Now
when we come to Graz, it is one of those places on our tour where we
feel less like we're on tour, and more like we're visiting friends
and being normal. We just happen to do a show... and possibly a
little bit of babysitting. We are distance uncles to Lili Rose
(daughter of Jacob and Trixi).
This
year, after many years of admiring the great work that TiB has done
on stage, we decided to see if we could develop a show with them. We
started with a simple enough theme, a connection between Austria and
Canada. So not only did we do a show in Graz, we have started to
create a show as well.
The
show we did was CRUMBS plus Jacob Banigan (always a treat). The show
involved Canadian Curling, Crazy Carpenters and Camping in Croatia
(the Six C's of improvisation).
The
Curling story was about a couple of Canucks who loved curling. But
then we introduced Daphne (Was Daphne her name?) a girl who is then a
wedge in the curling duo's world. The introduction of sex and love
that potentially distracts a curler from his concentration on
curling. We also had to explain curling in the show because nobody
really knew that much about curling at all. It was quite
educational... well, actually, it was quite silly.
The
Crazy Carpenters story was about an old carpenter and his brand new
apprentice. They were building a house for a rich (and snooty)
British man. They end up killing him. Some stuff happened to lead up
to this, but it was really really complicated. You had to be there.
The
Camping in Croatia story involved a single dad taking his two sons on
a trip to Croatia to go camping. The trip goes horribly. They get
into a car accident, it rains the whole time, and the two sons run
away. Dad is still upset about his wife leaving him, and has anger
issues. They end up reuniting and dad promises to keep his anger to
himself. There is hope for this family after all.
After
the show, it is a tradition to go for a drink (like most shows in the
theatre). Usually the bar is one called “The Running Horse”, but
the bar was too full. So we ended up going to another pub down the
street. Now it is time for the “what?” factor to increase. We
entr the bar and notice a Manitoba flag. Strange. The only other
flags are the Union Jack, the Irish flag, the English flag and the
Scottish flag. Okay... then we see a Winnipeg Jets jersey above the
bar. What? It's the only hockey jersey in the place. So of course we
talk to the bartender about it.
It turns out that one of the partners
who one the bar is from Winnipeg. Small world, and more Austrian
Canadian connections for the show concept we are creating.
Neat
huh?
