Euro Touro 2016 Part 1

CRUMBS are back on tour in Europe. It hasn't been since 2014 that CRUMBS have been together on European soil. Pretty exciting stuff right? And to think that it was way back in the spring of 2001 that CRUMBS first hopped over the pond from Canada to Europe so if I do the math correctly and crunch the numbers... it is the 15 year anniversary of CRUMBS on a Euro Touro. Wow, time does fly by. 

Here's what the little Euro Touro looks like:

Sat, May 7th - Hamburg

Thu, May 12th - Berlin 

Sat, May 14th - The Hague

Thu, May 19-May 21 - Leipzig

Sun, May 22nd - Baden (CH)

Sun, May 29th - Berlin

CRUMBS does live performances

1. CRUMBS was lucky enough to be invited to kick off the first show of the "Outside Joke Season of Yuks!" CRUMBS turned 15 years old and Outside Joke turned 10 years old. That's 25 years of making things up! That's also one more year that we've survived as independent artists and one year closer to our deaths. Thanks for the show Outside Joke, GSAC and Winnipeg!

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2. CRUMBS performs live at the King's Head Pub on some of the Tuesday Free Laughs Comedy Shows. The shows start at 9 p.m. and they are FREE! Look for CRUMBS on:

Dec 18th, Jan 15th, Feb 5th, Feb 19th

Where's the King's Head Pub?

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3. CRUMBS will be performing live with Canada's "other" favourite improv company The National Theatre of the World! Yes, it is true and it is going to be legendarily amazingly awesomey. It will be a late night show of delights and surprises and live show.

Friday, Jan 25th at MIDNIGHT

Gas Station Theatre (455 River Ave)

Call for reservations 204-284-9477

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4. CRUMBS and the annual (sometimes twice annual) Berlin or Bust FUNdraiser show. Yes it's true, CRUMB will again be embarking on a European Tour, spreading our Prairie style improvised theatre all over. This show will be your chance to make sure you get your last true taste of CRUMBS live performance before we go. You'll also be helping us raise cash so we can pay off the crooked border guards all across Europe.

Saturday, Feb 16th at 8 p.m.

Gas Station Theatre (455 River Ave)

Call for reservations 204-284-9477

 


Where is the Gas Station Theatre? Click here for a MAP!

 
Well, here's a picture of CRUMBS with Outside Joke and then a picture of The National Theatre of the World, just for a little something extra.

 

 

Now just go to all these live performances!

 

CRUMBS in Graz

 CRUMBS have been coming to Graz, Austria for 10 years now. The group in Graz is TiB, which stands for “Theater Im Bahnhof”, which translates to “Theatre in the train station”. They started out doing just that, theatre at the main train station. What they have grown into is an amazing theatre company that not only does impro, but also actual theatre... actual mind blowing avant-guard theatre. We have some good friends that are a part of the company, not to mention a fellow Canadian. Jacob Banigan has been in Graz for almost 10 years. We first met Jacob while he was the Artistic Director of Rapid FireTheatre in Edmonton.

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?

CRUMBS in Winterthur

CRUMBS returned to Switzerland on our tour. We went to Winterthur, which is a lovely little place close to Zurich.We played at an amazing theatre called the Casinotheater. We've played there before, but it had been awhile. It's a gorgeous building that has a gorgeous theatre, amazing backstage area, a gourmet restaurant attached and apartments on the top floor. So yes, we could get used to playing there.

The show we played was a theatresports show, something we almost never do anymore. When we first started to tour Europe, we would do a lot of "matches" in the theatresports style of competitive improv. But as we toured more and more with our longform improv show, and taught longform improv workshops. People wanted to do longform shows with us instead of shortform shows. I won't go into the long and short of the difference between these two styles (pun intended). I'll just say that it is rare that we do any theatresports shows, but it's still fun to play an improv show in this style.

Oh yeah, the show also happens to be the 100th theatresports show at the Casinotheater, so it was a special celebration as well as a fun show. Yes, there was champaign. Yes, we did then eat delicious food at the gourmet restaurant . Yes, we did continue our party upstairs in the apartments. Yes, we could really get used to the Casinotheater.

 

Had some fun in Winterthur, as you can see.We went to the Photography museum.

Got into a fight with the Kung Fu Panda.

Saw some balloons.

Saw the world famous candy shop.

So exciting. And then we said goodbye to Switzerland (and the expensive expensive life of the Swiss) and continued on our tour. Next stop.... Bremen, Germany!

CRUMBS in K-town!

 Konstanz is a town in Southern Germany. We like to call it K-town or Konstanztinople, not because we don't like the original name, just because it's fun. We did our CRUMBS show at the K9 and then we left town. It was a real “In Out Operation” as they say in the biz.

We got “Astronomer” and “Nail Studio” as our inspirations. One storyline followed Maureen and Roxy, two nail studio workers.

 Maureen is feeling lonely and unattractive ever since her boyfriend Denis left her. Roxy (and a crazy slutty client) convince her to go to the best club in town (The Unicorn Club). She secretly has a huge crush on Pierre (her smock designer, who seems to be gay). She decides to take part in the local legend at the Unicorn Club. You see, if you grab the unicorn horn on the statue in the middle of the dance floor and close your eyes and make a wish, when you open your eyes the first person you see is your true love.

 Maureen opens her eyes on Denis (the audience was upset over this). Eventually she musters up the courage to ask Pierre out, and it turns out he isn't gay after all. Though looking back with improv regret... he should have been gay and tragedy should have befallen Maureen.

The other storyline involved an astronomy professor and his idiot assistant. The professor was looking for a supernova so he could become famous.

 The idiot assistant was just the only person from his family to ever go to university, and the only person who would actually apply for the job as assistant (because the professor is hated). Jeremy (the idiot) goes home to his family and we see that his dad has black lung and refuses to see his son ever work in a coal mine (hence the university).

 But when all hope is lost, the parallels between coal mining and searching the cosmos for dying stars is revealed. They both involve traveling back in time, whether spying on the old light of dying stars, or digging into the old layers of the Earth's crust.

 Jeremy discovers the super nova, discovers that there is coal on it and gets to fly on a rocket ship to the new super nova. Science.

CRUMBS in Berlin

CRUMBS is now in Berlin. We're teaching workshops. We're developing a show with Die Gorillas. We're eating very good Mexican food. We're hanging out with good friends.

Keep looking out for us. We'll keep looking out for you.

CRUMBS almost on Tour again

CRUMBS seems to always be touring, or coming back from tour, or getting ready to go on tour. It is the blessing and the curse of being a live comedy act. Maybe someday we will break into movies or television and tour less but until then, you will just have to see us live to get that "fix".

So where can we be seen live?

#1
CRUMBS presents: Berlin or Bust 13
Sat, Feb 18th at 8pm
Gas Station Theatre
Call 284-9477 for tickets because this show is our big ol' fundraiser and t'will be packed packed packed. You don't want to miss this show, in fact, you are forbidden to miss this show.

#2
CRUMBS & Friends
Tue, Feb 21st at 9pm
King's Head Pub
Our last show at the King's Head until we come back in the summer. If you cannot make our big show at the Gas Station on Saturday, you are allowed to come to this show at the King's Head, just be warned we will ask you for money (you cheap bastards!)

#3
CRUMBS Euro Touro
March to June
All over Europe
Check out our European website which will soon be posting our tour schedule so that you can book you tickets (yes I do mean plane tickets as well as theatre tickets).

#4
CRUMBS at the Winnipeg Fringe
Every night of the Winnipeg Fringe in mid July 2012
King's Head Pub
You can celebrate Winnipeg summer in the best way, which is Fringe + Sun + CRUMBS.

But wait, CRUMBS has been doing some television. Lee and Stephen both appeared in this episode of The Week Thus Far, which is a local Winnipeg TV comedy show that airs on Shaw TV.

Week Thus Far - Valentines Day Special from Week Thus Far on Vimeo.



And wait, Stephen Sim of CRUMBS has been seen on the silver screen in the Winnipeg shot Goon which has a general release on Feb 24th! While all three of Stephen's lines ended up on the cutting room floor, his face is shown throughout this violent hockey movie. So if you like movies about hockey fights and Stephen's face, you will love this movie.




And double wait, if CRUMBS are on tour touring what will be happening with their weekly radio show that they do on Mondays at 5pm on 101.5 UMFM? Well, we have FRAZ filling in for us so your ears are in good hands... did I phrase that correctly?

CRUMBS is almost done the tour

CRUMBS is almost done yet another tour of Europe and as we get ready to do the last couple of "gigs" on our Euro Touro 2011, know that we are also sooooooo behind on our website updates.

I will try and post a small update about each of the stops on our tour and catch up to the present, though it is quite hard to keep up with reality. I will also try and continue to keep updating the site with actual current projects.

Even though the updates are behind, I will mention that we are in Munich right now and are preparing ourselves mentally (read this as sipping on Gin and Tonics) for the TEDx Munich. If you don't know what TED is, go here. If you don't know what Munich is, go there. It is pretty exciting to be involved with this whole TED thing, I hope it works out smoothly. Check out info about this event HERE.

Then we put the Euro Touro 2011 to bed and kiss it on the forehead for the 10th year in a row. We pack our bags and empty out pockets for security and jump aboard the "old tin can shuttle" to skip across the Atlantic for our homes.

We will see you soon for:

Improvaganza in Edmonton!

Winnipeg Fringe Festival!

Stay tuned...

CRUMBS prays for CANADA

And when I say "pray" I mean hope and wish and plead that Canada doesn't hand Harper a majority government (and for that matter, I hope we don't give him a minority one either). I don't mean "pray" as in the activity that actually does no good at all.

The election approaches and the polls keep pointing at a Harper majority, though the polls cannot be trusted as they are land line phone polls and:
1) Who has a land line anymore?
2)Who even answers the questions that they ask?

There is some mobilization to get the youth out to vote, the best so far is:

ShitHarperDid
Oh yeah, you can better use your vote to defeat Harper by using this handy-dandy voting tool. Just click on the link HERE. It lets you know what best to vote against Conservative in your riding.

Thank you,
CRUMBS

Last couple shows in Winnipeg

You are going to be missing your CRUMBS fix very soon, unless of course you are reading this in Europe, in which case you are just about to get your fix. But, if you are in fact reading this in Winnipeg, you must get your fix in NOW!

CRUMBS are doing two more shows in Winnipeg before going off on their annual Euro Touro. CRUMBS first hopped over the pond to do a show in Europe in 2001, here we are in 2011 and CRUMBS has gone over there to do shows every year since that first amazing Berlin International Improv Festival.


The First Show:



Tuesday, March 1st.

This will be the last CRUMBS show at the King's Head Pub until the Winnipeg Fringe Festival July 13-24th. We will be playing with Dj Hunnicutt as usual, and we will be doing some sort of hilarious improv set as usual. The FREE LAUGHS comedy show that runs every Tuesday at the King's Head will continue doing shows with Outside Joke taking the place of CRUMBS for all your improv needs.



The Second Show:



Saturday, March 12th.

This will be the infamous "Berlin or Bust" improv fundraiser show at the Gas Station Theatre. We will be performing with Dj Hunnicutt on our home turf one last time before jumping on a plane to tour Europe. This is the 10th ever "Berlin or Bust" show we have done. It is amazing to think that CRUMBS has toured Europe for a decade, but it seems that math and history point to this truth.











The Tour:

Click on the link for all the schedule information on how you can best stalk CRUMBS as they tour Europe.