Personal Performance Review and Recap: Homo Night in Canada 2009

July 2, 2009 by vongsundara · 1 Comment 

I had a great time performing at Homo Night in Canada 2009 on Saturday night during Toronto Gay Pride Festival at Buddies in Bad Times theatre in the heart of Toronto’s gay village. I went to see the show last year when my friend and fellow comedian Julia Stretch was performing at the show, and I knew then and there that I wanted to be a part of the following year’s show. Luckily, I was able to secure a spot earlier in the year.

This year’s show was hosted by the always hilarious Richard Ryder, gay comedian extraordinaire. He did a wonderful job of running the show and keeping the energy of the crowd high. I was up first and was definitely nervous. I don’t get so much nervous for the occasion as much as I get nervous for the material I am performing.

The general rule in stand-up comedy is to start with your second-best joke and end with your best and never never never start with new material. Well, I don’t have much choice in the matter since my comedy style is storytelling. I can’t start with something old since all my sets are minimum five minutes long. The set I performed at Homo Night in Canada 2009 was basically ten minutes of all-new material from beginning to end (barring the last 30 seconds of the set, which I borrowed the ending from my Ugly People set).

Anyhow, here’s the video clip, so you can judge for yourselves:

Vong Sundara performs Super Power Bottoms during Homo Night in Canada 2009 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13sBHm6M4Og

The crowd as absolutely amazing. The crowd's reactions definitely added to the performance and helped me feel a rhythm. Overall, I was very happy with the performance. A bigger surprise to me is that the performance taped even better than it played live. After reviewing the tape, I was pleasantly surprised at some of what I missed while on the stage. Sometimes you never know unless you review the tape. I had the reverse happen when reviewing the tape for my performance of The Ghetto Truth at Spirits a few weeks back, so it was good to see the opposite happen with this performance.

I had a couple of audience members come up to me after to mention that they thought I had crossed the line a couple of times during the performance. I wasn't too upset, though, because it's always my goal to offend five percent of the crowd. Any more than five per cent means that I probably went too far, but anything less than five per cent usually means that I didn't say anything with substance that was worth thinking about.

Another quick note before I go: Mae Martin. Last year, Mae absolutely came away as the breakout star of Homo Night in Canada 2008 (at least for me anyways). I was really excited that she came back this year and performed, this time closing the show. Below is a clip of her song Showers:

Mae Martin performs Showers during Homo Night in Canada 2009 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXhrr2txcog

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Twilight movie stylishly mixes adolescent love with vampires and werewolves

December 14, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

This evening I went out with my roomie to see Twilight at the movie theatre. Twilight is a vampire romance movie based on a novel by Stephanie Meyer. I am a complete novice to the series and have never read any of the books, but I got caught up in the hype and have been eagerly awaiting the movie.

I’m generally not a fan of traditional vampire lore, though I am a super huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its offshoot graphic novel Fray by Joss Whedon. In a lot of ways, I found similarities between the two properties: love stories at the heart of a crazy, vampire-filled world.

I enjoy what Stephanie Meyer has done with some of the old vampire lore mainstays, particularly her twist on why vampires don’t go out during daylight.
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Quantum of Solace is fun but sparks originality of Casino Royale

November 16, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Quantum of Solace for a while now. It is easily the biggest movie of the 2008 holiday season now that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been delayed until next summer.

I went in with fairly high expectations, as I am a huge fan of Casino Royale’s reboot of the 007 franchise. Don’t get me wrong, I totally loved the Pierce Brosnan films, but Casino Royale was definitely more in line with where movies are headed nowadays with a lot more grit. Quantum of Solace delivered for the most part.
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Cashmere Mafia vs. Lipstick Jungle, a comparison of new shows

October 28, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

I am a super huge fan of Sex and the City, both the television series and the recent movie. In fact, I cried no less than three times during the movie this summer. With that in mind, I wanted a new fix and thus went to my local DVD shop and bought the DVD sets of Cashmere Mafia and Lipstick Jungle, the two spiritual successors to Sex and the City.

Lipstick Jungle comes from the author of the original Sex and the City novel the television show was based on, while Cashmere Mafia is headed by Darren Star, executive producer of the Sex and the City television show.
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Mamma Mia! has made me a huge fan of ABBA

October 19, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

Believe it or not, I went into this movie knowing of only two ABBA songs: Dancing Queen and Take A Chance On Me. I had no idea of the breadth of ABBA’s hits. I left this movie a super fan. In fact, I went straight out and bought the movie soundtrack.

I’ve read several reviews, and I don’t think most reviewers have been ignoring the fantastic performance turned in by Amanda Seyfried as lead Sophie. Amanda has an amazing quivering soprano voice that cuts straight to the heart of the lyrics. I have been a big fan of Amanda’s since Mean Girls and Big Love, but I never knew she had such a great voice.
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iPhone 3G has changed my life, absolutely spectacular technology

October 19, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

I remember my first introduction to the original iPhone over a year ago. There were rumours swirling for months regarding Apple’s eventual unveiling of the iPhone. Even with all the hype, Apple’s unveiling blew all expectations out of the water. I downloaded the conference video and was astounded with all the features the phone would offer. Unfortunately for me, it would be well over a year before the iPhone would be introduced to Canada.

A few of my friends went the route of buying an American iPhone and unlocking it for use in Canada. I decided to wait. I almost waited too long, as the introductory 6GB data plan offer was over, and I had to argue my way to getting the introductory offer. All in all, I’m happy with the cost of the data plan and the options I received (6GB data, iPhone Wireless Essentials).

I’ve now had the phone for a full two weeks, and I must say in all honesty that the iPhone 3G has changed my life. The precipitating factor for my buying an iPhone 3G was actually this website. The iPhone 3G launched with Apple’s App Store 2.0 software, allowing the downloading and purchase of third-party applications. The biggest application for me was WordPress for iPhone. Now I’m able to blog on the go, like when I’m on the bus on my way to work. The App Store opens up a world of possibilities, and having the power of the internet in my hands at all times is extremely convenient.

My favourite features of the iPhone include the complete integration with my iMac desktop computer. All my e-mails and contacts are automatically synchronized. The Visual Voicemail makes receiving voice messages much less painful (I’ve never been much for receiving voicemail).

I’m one of the few fans of the touch keypad. I have never been a fan of the BlackBerry and still find them rather cumbersome to use, so I never got used to typing with my thumbs. There have been many complaints about Apple’s touch keypad, but I think they mainly stem from users trying to type with their thumbs. The keypad is simply not made for this, as thumbs are too large and block the screen. I use my three centre fingers, and I’m confident that within a year’s time, I’ll be able to out-type any BlackBerry typist in the world. Yes, I may be a bit over-confident, but I am the Winnipeg Typing Champion after all.

The phone itself has had some technical issues. In fact, I am already on my second iPhone 3G in as many weeks. My first iPhone 3G decided to no longer recognize my SIM card. My second iPhone 3G nearly stopped recognizing the existence of a battery. Now, I generally would deduct marks off for these technical issues except for one huge factor: Apple’s customer service.

The ease of reporting my phone’s failure and the quick replacement of my phone was rather impressive. The new 2.1 software update is also supposed to have corrected many of the software bugs.

Technical issues aside, the overwhelming way in which Apple has changed the world of mobile technology far outshines anything that could possibly be semi-annoying.

Review Score: ★★★★★ 

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