Travelling: Vong Sundara at Copenhagen 2009 2nd World Outgames
September 14, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
I’m still getting used to travelling. You see, I grew up in Winnipeg, which is eight hours from the next large city, which happens to be Regina, not exactly a tourist destination. People in Winnipeg just don’t travel a lot, especially not to Europe. This is probably why I jumped at the chance to go to the Copenhagen 2009 2nd World Outgames. I went the Montreal 2009 1st World Outgames and had a fabulous time, so I was really looking forward to duplicating the experience in Europe.
To have my trip subsidized, I agreed to be the official photographer for GLISA North America (Gay Lesbian International Sports Association). It was actually quite nice to dust off my old camera and remember pretend like I was back in my old freelancing days. I’ve included the best 30 photos below, hope you like them. Looking back at the photos now brings back all the wonderful memories of being in Denmark.
The only strange part of the trip was not participating in any sports. Luckily, I was able to go to many of the sporting events and cheer my friends on since I had to take photos anyways. I didn’t really get the itch to play until I was actually there. It didn’t help that everyone who knew me in Denmark met me through one sport or another, so I was constantly being asked how my sport was going.
The first big highlight of the event for me was seeing Kemone Brown, keynote speaker on the second day of the human rights conference. In fact, that’s probably my favourite thing about the Outgames, that the organizers include a human rights conference and cultural component so that the event is more than just sports. You must Google Kemone Brown and read all about her. She is one of the freshest voices to come in the world of human rights in a while. It’s amazing that someone of her age has the insight that she has.
I must admit that I have a thing for Danish guys. There’s just something about their facial features combined with the best-in-the-world Danish accent. Danish accents remind me of Arnold Schwarzenegger, if Arnold Schwarzenegger was a giddy Japanese schoolgirl. It’s like a faster, happier version without the roughness. It’s quite sexy.
The best part is that Danish men are so incredibly helpful. I would often have my camera around my neck with a map in my hand and a “I’m lost and need help” look on my face. It wouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes before some cute Danish boy came and helped me along my way.
The cultural portion of the Outgames was incredible. Instead of a centralized stage, there was a trail called Outcities, where several cities from around the world set up their stages and lined up performances. The performances were free and out in the open, running all week long. They had everything from pop to hardcore opera.
I unfortunately missed the opening ceremonies by arriving a day light, but Copenhagen Pride was scheduled to close off the week, and I was fortunate enough to attend. The pictures below give a better idea of how magical the event was than anything I could write myself.
My trip actually ended with a little bit of drama. My flight had been misbooked one day past everyone else’s flight. I should have checked more closely, but everything turned on the way it was supposed to I guess. I ended up having an extra day in Denmark but without a hotel room to stay in. Amazingly, I was able to stay with overnight with a helpful Danish boy.
In fact, this Danish boy ended up being a history scholar who ended up taking me on a tour of Copenhagen on my last day. It was like having my own personal tour guide. He knew absolutely everything there was to know no matter where we were. The canal tour was wonderful, and I highly recommend it to anyone.
I’m still on a high thinking about my fabulous time in Denmark. Hopefully someday I can go back to Europe and build on my world experiences. If you’re planning on travelling, think about going to a gay sporting event. It’s a great excuse to visit new places, and you have more things to do than you normally would.
[flickr album=72157622372544736 num=30 size=Thumbnail]
I’m not sure if this comedy is allowed, but I’m going to try it anyway
March 24, 2009 by vongsundara · 1 Comment
One more day before I film my first video production. On the great advice of a great friend, I have decided to film my comedy set about the SuperPowerBottoms, my gay volleyball team and not-so-subtle stab at promoting rights for bottoms everywhere. Haha, talk about the opposite of mainstream. The video will be targeted to a very specific demographic, but I’m hoping that that demographic will really appreciate it.
The big news of the week, though, is that I have found my own comedy muse: hot blonde actress and improv student Holly. While doing improv, I discovered how much I love collaboration which isn’t something I get to do at all in stand-up. While brainstorming with my muse, I’ve decided to try something off-the-wall and maybe even against the rules.
I’m going to write a stand-up for someone else. I will be the Tina Fey to her Amy Poehler (check Saturday Night Live). Writing stand-up for Holly is actually kind of exciting because of her great acting ability. She has a uniqueness to her look and great timing on her delivery, but at this point in time she is more of a performance artist than a writer. Writing for Holly will allow me to really push myself creatively. I’ve written for my own stand-up persona for so long, that I think writing from the perspective of a young, hot blonde will be very interesting.
The end goal for this writing project is to have Holly perform her material as an opening act when my one-man show debuts (now with a bonus woman!) at the end of this year or early next year. The fact that I’ll be writing both acts will lend itself to some great continuity and some comedy tricks that I’ve been meaning to try and which I don’t think have been done before, as a headliner generally doesn’t write material for their opening act.
Anyhow, with my two current projects progressing well, I’m getting excited and more inspired than ever. It feels great to be pushing the boundaries of an art form that I love so dearly.
How To Stand-Up Comedy: Margaret Cho in I’m The One That I Want, Review and Analysis
March 16, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
I’ll be examining the ins and outs of stand-up comedy in my new series of articles titled How To Stand-Up Comedy (and yes, I’m aware the title is grammatically incorrect).
For this opening article, I decided to dissect Margaret Cho’s first feature, I’m The One That I Want, to try and gauge what it is that makes Margaret Cho so damn successful and applying those elements to my own comedy.
I first saw I’m The One That I Want during its initial run through independent theatres across North America. I was instantly drawn to Margaret Cho’s brand of humour, as I was a huge fan of her network television show, All-American Girl. If you haven’t already seen “I’m The One That I Want,” then you need to go down to your local video store and rent it immediately. If it’s not at the major video stores then try the video store in the gay village, I guarantee they’ll have a copy.
Ghetto-Winnipeg Vong is the best comedian Vong that Vong can be
February 3, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
I took this week off of work to get some comedy writing done. I’ve been working on my one-hour one-man show for a few months now, and I’m hoping to have it completed before the summer festival season, though I won’t debut the actual show until end of the year at the earliest. I haven’t been making a lot of progress lately, so I was hoping the focus off of my dayjob for a week would help me get a jump start.
This being my debut long-form show, I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I want to present and who I want to be on stage. After some careful consideration, I’ve decided to go back to my roots, the ghettos of Winnipeg. I already have a bit of material written about my life in Winnipeg, but now I want to really dig in deep.
I’m a bit of a chameleon when it comes to my personality. I’m very much different depending on whether I’m with my parents or my family or my friends or at work. Part of this comes from my upbringing, as there were definitely rules applied to how I should act depending on who was in the room (more respect, for instance, is paid to elders and people of authority and so on). The other side of this, though, is perhaps a bit of my comedic playfulness.
Different people bring out different parts of me. I’m more gay with my gay friends; I’m more ghetto with my ghetto friends. This is all common in most people of course, but I think with me it’s a little more pronounced. With individual friends, I tend to almost absorb a bit of their personality and reflect it back in an enhanced way. I didn’t realize this until recently moving in with a co-worker, and I found myself acting differently.
This got me thinking about which version of me I want to bring on stage. The answer is simple: I’m the best me when I’m with my older sister in Winnipeg. She brings out the me that I like best. We have a chemistry and connection that is pretty damn special. I think I’ve also suffered a bit from being away from Winnipeg too long.
Back in Winnipeg, I was able to maintain an incredibly balanced life as far as my friends go. One-third of my friends were straight guys, one-third were female, and one-third were gay. My personality back then had the versatility to appeal to all three demographics. Since leaving Winnipeg, my life has been dominated by my gay friends as well as some women from school, work and comedy. The part of me that appeals to the straight male demographic is slowly fading away.
This brings up the question of whether I am able to go back to that personality on stage while being so far removed from that place emotionally. I’m writing about a period of my life while being in a completely new life in a new city. I’m not sure how possible it will be.
I’m going to continue writing this week and see where it takes me, but I am seriously considering using my summer vacation days to go back to Winnipeg and complete my writing there. I’ll let you all know how it goes.
Straight guys are difficult to replace after you leave the Winnipeg ghetto
January 27, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
Five days are left before this year’s Super Bowl matchup between Arizona and Pittsburgh. It’s usually at this time of year that I miss my straight guy friends the most. Now, I love my gay friends lots, but there are just times in my life where it’s not the same without the straight boys. I used to host an annual Super Bowl party at my parents’ house in Winnipeg that I haven’t been able to host since moving.
Since leaving Winnipeg, I’ve been able to fill in the gaps as far as school friends and gay friends and girl friends, but it’s been extremely difficult to find a new group of straight guy friends who love to watch sports. You see, in Winnipeg I was surrounded by straight guys and am quite comfortable around the sporty jock testosterone-heavy scene. I’m not really sure how I will be able to really find a new group of friends now.
Don’t get me wrong, I do have some straight guy friends, though most of those friendships are superficial and come by way of my dayjob as well as fellow stand-up comedians. I could also get back into the competitive videogame scene, though that group of straight guys aren’t exactly sports-friendly.
I’m kind of lost as to how I’ll find a new “crew,” but I am open to suggestions.
Transfer of knowledge can take longer than expected in comedy
December 27, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
I’m learning to work in smaller chunks lately. I have a huge project right now in that I’m attempting to write a one-hour-long one-man show. The first step in doing this is to organize all of my notes, all 45 pages worth.
My writing style is to doodle down little notes whenever I feel inspired and then come back and collect those thoughts and flesh them out later. I think this method works in that I’m never having to sit down and try to come up with jokes from scratch. The unfortunate part is that I hae a huge backlog of material to go back and flesh out (or maybe that’s a good thing).
To write my one-hour show, I have to reorganize the material into different sections such as Work Life, Family Life, Gay Life and so on. This helps me write stories for each of the different parts of my life. The unfortunate part is that the job of transferring my random notes into an organized book has taken me almost half a year.
The task of organizing 45 pages of notes was so daunting that I spent much of that time procrastinating. Now, if I can’t even transfer notes, how am I supposed to actually write one hour’s worth of material? It finally came to me today: I have to write in smaller chunks.
Instead of looking at the full hour, I’ve got to write little five-minute chunks that can be later spliced together. I’ll have to then build some narrative structure in later. This will be somewhat difficult as it is reverse to how I normally write. I generally have a narrative skeleton that I then add the meat to as I go along.
I hope this works. I’m really excited today, though, because I am on page 35 of 45. I really, really hope I can finally get this huge monkey off my back so I can move forward with my writing.
Top nine random reflections of 2008, my first year in Toronto
December 11, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
My first year in Toronto has been a wild, wild ride for sure. There are a number of things that stand out, though most of all would be the sporty gay Asians who’ve welcomed me with open arms. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever found a city so initially welcoming in my entire life. Within my first two months of living in Toronto, I was off to Montreal to play volleyball with a great group of guys.
My dayjob has gone extremely well, having been promoted twice since working here. The only part of my life that hasn’t gone according to plan would be my comedy career, though most of that is my own doing by not focusing enough on it.
1. Toronto is the most welcoming city I’ve ever lived in
2. Changing cities means basically starting over in the comedy business
3. Montreal is a great city, but how long will I love it if I go there five times a year
4. Business people are much more in shape than in Calgary
5. Nintendo’s Wii Fit is the best game ever
6. Politicians are kind of hot lately
7. Toronto’s gay community is a lot like the cast of Gossip Girl (in a good way)
8. The more expensive the haircut, the less chance that they’ll shampoo your hair afterward
9. Baskin Robbins is dangerously close to my new house
Big Jump . . . tall, dark and bottom, hot players approached
October 12, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
What a wild and crazy volleyball tournament. My team improved so much, it was crazy. I’m super lucky to have a team that stuck with me through some crazy decisions. There is no way a novice team should be playing this good.
The most drastic decision I made was to try out a new formation mid-tournament. Not only is it crazy that we’re already playing a 6-2 formation, but I went and decided to enforce a new, modified version built specifically for this team’s strengths. The fact that they adjusted is astounding.
In fact, they not only adjusted but fluorished in the new system. We had three separate matches where we thought we played the matches of our lives, each topping the one before dramatically. Strangely, this wasn’t even the best part of the tournament.
My team, SuperPowerBottoms, became notorious across the entire tournament in all the right ways. We were known as the most spirited, fun-loving team. In fact, we received a standing ovation after we lost our last match, narrowly missing out on a medal.
It was crazy that we even had a chance to medal. In our weekly league, TSVL, we were ranked 31 out of 32 teams only just recently. This weekend, we played teams ranked in the top 20 and lost out on a medal by only four points. I can’t believe I am writing this. We are playing top 20 volleyball after only six weeks as a team.
Did I mention that no one on the team has ever played competitive volleyball before? It’s crazy.
I’m going to take a nap. Bye for now.
VS
Big Jump . . . recovery day after a grueling day one
October 12, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
What a day. After breakfast, we went straight to the tournament. We arrived late and missed practice. This was especially troublesome as I wanted to implement minor changes to our formation.
All turned out well as we saved the new formation for our second game. We are ranked fourth out of five teams tomorrow and have a great chance for a medal.
I am astounded with how quickly my team, made up entirely of novices, adjusts to strategy changes. I have thrown very complicated formations at them and they take maybe one game to adjust.
For dinner we went to the tournament banquet. We were so hungry that we danced on stage to move ahead in the lineup for food. It was totally worth it.
VS
Big Jump . . . wandering at night around Montreal is fun
October 11, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
Taking a suggestion from a Facebook friend, I decided to end my restlessness by taking a walk in downtown Montreal. This may not have been the best idea as I’ve run into a number of shady characters. I guess I’m not too worried. I did grow up in the ghetto after all.
It’s now 6:00 a.m. I used my new iPhone GPS to map my way to the closest Chez Cora. I LOVE the food here.
My food is coming. Bye for now.
VS
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