The three hosts of The Bus & Muffler (Dan Huen, Ryan Ash and Tim Gray) were in prime form as they each gave notable audience-slaughtering performances. As well, their guests Ben “Old Ball Coach” Walker, Toby Hargrave and Brett Madill were the finest company a late night drive home radio show could ask for.

click here to be redirected to the Podcast feed-tank.

iTunes account coming soon…

It all started with a series of emails and two meetings with Stephen Sim. Then came the cast meetings, the writing, the rehearsing, the re-writing, the rehearsing, the re-re-writing, the rehearsing, the re-re-re-writing, the rehearsing, the re-re-re-re-writing, etc…

Sim brought Caitlin Curtis and Fraz Wiest into this project. Fraz later became a co-writer of the show and lone writer of the killer closing sketch. The one everyone, without exception, listed as one of their favourite moments in the show. Fraz has the ability to make me turn from stoic to crying like a bruised baby from laughing so hard within 2 minutes of being around him. He has all the talent in the world and impeccable timing. I sure hope to work with him again in the future…

Caitlin is definitely destined for great things. She’s equal parts sweet as sugar and tough as steel. Her improvisational skills and valiant work ethic make her the ideal collaborator for pretty much anything. I will not pick favourites, but if I had to it would totally be Dan Huen, with Caitlin as a close second.

Marc Evans is a little guy with a humungous, throbbing heart/penis. It was his bad ass studio in the Exchange District that we met in twice a week to discuss, rehearse, and smoke copious amounts of cigarettes in. He coined many a phrase that’s worked it’s way into my regular lexicon.

And Dan Huen was there too.

In conclusion, this experience was invaluable, exciting and inspiring. Next year I’m hoping to produce at least two shows and one kids fringe show. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy some recreational reading and time passing before season 2 of Week Thus Far kicks off in September.

Want to win some tickets to see “Full Screen Ahead: The Sketch Show, Show” at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival!

Send me an email with the answer to the following skill testing question and which date you’d like a ticket for. There’s one pair available for each performance.

Showtimes:

Thursday, July 14th 3:14pm
Friday, July 15th 11:00pm
Sunday, July 17th 3:45pm
Monday, July 18th 7:15pm
Thursday, July 20th 3:45pm
Friday, July 21st 9:15pm
Saturday, July 22nd 12:15pm

Skill Testing Question:

1 + 1 – 1 + 2 = ?

Send your answer and your first and second choice show dates to tim@weekthusfar.com

“Full Screen Ahead: The Sketch Show Show” is the Fringe Show that I’m co-producing with Stephen Sim of Crumbs. It’s written by myself, Stephen and the unprecedentedly talented Fraz Wiest.

Currently, Tim Gray and Dan Huen are part of a weekly satirical news/talk show called “Week Thus Far“, which airs on Channel 9 (for Shaw subscribers) every Tuesday night at 10pm and on loop Sundays. They started the Gray Area of Comedy in 2008 as a weekly sketch show on UMFM airwaves. Since then, they’ve produced two shows at the Gas Station Theatre and released a DVD containing over 90 minutes of sketch comedy. Tim and Dan have been featured in Uptown’s “One to Watch” column 3 times. The Gray Area of Comedy was in The Uniter’s Top 30 Under 30 list. Dan Huen has appeared in the the CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival and was voted the third funniest person in Winnipeg by Uptown Magazine.

Fraz Wiest is a founding member of the Toronto based Ghost Jail Theatre. Fraz is also a nationally known improviser and comedian who has had multiple appearances in the iF…Winnipeg Improv Festival. He also invented awesome.

Marc Evans is a core cast member of the massive Fringe hit, hugely successful Dungeons & Dragons improv show. Also, Marc has done stints at the Improv Olympic in Chicago and the Second City in Toronto. The little big man has improvised throughout Canada and is the Assistant Director of the Manitoba improv league. He also has two cats and is known to sport a pretty meaty beard.

Caitlin Curtis is an uprising improv mega-star in Winnipeg who has attended international festivals in Chicago, Seattle and Toronto. In her spare time she coaches provincial champions in the Manitoba Improv League. When Caitlin isn’t teaching stellar improv workshops or saving orphans from a burning building she’s changing the world, one smile at a time.

SHOWTIMES:
Thursday, July 14 3:15PM
Friday, July 15 11:00PM
Sunday, July 17 3:45PM
Monday, July 18 7:15PM
Thursday, July 21 3:45PM
Friday, July 22 9:15PM
Saturday, July 23 12:15PM

VENUE #3
The Pantages Playhouse Studio
180 Market Street

In the past six months a group of comedians led by one tyrannically awesome leader managed to produce 10 episodes of Week Thus Far (and tape 11). Every Monday we’d show up in the Forks with two vehicles stuffed with sound and video equipment, unload into Finn’s Pub and systematically turn it into a makeshift television studio. Dan Robertson even built us a prompter out of (essentially) cardboard, a sheet of glass, a monitor and a tiny computer.

I’ve never been more proud of any project I’ve ever worked on. Every Thursday we meet to talk business, Saturday we write and shoot sketches, Sundays we edit between 16-19 News Desk jokes and 1-3 videos. When Monday rolls around we’re all sleep deprived and panic-ridden, but ready to put on a show for the enthusiastic and generous audience that’s laughing at the same jokes they’re hearing for the second time or applaud for a sketch they just watched without sound.

I could talk about it for pages and pages. Instead I’m going to leave you with a series of sketches we’ve put together (some have been sent to us) from Week Thus Far in chronological order.

Week Thus Far’s intro!

This is Sean doing what I call “Intellectually Bullying” people in the Forks.

The ‘One Great Part of One Great City’ series highlights what makes Winnipeg the best city in the world. Period.

Upper Fort Garry Wall

The Golden Boy

Odenna Celebration Circle

1123 Grosvenor Ave.

A smear campaign from the one they call “Old Ball Coach”. (We got a call about that hat)

I think I’m an idiot in this sketch. Like I’m consciously shitting the bed.

Dan Huen with Rockin’ Ron Pollock!

On one episode taping our band bailed last minute (Greg Arcade saved the day) and none of the footage made it onto the tape. Luckily we had a stand-alone camera set up and Will O’Donnell played rogue camerman and did a great job. We discovered that the stand-up juggernaut known as Ryan Ash can also can bust-a-move with some deadly precision.

I have plenty more sketches to show you from the Week Thus Far crew. Make sure you visit their website and tell them how wonderful they may or may not be. Stay tuned…

And, oh yeah, FRINGE SHOW! – Full Screen Ahead: The Sketch Show, Show. Stay tuned…

I met the-recently-deceased-person-instigating-this-late-night-blog-post in 2006 when we were both cast in the Black Hole Theatre Company’s production of “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” (Part of the ’07 Playwright Festival). Of course, Susan was the Queen and I was a mere tragedian. For the unlearned readers – the only difference between a tragedian and a peasant is the ability to recite shakespeare. Despite our facetious social disparity, Susan always treated me as an equal. This is a short story that takes place during the run of R & G that will hopefully portray the Susan that I knew and will always remember:

After a matinee performance at the Gas Station Theatre the non-principal members of the cast walked down the street to the Academy Bistro for lunch. After all were fed and full we got our bills and prepared to part ways. Those paying with cash left it on the table and those paying with plastic lined up to settle up. I was deathly afraid that I had already maxed out my credit and debit cards so I solemnly slipped into the back of the line and impatiently waited for my turn on the digital guillotine. When both cards were predictably declined I shamefully whispered to the other thespians my financial woes and requested a loan to the tune of $20. Everyone just stared at me blankly except for Alan McPhearson, who immediately laughed and ridiculed my lack of funds, and Susan Nisbet, who hurriedly shuffled me back to the cash register and promptly dished out a fresh $20 bill. Being Scottish, she didn’t let an hour pass without reminding me that I owed her $20. The fact that Susan is Scottish understandably makes her generosity agreeably more endearing, but as soon as I mention Alan was Jewish …

“Someone once said that suffering plus time equals comedy. If that’s true you’re in for a real treat.” That was the first thing Susan Nisbet said when she finally took a crack at stand-up comedy. Susan had an unquenchable thirst for truth and knowledge that made her wisdom timeless and her humour irresistibly relatable. The only time there was ever a feeling of disparity in our age was when she asked me to Google something on Amazon. Listen to these recordings of Susan dropping humourus knowledge on crowds of unsuspecting strangers.

John B Duff was the first guy to give Susan some stage time. This is a taping of Susan’s first time doing stand-up. Thank Ian for not recording until 2min into her performance (despite the fact that I was fully able to do it myself). Blame my digital camera for the shitty audio. I’ve added subtitles, just press the “CC” button if they don’t appear after 20 seconds.

Within one year of her first gig Susan appeared in the Winnipeg Comedy Festival. To this day, nobody knows if she got in because Al Rae thought she was funny or because he knew she was an easy lay.

She is mostly remembered for not being able to breath, so it’s hard to believe she once had a voice. But, believe it or not…

The Winnipeg if… Improv Festival is here! To read an article written by Tim Gray and Steve Sim for Airtimes Magazine click here! Make sure you check out the blog site for all the details on this event! We’re so, so, so happy to be able to premier the new Gray Area of Comedy’s video sketch – “Hot Water” at the Winnipeg Showcase show at the Gas Station (Theatre) Arts Center on Wednesday, November 10th. We’ve spent the whole summer writing this sketch with Ryan Ash, filming with Dan Robertson and editing with the fine people at At First Sight. We’ve got more people to thank than I have strength to type, so know in your hearts of hearts that I’m as grateful as can be.

Here is a little teaser from the Gray Area of Comedy (except it’s not at all a teaser because it’s not at all like what we’ve prepared for Wednesday’s show).

The Lost Footage Part II from Timothy James Gray on Vimeo.

Here is the Gray Area of Comedy’s Lost Tapes Part One:

At the top of the page you’ll see some stills from one of the post-production sketches we’re working on called “That’s A Rap”… working title.

Since then I brought to the Comedy Loser stage a couple more songs. Comedy seems to be the only context I can bring an instrument on stage and pretend like I know what I’m doing. Every once in a while I might be able to pull off something that sounds like I know what I’m doing, but if you’re a legit musician you’ll notice that I have very poor timing. The finest example would be the “Dear Death” song I wrote for Comedy Loser. The plan was to record myself doing the rhythm guitar and then I’d play the mandolin and harmonica live and in sync with the “live feed with Tim from 6 hours ago”. It’s a concept I’m still playing with and want to explore further. But, as you’ll see from this video I really need to work on my timing. Sorry the audio and video quality sucks.

I still find that song rather eerie.

When Comedy Loser announced that it was going to be discontinued after this season I thought I better take this last chance to get on stage and pretend to be a musician. You see, I figure if I get on stage and pretend to be a musician at a comedy show, people will be more obliged to laugh at my self-delusion than stare in awe at it. This is the most recent attempt at being comedicly musical:

Someday I’ll finish writing a song before I perform it… Or I won’t go on a tangent about my asthma half way through the first verse…

This last little gem is the audio recording of a song I did back in December about the Free Laughs Comedy Series at the Kings Head Pub. I only recorded the audio and I had this footage kicking around from a camping trip, so I decided to arbitrarily combine the two and make this masterpiece (of shit).

WHAT’S THAT? BONUS TRACK!! Susan Nisbet sings the hits? Yes:

WHAT? COULD IT BE? A SECOND BONUS TRACK THAT’S MORE SUSAN AND LESS MUSIC?

I found a 94 year old joke book in my room! I remember when my Grandpa died many years ago he left me some old books that I just threw onto a shelf and neglected until last night. I decided to pull them all down and make reading them my summer project. I picked up “The Sunny Side of Life” first, flipped to the first page and saw these words, “Current Humor Gathered From Many Sources.” The only thing written on the third page is:

Copyright, 1916
by
Shrewesbury Publishing Co.

Followed by a singular quote on the fourth page – “What Should a Man Do But Be Merry?” – Hamlet

There is no explanation as to where these jokes came from, or who gathered them, but it serves as a great insight into how people approached humour 94 years ago. If you hold any faith in the old adage ‘art imitates life’ and you’re willing to play along and call joke writing an art, then this book could also serve as a gauge to what was on the world’s mind at the time.

The following is a list of ‘The Sunny Side of Life’ jokes that tickled me. Enjoy

Doubtful Assurances
“Do you think that they approved of my sermon?” asked the newly-appointed rector, hopeful that he had made a good impression.
“Yes, I think so,” replied his wife; “they were all nodding.”

Definitive
The schoolmaster was trying to explain the meaning of the word “conceited,” which had occurred in the course of the reading lesson. “Now, boys,” he said, “suppose that I was always boasting of my learning-that I knew a good deal o’ Latin, for instance, or that my personal appearances was-that I was very good-looking, y’know-what should you say I was?”
Straightforward Boy-”Sure, sir, I’d say you was a liar, sir!”

Rapid-Fire
A frivolous young English girl, with no love for the Stars and Stripes, once exclaimed at a celebration where the American flag was very much in evidence: “Oh, what a silly-looking thing the American flag is! It suggests nothing but checker-berry candy.”
“Yes,” replied a bystander, “the kind of candy that has made everybody sick who ever tried to lick it.”

(this one just sounds way dirtier than I’m sure it was intended to)
The Greater Calamity
Two or three urchins were running down a long and very steep flight of steps, when the foremost stumbled and fell headlong twenty to thirty feet, and was only stopped near the bottom by doubling backward around the newel-post. It looked as though his back was broken, and that he was a dead small boy, but he gathered himself up, thrust his hand anxiously in his trousers’ pockets, and ejaculated:
“B’gosh, I b’le’ve I lost a cent.”

No Place Like Home
A Bostonian died, and when he arrived at St. Peter’s gate he was asked the usual questions:
“What is your name, and where are you from?”
The answer was, “Mr. So-and-So, from Boston.”
“You may come in,” said St. Peter, “but I know you won’t like it.”

April Fool on Mamma!
Little Willie had a very pretty governess, and on April first he rather startled his mother by rushing in to her and saying:
“Mamma, there’s a strange man upstairs who has just put his arm around Miss Wilson’s waist, and hissed her several times–”
“What?” said the mother, as she jumped up to pull the bell for the butler.
“April fool, Mamma!” said Willie, in great glee. “It wasn’t a strange man at all. It was Papa!”

Why He Wanted To Go
“Would you mind if I went into the smoking-car, dear?” asked the bridegroom in a tender voice.
“What! to smoke, sweetheart?” questioned the bride.
“Oh, dear, no,” replied the young husband; “I want to experience the agony of being away from you, so that the joy of my return will be all the more intensified.”

What Surprised Him
Two Irishmen were crossing the ocean on the way to this country. On the way over Patrick died. Preparations were made for the burial at sea, but the lead weights customarily used in such cases were lost. Chunks of coal were substituted. Everything was finally ready for the last rites, and long and earnestly did Michael look at his friend. Finally he blurted out sorrowfully:
“Well, Pat, I always knew ye were goin’ there, but I’m hanged if I thought they’d make ye bring yer own coal.”