track with, despite the sounds being disjointed to one another. After manipulating them to develop some cohesion, he created Event Horizon and closed the book on the astronaut’s story. Having escaped the aliens, the astronaut and his ship approach a black hole, unaware of what new beginnings may lie on the other side. This EP combines Brent’s loves of house music and outer space, but he adds the caveat that this may not be indicative of future work. With this EP finished, he says that “I still feel like I’m very early in my artistic journey” and is excited to explore new sounds and new horizons. Pun damn well intended.

Producing

Speaking about the process to make this EP, Brent says that a common misconception is that all producers eventually have an “a-ha moment” in which they break through their creative block and arrive at a finished product. Like many other creatives I’ve spoken to, he says that while his workflow has become more efficient, “a lot of it is just generating unsuccessful ideas, and making bad music”. To mitigate this he says that over the last two years he has attended concerts with critical intent, to “figure out why I like it and why the room is responding the way it is”. Working backwards to break down the individual components of a track and identify the structures of music he enjoys has consequently helped him grow his skillset for his own original content.

A recurring theme in our conversation is the trials of building confidence as a creative. A formative moment for Brent was attending Bass Coast, a music festival he simply describes as “my favourite place in the world”. The community-oriented art installations and a carefully curated lineup are what he values most about this festival, and what drove him to move from an attendee to volunteering in several capacities and joining the Bass Coast street team. Brent describes a night in 2018 when he worked his first shift as Stage Keeper of the Radio Stage. Seeing the organization on the back-end of the festival, meeting some of the artists, and more importantly, becoming more confident in the space in which he sought to work affirmed Brent’s original conviction to enter this industry. Holistically, he says this night “showed me what a world-class event in my eyes would look like, what it would sound like, and how people would work as a team”.

Looking back on all his different projects, he says that being able to share his music with others has been the most rewarding part of this journey. Brent still enjoys the occasional DJ gig but has found that the ownership and creativity as a producer gives him more satisfaction in his work. While he doesn’t view his growth as finished or even always where he would like it to be, his goal is to keep creating tracks “better than the last thing I made”. For more on Brent, and to check out Event Horizon, click this link. Also, if you are in need of a recording or mixing engineer, contact Brent through his Instagram page.

Make sure to follow A Musing on Facebook and Instagram for more content on Brent and the other creatives in this series.

Finally, check out last week’s article with Doodle Artist, Sofia Shamsunahar.

-BF

Sofia Shamsunahar – Doodle Artist

Photo by Bronwyn Davies

This week I spoke with Sofia Shamsunahar, a self-titled doodle artist, and newly minted comic book artist. We spoke about learning to enjoy life’s mistakes, her evolution as an artist and the release of her upcoming book.

Art as Self-Care

Sofia took art classes throughout all levels of high school, but her passion did not initially translate to academic success. She told me how she used to consider only classical, realistic paintings to be “true” art, and relegated her doodles to the margins of her homework. This inner division resulted in diminishing grades in art class, and she admits she was barely passing until her teacher accidentally graded one of her doodles. Granting her an A on the fortuitous submission, her teacher said “Sofia, I think you’re on to something with these doodles,” complimenting her simple and imperfect linework. Sofia cites this as the point at which she began investing more time into her art, and when she started to consider that her doodles may hold some artistic value of their own.

In her third year of studies at The University of British Columbia, Sofia encountered difficulties in her personal life and returned to doodling “as a form of self-care”. During this period of her life, she says that “drawing made me feel really good… I had the power to make something when I just felt like, you know, really small”. Posting a series of doodles and stories from this time on Instagram, her followers responded overwhelmingly positively to both her art and her message of mental health advocacy. From a desire to continue to help others through their own trials, Sofia began posting her art more often with “the intention that people would reflect [on] their well-being”. Producing regular content resulted in an increased following on Instagram and spurred Sofia to explore more artistic avenues. She won a competition to paint a mural on a bike cage at UBC and was soon approached for more engagements across campus. These included commissions to paint murals on university grounds on behalf of several student organizations, and weekly gigs drawing live portraits alongside live music. While some commissions came as a result of the organization’s values aligning with the messages in Sofia’s doodles, some came simply from fans of her artistic style. Sofia also was invited to speak to other students about the intersection between her art and her own vulnerability; articulating the use of art as self-care.

The culmination of her artistic arc at UBC is an upcoming feature in a documentary series on local change-makers. Over the course of filming, she visited all of the locations on campus that helped shape her journey including the murals and wellness services that she had engaged with. She said this was a great opportunity to “step back and see all that I had done at UBC,” as well as a humbling moment to recognize the acclaim her art has received. I’ll be sure to share it when it is available.

The Art of Making Mistakes

The acknowledgement of vulnerability and life’s hiccups in Sofia’s art is also tangibly reflected in her personal style. Sofia says that “I don’t mind making mistakes,” and leaves scratched-out misspellings or misaligned lines in her doodles to support this notion. Moreover, this license to make mistakes allows her to “capture all your feelings in the moment” without overthinking or overplanning. The subject matter in her doodles has varied over the last three years, but animals have remained a consistent theme in her art. She says that this harkens back to what she drew when she was younger and is a reflection of her desire to keep her inner-child alive. Animals were frequent guests on her homework doodles, but the challenge of simplifying their anatomy keeps this subject matter fresh. As for the stories behind her doodles, Sofia says that the inspiration usually stems from learnings reflecting on her own personal development. Starting with this prompt, she moves to determine what subjects best symbolize the story. She says that her art has recently evolved to become more story-driven, incorporate more text and categorically now might be more akin to a comic than a doodle. Even though she has refined her style since she began, she still celebrates how “there’s some beauty with how imperfect it is”. This line is coincidentally also how I introduce myself on first dates.

After graduating from university Sofia travelled through Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan, documenting her time through her doodles without any definite intention on what to do with them. Upon her return, she emailed a general manager of a publishing company that she had found through a mutual connection. Sofia says she didn’t necessarily expect a reply, let alone a reply in less than an hour expressing interest in publishing a series of books based on her art. She said she feels extremely grateful for this opportunity, and is still surprised that her art has garnered such interest. Progress in production has been halted due to COVID-19, but her first book will be titled simply, Sof’s Doodles. In this book, she will compile stories from her recent travels along with the themes of finding balance and learning how to be happy with herself. She admits that some artists do not value her doodles as much as “traditional” art, and this has been a bit frustrating when networking with other creatives. To them, I ask where is your publishing deal?

Reflecting on the last few years, Sofia said that “I still can’t wrap my head around it. Like for me, it’s just a fun thing I do on homework, you know”. Mental health advocacy continues to be a core tenet of her work and she continues to find great value in connecting with individuals who relate to her doodles. Making meaningful connections with likeminded individuals has been an unintended, but welcome aspect of her doodles; growing her platform for both her message and her art. For more on Sofia, follow her on Instagram and check out her website to see upcoming work and the backlog of her portfolio.

Remember to follow A Musing on Facebook and Instagram for more content on Sofia, and the other creatives in this series.

And check out last week’s interview with sketch comedian, Kevin Saxby.

-BF

Amanda Sum – Theatre Artist & Musician

 Photo by Olivia Pannu

This week I spoke with Amanda Sum to talk about her roles as a soccer-playing teen, a local cricket star and the upcoming recording and release of her original music.

Growing up, Amanda says that while “performance was always kind of around,” she didn’t decide to pursue this lifestyle until the end of high school. Throughout her five years there, she found herself in band and choir classes but wanted to explore music outside of these domains. After teaching herself to play the guitar, she shared some covers singing on Youtube. However, let it be known that the catalyst behind her channel “was not for self-growth, it was for me to try to impress my grade 10 crush”. I am in no position to judge, none of my attempts to impress love interests have resulted in any tangible skills. While this strategy ultimately didn’t work, she still finds value in it and “leave[s] up old embarrassing videos just to keep humble”. Despite all of these involvements and other creative endeavours, Amanda’s decision to study theatre in university largely came through the elimination of other options. She says that unlike classic origin stories, “I wasn’t blessed with knowing” that this career lay ahead.

Crickets & Wolves: Fitness in the Theatre

While attending Simon Fraser University, she received tutelage from Maiko Yamamoto and James Long, the co-founders of the experimental theatre company, Theatre Replacement. Amanda struck up friendships with both of them outside of class and even interned at their Pantoland children’s summer camp. She had many roles there, serving as someone who “tamed kids tantrums” as well as serving as someone who served lunch at noon. Last year, Amanda earned a role in East Van Panto, one of the most well-known installations from Theatre Replacement. Donning a plaid blazer with an extra set of arms, she played “Jiminy Pattison,” the Jiminy Cricket/Jim Pattison hybrid in their take on an East Vancouver Pinocchio. After three weeks of rehearsal, she embarked on a performance schedule of eight shows a week over a total of seven weeks. In addition to this commitment, she was arranging music for a project that I’ll touch on later, along with finishing her final classes at SFU. Amanda describes this workload as both a physical and mental marathon but adds that she learned a lot from this experience and was also “the most fit I’ve ever been”.

Before her time in East Van Panto, Amanda earned a role in a stage production of The Wolves, not once but twice. In the initial run (2017), she saw a casting call for nine teenage girls, a demographic that she obviously had some experience in. However, the more unfamiliar territory was that all of these girls were members of the same soccer team. Pushing any inhibitions aside, Amanda thought “I’m so bad at sports, but how fun would it be to act like I’m good at sports?”. After a crash-course on dribbling, she got the part and completed a successful, albeit unpaid four-day run. But due to the positive reviews of the cast’s performance, the show was picked up for a larger, paid, remount for the following year. Amanda said that receiving news of this was both very exciting and validating as their passion project was garnering appreciation on a larger scale. Unfortunately, as rehearsals began for the remount, and Amanda returned to the physical nature of the role, she developed a nerve issue in her foot. She says that “I woke up one day, and I thought my foot was asleep, but then it never went away”. In the spirit of athletic perseverance and something about a show going on, she pushed through without any major incidents right up to the preview, the first night with an audience.

During the preview and midway through a scene in which the cast was doing some warmup exercises, Amanda tripped and was unable to catch herself due to the numbness in her foot. She suffered a sprained ankle with half a show to go. She still had lines, so leaving the stage wasn’t the optimal solution, but neither was changing the tight blocking she had with the rest of the cast. Without many other options, she says that “it was such a team effort” to adapt as she stayed seated for the rest of the show. One small silver lining was that since her character was concussed and “always kind of out of it a bit,” the audience proved never the wiser to her static nature in the second half. However, due to her injury, Amanda was unable to return for the entire four-week run of the remount. While she initially felt “devastated” at this prospect, she was extremely proud to see the camaraderie between her understudy, her original castmates and the new team members over the successful run.

Artistic Integrity

Over the last year, Amanda has shifted focus towards her music and has been awarded grants to record and release some singles with her band later this year. While “music was always something that was like a hobby,” she found herself integrating her music more and more into her work in the theatre. She makes the distinction that she isn’t very interested in performing in traditional musical theatre, rather that she is interested in how music and theatre can intersect “without being a flashy thing”. ***jazz hands***

Due to COVID-19, her original recording date in April has been moved to July. Amongst obvious difficulties rescheduling recording time, this shift also jeopardized her dream of having an all-Asian female band. Since she was in a position to curate her own team, she wanted to collaborate with individuals who share similar experiences and values to those influencing her music. But due to the rescheduling, her guitarist was no longer available to record. To fill this need and stay on schedule, Amanda was sent a list of session guitarists; all of whom were White men. She felt that bringing one of these guitarists in for the sake of staying on schedule would be “rubbing directly against the value[s]” at the core of the project itself. Instead of accepting this as an inevitability, she rewrote the guitar arrangements to be played on a synth and is excited to have hired a new musician to join her team. This solution required much more work to rewrite and rearrange the parts, but she is “happy to do the work to make both process and product something I can stand by”.

Expanding on this ideology, Amanda derived these principles of artistic integrity from her experience in the theatre. She said that she has no desire to make generic pop songs, and wants to tell stories that are important to her. The personal aspect of this project is also unique in that “this has been the first time where I feel complete agency” in the work. In theatre, she is generally “some sort of vessel for someone else,” whereas now she is bringing her own stories, inspiration and team together to create an original product. Speaking about her body of work as a whole, she says that as a theatre artist and musician she is constantly confronting societal norms that do not necessarily line up with her own perspectives or experiences. However, she sees opportunity in polarity, and says that “when I don’t match up with these norms, that’s even more exciting”. Hell yes.

For more, follow Amanda on Instagram for updates, content, “and other performance-related antics”. If you went to high school with Amanda and would like a do-over, I’ll also link to her Youtube channel. Stay tuned for her singles later this year, but in the meantime check out New Societies, an interactive theatre game that can now be enjoyed online at 7pm on June 25th.

Follow A Musing on Facebook and Instagram for bonus content on Amanda and more!

If you missed last week, check out my interview with filmmaker, Corim de Guzman,

-BF

Kevin Saxby – Sketch Comedian

Kevin Saxby - Sketch Comedian

This week I chat with Kevin Saxby, a sketch comedian known for his features on Funny or Die and Byte. We talk about why more people should be watching horror-comedy, overcoming performing in public, and what exactly a meth circle is.

At the time of writing, Kevin has been producing comedy videos for seven years, but it took him a while to see comedy as more than a hobby. Early on in his career, he experienced relatively high levels of viral success, even achieving 25,000 Reddit views on a video titled “I Got a Moustache”. A combination of slow camera pans across Kevin’s (real) moustache, the opera music from The Matrix Revolutions, and a punchline of shaving the moustache off struck a chord with a large audience. He was 19 when he posted this video and admits that such early success may have put unrealistic expectations on himself to maintain such viewership.

Bikes, Bubble Baths, & Other Short Films

During his first year at Western Washington University, he found himself struggling to find any particular direction to pursue. Underlying his day-to-day studies Kevin said, “I was too embarrassed to admit that I wanted to, at that time, be a comedian and be an actor”. To clear his head, he decided to embark on a cross-country cycling trip from Seattle all the way to New York. I prefer a walk around the block or a decently-cold beer but to each their own. On the course of this trip, he describes bear encounters, being blown around in a storm in the middle of Montana, and relying on trespassing as a way of life. During one memorable night, he was even invited to what he described as a “meth circle” at the campground he was staying at. Despite the salesmanship, he politely declined; a decision which Kevin deems probably “a better story to tell my kids”. In between these escapades, he says that all the time by himself allowed him to achieve some clarity on his life. After returning from his trip, he decided to switch gears and attend film school at The University of British Columbia.

While at UBC, Kevin began creating content with more intention; beginning with his first short film, Bubble Bath. He followed this up with another short-film titled Tofino, alongside Colin Williams, who you may remember if anyone is reading this blog with any regularity. Kevin says that having a partner to film with is what made Tofino an especially enjoyable experience; what began as a normal trip between the two of them resulted in a film that won selections and awards at several festivals. Between these two films, Kevin materialized his long-standing passion for horror-comedy. For those who stay away from horror, myself included, Kevin argues that the “communal feeling” and emotions an audience shares when watching a horror movie together is what attracts him to the genre. Speaking about horror-comedy in particular, he enjoys that this combination is “a little bit less mainstream, and a little bit less formulaic,” to stand out from traditional horror. The interrogation of the Gingerbread Man from Shrek is far enough for me, thanks.

Byte

After completing film school, Kevin began producing more short-films and using Youtube as his primary platform for sharing content. However, he struggled with diminishing returns and the challenge of finding consistency with his views. To work more efficiently he began producing shorter videos to also post on Instagram and diversify his audience. After gaining more traction, he received a message from someone who had found him while searching the hashtag #sketchcomedy on Instagram. From this conversation, Kevin was eventually invited to become a beta tester for Byte, a platform for short, six-second videos made by the creators of Vine. Would this be a Byta tester? Byte has since increased its video length from six to sixteen seconds, but this is still an incredibly short amount of time. Kevin said that one of the biggest difficulties transitioning from traditional length to what he calls “punch line humour” is that “it’s really just enough for one or maybe two jokes,” and that it’s difficult to establish any kind of character in such a short amount of time. Kevin also says that one of the biggest difficulties he has faced is that due to only posting shorter videos, he has felt the pressure to release content on a much more consistent basis than when he was creating longer sketches on Youtube.

When he first began his partnership with Byte, Kevin released content every single day for three straight months to build, grow and maintain his following. He said that to accomplish this he developed a structure in which he spent at least 90 minutes every day in front of his computer, trying to write. Not every session was successful, but he says that “if I didn’t write a single word, that was fine. As long as I set aside that time to do it”. This discipline allowed him to stick to his content schedule over the three months, but his creative process has evolved to now be more akin to “improv with a camera”. He still posts six times a week but has found that this workflow is more sustainable. When I asked him what is most difficult about releasing content almost every day, Kevin said that like many creatives, he can still find himself “not in a mood to do anything funny,” or slip into prioritizing his work over maintaining a healthy lifestyle. He also touched on his efforts that go on behind the scenes to market his videos. Between Byte, Tik Tok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Discord, YouTube and other forums, managing these platforms alone takes up a large portion of his time.

Some of Kevin’s most popular videos share a common theme of being filmed in the public. A recent example of the difficulties that come with this is the filming of his submission to The Vancouver Quarantine Project. This sketch revolved around someone who has to cross the road but is unable to do so due to constant distractions from the environment. In the absurdity of the sketch, Kevin started “dancing, and doing pushups and spanking [his] ass” to get a variety of takes to choose from. This prompted an inquisitive citizen to ask Kevin what was going on, amongst stares from other passersby. Kevin says that he is not immune from embarrassment from filming in public, nor does he seek out attention during filming, but pushes himself to go big to get the best content. He says that you can tell if a performer is “too nervous or embarrassed to give their character 100%”, and that this warning brings him solace when he finds himself filming while half-naked up a tree.

Eventually, he sees himself moving sketch comedy to the side as a hobby and passion project while pursuing acting as his primary goal. But regardless of the medium, Kevin says that the best part of performing is that “I get to make people laugh”. Speaking about his earliest videos he says that looking back “I always knew that I wanted to be an entertainer” and is now excited to make that goal a reality. To keep up with Kevin, check him out on Instagram and Byte for new releases. For more content, he’s also on TikTok, Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. One Spotify account away from a Royal Flush.

Follow A Musing on Facebook and Instagram for bonus content!

And if you missed last week’s article with Amanda Sum, check it out!

-BF

Corim de Guzman – Filmmaker

This week I spoke with Corim de Guzman, a filmmaker and Youtuber who has amassed an amazing portfolio of work. We spoke about the coolest project he’s done, some hot work he turned down, and how to avoid burnout as a creative.

Corim’s journey as a filmmaker began like many others, making home movies of family vacations and documenting his personal life. After becoming comfortable with a camera, he began to make original narratives and won his first accolade with a venture into stop-motion animation. Taking inspiration from a video he found on Youtube, he created a stop-motion video in which he fought… an office chair. Thanks to this video, he won his middle-school talent show and kickstarted his career as a filmmaker. The chair was unavailable to comment.

After Corim began his studies at The University of British Columbia, he reached out to student organizations to offer his services and gain some more experience. This initiative resulted in his first paid gig as a filmmaker when he was hired to film “UBC Homecoming” in support of varsity football. Running through the 10,000 person crowd, he describes this experience as “action-packed” and “overwhelming” to take on by himself. At the time, this was one of the largest undertakings of his career and he spoke about the pressure to deliver on such a big stage. But once his final cut was published, he was rewarded with an influx of commissions from other organizations seeking his talent. Corim says that the adrenaline from the crowd and the physical challenges presented by event filmmaking are what first attracted him to the genre and what keeps him returning for more. Furthermore, he tells me that the creative freedom he has in event filmmaking is unlike any other. He says that “nothing is too crazy when it comes to event filmmaking,” and that these limitless possibilities push him creatively to constantly explore new shots, effects and styles.

Castles to Cars: Diversity in Filmmaking

In Corim’s opinion, the best part of freelance filmmaking is the “diversity of the people you meet” and the experiences you are exposed to. This diversity is celebrated in his portfolio that spans incredible locations, genres and clients. Corim first explored filmmaking through travel videos, so it is no surprise that one of the first goals he set for himself was to be paid to travel as a filmmaker. The first assignment in which he accomplished this was when he was asked to film the Ice Castles in Edmonton, a collection of life-sized castles sculpted entirely by hand out of ice. Between spending his childhood in the Philippines and studies in Vancouver, he had never experienced this degree (or lack thereof) of temperature before. When I asked him about these working conditions he remembers thinking “what am I getting myself into” as the sprinklers that created the ice froze his clothes against his body. However, he described the final products as “straight out of Disney” and looks back at this experience as a major checkpoint in his filmmaking journey.

Moving to his more recent work, Corim discussed a commercial he just shot for Porsche. When selecting clients, he tries to choose work that he is passionate about, but naturally, sometimes creative compromises have to be made. What made this shoot memorable and unusual for Corim was the creative liberty he had to experiment and “get away from the usual style” of corporate filmmaking. This freedom made this project feel less like a corporate gig and something in which he could really inject his personal style. In addition, this was the first professional project in which he worked alongside his brother, making the job that much more special. Over his career, Corim has “taken on any kind of project [he] can get his hands on in any type of industry,” and this has led him to accumulate an extremely varied roster of clients. However, there are exceptions to any rule, and he shared a few would-be clients that stood out over the last 5 years.

One such client found Corim’s work on Instagram, like many before and many since then. Impressed by his page, the client sent Corim a standard inquiry message that also included the key phrase, “I was wondering if you’d be interested in shooting porn”. Corim described this as the most “outlandish” project he has ever been approached for, and for the record, he said no. While this project was unique in the subject matter, Corim tells me that the payment can be equally surprising. He shared another message in which he was asked to shoot a standard product video, but instead of a cheque, the client offered payment in the form of magic mushrooms. I do not know what the current exchange rate is for video content to mushrooms, but this was another project that Corim politely declined.

Be Nice and other Career Advice

As a self-identified workaholic, Corim notes that many creatives face burnout and that this is “something that more people should be talking about”. Between late nights and fast turnarounds, filmmaking can easily have a negative effect on one’s mental health. To avoid burnout, Corim tries to find a balance between the amount of corporate work he does and his own passion projects. In between shoots, he also tries to make sure he does “activities that have nothing to do with filmmaking” to give himself a mental reprieve. Moreover, his advice to creatives is to “surround yourself with the best,” to stay happy, healthy, and produce the best work.

On one such non-filmmaking excursion, Corim found himself downtown at Twelve West to celebrate a friend’s birthday. In a state that he described as “a little bit hammered,” he struck up a conversation with a man at the bar. After exchanging Instagram handles, Corim continued on with his night, not knowing that his bar companion was one of the marketing leads at Vessi. This chat eventually led to a healthy partnership with Vessi that Corim maintains to this day. Early on in this partnership, Corim pitched a shoot to feature their products in Hawaii. Vessi initially declined the offer, so Corim gathered some friends with the intent to travel on their own. But on the day before the flight, Corim received an update that Vessi had reconsidered and was now interested in sponsoring the shoot. (If you’re thinking of upgrading your Crocs this summer, check out the final cut). Much like the Ice Castles were a milestone in Corim’s journey, this shoot represented the next step as this was his first sponsored international shoot. Looking back at the humble beginnings of this partnership, Corim says that “the moral of the story is you never know who you’re going to meet, so be nice to everyone”. If all drunk people would heed this advice, the world would be a much better, and probably less sweaty place.

Youtube

Corim’s most recent endeavour is his journey into Youtube. He tells me that this has long been a goal of his, but he had always faced “that hurdle of putting yourself out there,” and to come out from behind the camera. He’s not entirely sure what his channel will look like but “a mix of tutorials, vlogs,” long-form narratives or documentaries are all possibilities. He has already released some great content, so definitely check out his channel for more. To stay updated with Corim’s work, or to proposition him for questionable gigs, make sure to shoot him a follow on Instagram as well.

If you liked this article, give the page a follow on Facebook and Instagram for bonus content!

And in case you missed last week’s article here you go!

-BF

Nathan Hare – Improviser, Sketch Artist, Comedian

This week, I had a chat with a very funny improviser, sketch performer, stand-up comedian and co-creator of Soda Fountain, Nathan Hare. We talked about his journey through comedy, taking his work on the road, and which bombs are best.

A Student of Comedy

Growing up in Kelowna, Nathan discovered his love for comedy by watching SNL and listening to comedy podcasts throughout high-school. As the end of these studies grew near, his passion grew until he left home and began his post-secondary journey at The University of British Columbia. He chose to major in English Literature and minor in Creative Writing, but more holistically Nathan said, “I just remember coming into university being like, I want to do comedy”. In addition to honing his writing through his formal studies, Nathan also joined the UBC Improv team in his first year to begin exploring his own comedic style. He admits that while he was excited to make the team, it “hadn’t really clicked” for him over his first few shows. This changed when Nathan turned 19 and was able to see improv by The Sunday Service.

I don’t think I could properly sum up all they have accomplished, but if you’re not familiar with The Sunday Service I highly recommend you check them out. I’ll also mention that while they haven’t been able to host their weekly shows at the Fox Cabaret, they have been putting on some great digital shows throughout social isolation. Watching them for the first time was a formative moment for Nathan; he shares that after this performance he realized that “this is the sort of improv I want to do”. With this fresh in his mind, he began evolving his own improv at UBC and enrolled in both improv and sketch classes at Blind Tiger Comedy. All things considered, Nathan is one of the most comedically educated people I know. When I asked what drew him to try sketch comedy, he said that much like The Sunday Service was a huge influence on his improv, watching The Hero Show was an equally inspirational push to explore sketch. Things have come full circle as he has now performed at both of these shows, as well as creating, producing and hosting his own monthly show, Soda Fountain.

Soda Fountain

During his time studying at Blind Tiger, Nathan met fellow student Graeme Achurch. After collaborating with one another throughout the program, they decided to continue working together after classes ended. Eventually, this led to their desire to create their own monthly show: Soda Fountain. When I asked Nathan the story behind this name, he told me that they were “brainstorming off of nostalgic words” to find something “fun and youthful”. However, he remarks that their struggles to capture this spirit felt like a bad marketing meeting because they were “so out of touch” with the values they were trying to embody. Graciously he also offered up some names that were left on the cutting room floor, including “Good Times” and “Heaven”; the latter rejected because they “thought it sounded too much like a rave from the early 2000s”. Cue boots and cats.

Soda Fountain would have celebrated its 2 year anniversary show a few weeks ago, but due to the obvious circumstances, it had to be postponed. However, running a show for 2 years is definitely something to be celebrated. They have also taken their show on the road to Toronto, and Nathan cites this as one of the highlights of his journey in comedy. Being able to travel and have success in a new place with fresh audiences showed him that “I’m not limited to the city I’m from,” and this is something he would like to do again in the future. I’ve seen their show several times and was fortunate enough to have a spot on their show last year. Nathan and Graeme have a comedic style and flow that is truly unique, and I highly recommend checking out Soda Fountain upon its return. They have put their blood, sweat, and tears into this show, and how dare you think this was a cliché?

If you were in doubt, Nathan shared a story that will put to bed any suspicion of hyperbole. He tells me that prior to one edition of Soda Fountain, he was unloading beer from Graeme’s car. As Graeme went to close the trunk and go back inside, Nathan’s head was still in the swing path of the door. Gravity and mass did their thing and Nathan was left with a gash on the top of his head, moments before the doors were slated to open. After a quick visit from an ambulance, Nathan was checked out and eventually cleared to perform. However, he admits that “we sounded insane” as they recanted this story to an audience who was not prepared for an anatomy-themed opening set. However, this turned into a one-of-a-kind show as they decided to forego the written material they had prepared, and instead “made the whole thing about how I had cut the top of my head with this car door”. You just never know what you’re going to see with live comedy.

Improv v Sketch v Stand-Up

With experience in several realms of performing, I asked Nathan about his favourite and least favourite aspects of improv, stand-up and sketch comedy. Perhaps non-surprisingly, bombing was a common con between all three, but he tells me that not all bombs are built equal. For example, Nathan says that in sketch, audiences can be less forgiving to a bomb due to the written nature. He says that some particularly critical audiences have reacted as if to say “why did you think this was funny, you had [an] infinite amount of time to prepare”. However, managing a bomb in improv comes with a completely different set of difficulties. Nathan says that while audiences may be more forgiving due to the format, it can be “especially humiliating because you’re pretending to be like an alien or something like that”. Lastly, we agreed that the individual aspect inherent to stand-up made this bomb uniquely difficult. He says that since “you don’t have someone to share the highs and the lows,” it can be tough to bounce back from.

However, we did not dwell on the lows and moved to Nathan’s favourite aspects of these styles. Out of the three, stand-up is his newest pursuit as he began performing in the fall of 2018. He tells me that the ownership he feels with his tested and proven material is what he likes best, along with the simplicity of the presentation. Moving to sketch, his favourite part is the collaborative nature of workshopping sketches with his fellow writers and performers. He enjoys fleshing out every nuance of a scene and working together to create a story as a team. This collaborative aspect is also Nathan’s favourite part of improv comedy; he simply says that “when you’re on a roll in improv, that’s the greatest feeling”.

When we discussed his personal style of comedy, Nathan admitted that “I don’t know if my stuff is really that traditional,” but that is my favourite part about watching him. Whether its improv, stand-up, or sketch, go check him out as soon as you can. He told me that he hopes to venture into film in the future and add yet another feather to his comedic cap. Hopefully, we will see the return of both himself and Soda Fountain soon, but in the meantime find him on Twitter and Instagram to stay updated and entertained. Thanks for reading this week, and we’ll see you at the next one!

-BF

If you missed last week’s article with Skye Portman, here is the link!

And a reminder to follow on Facebook and Instagram for bonus content!

Skye Portman – Photographer

This week I’m talking to Skye Portman, a talented photographer and creator of one of my favourite photo series, A Day in the Laugh. We had a great chat about photography, comedy, pies, and strippers. Intrigued? Let’s go.

Cover(ing) Bands

Skye began photography back in her hometown of Derby in the UK, a town in which her estimation is best “known for pies, ales, and drugs”. I do love a nice pie, colour me interested in a post-isolation trip across the pond. She was fifteen years old when she booked her first gigs to photograph bands at a local bar, the Victoria Inn. Equipped with a “really bad Sony Cybershot,” and business cards she had handwritten on pieces of paper, she eventually carved herself out a regular gig. What was your excuse for not starting your project again? You don’t have the right paint yet? Right. Anyway, Skye tells me that this job was a great opportunity to gain real-world experience as well as meet an incredibly varied cast of characters both on and off-stage. From Jack Black from Tenacious D or Dave Grohl from two pretty good bands, Skye has amassed an impressive network over her career. However, the standout moments from this gig were not when she met these household names. For Skye, the moment when she felt that she had made it as a photographer was when travelling bands “gave me their t-shirt for free”. If UK concert merch prices are anything like the ones here in Vancouver, I’d consider those gestures a major perk as well.

Another interesting period from Skye’s time at the Victoria Inn was photographing “replica” bands, “like the fake The Who and the fake Blondie”. Where the amateur photographer would see just another gig, Skye saw a major marketing opportunity. After each show, she realized she had “all these amazing photos of people who kind of look like the doppelgangers” of the original bands. Taking this footage and putting it up on her website was a great way to gain some clicks from potential clients. Skye diplomatically told me that when people saw these photos and thought they were celebrities, “technically they’re right, but technically they’re wrong too so I leave it to their imagination”. Entrepreneurship at its finest.

A Day in the Laugh

After moving to Vancouver, Skye began working at The Brett Martin Show where she was introduced to local comedians and other members of the stand-up community. She quickly realized that “people weren’t photographing comedians,” with video or audio content being the popular choices. Sensing an opportunity to help fill this void, she began brainstorming the framework for what would become a project she continues through today. For the format, she took inspiration from an assignment she had in university in which she was tasked to photograph a market at opening, during operating hours and after closing. Adjusting this to fit a comedian’s schedule, Skye began photographing comedians before, during, and after a show. As for the name, she admits that she had difficulty coming up with a good tag, and credits her friend Rich for coining “A Day in the Laugh”. Skye explains that the reason why she chose this format was that prior to working with comics, her “perception was comedians go to a show, they do their bit and then they go home”. But after meeting so many comedians and watching their individual processes, she thought that each comedian’s unique arc of a show night was something worth sharing.

When I asked her to share her most memorable moments from this project, it was hard for her to single out anyone in particular. She credits Chris Griffin for being the first member in her series, as well as Sasha Mark who she describes as an “absolute babe” to work with. She also shared a story of photographing Dion Arnold at The Penthouse, as she had “never been to a strip club…In Vancouver”. Skye tells me that after his set was over they “went down one level and [Dion] goes, “Do you wanna see strippers?” Skye made the same rational decision any of us would make, but after a brief moment, both Dion and herself agreed that just a quick glance would do. This is just one example of the wide variance in venues, shows, and of course the comedians themselves that Skye has captured in this project. She says that “no two have been the same, and that’s been the fun and joy of it, the authenticity” of each performer she has worked with. A Day in the Laugh is now in its second year of production, with features on nearly 50 comedians, improvisers, sketch performers, and all-around funny people.

Photography

When I asked her what she found most difficult about photography, Skye shared her mixed feelings towards Instagram. One one hand, she cites Instagram as a useful tool for her to conduct research and get inspired by other artists. However, she cautioned that “the photograph can lie,” upon first glance. She expressed her frustration towards “kids on Instagram who are photographing these staged lives and pretending that they’re incredibly happy when deep down they’re dying inside because they just need those likes to feel glorified”. Other difficulties she shared include the inescapable late nights of both music and comedy photography, along with the nerves she still feels before every shoot. However, she doesn’t dwell on the negatives and instead reframes these struggles as opportunities for growth. She states that “even though the worst parts really are terrible it pushes your boundaries” to become a better photographer. Moreover, “if you weren’t challenged, you’d stay exactly where you are”.

Returning to how we began our conversation, I asked Skye about what were the major similarities and differences between photographing bands and photographing comedians, Skye says that while both subjects are similar in that she is capturing a performance, she feels that with a comedian, “it’s more on a personal level”. She shares that this level of intimacy was not always present when she worked with musicians, adding that what drives her passion for photography is not necessarily the subject matter, but rather the subject itself. In her words, “I like to learn about people, I want to understand people,” and this is one of the reasons she has found a home photographing comedy.

I’ll end with some words Skye shared when I asked where she finds inspiration for her photography. She said that to get inspired, “absorb everything, take it all in,” and that we can find exciting ideas in ordinary circumstances. As we loosen social isolation, I feel like this advice rings more true than ever as the little things we took for granted will feel so much more exciting than ever before. For more on Skye, check out her website to see the entire backlog of her work. To keep up with A Day in the Laugh shoot her a follow, and if this leaves you begging for more, give Skye a follow as well. Thanks again to Skye for the chat, stay safe out there everybody, and we’ll see you next week!

-BF

Check out last week’s article with Colin Williams!