It is a well-known fact that Aisling = theatre nerd. So, I was very excited when my mother decided, last-minute, that we were going to go see one of the shows done at The 2008 High Performance Rodeo, which is hosted by the lovely One Yellow Rabbit theatre company.

We went and saw Hammy and The Kids. I don’t know about any foreigners reading this, but most Canadians, for sure, have heard of the comedy troupe, The Kids in the Hall. You may have seen their TV show, or their film, Brain Candy.

Hammy and The Kids, is the one-man show, with Kevin McDonald (Actually, it’s a one-main show, plus the guitarist, ha ha). It details his life with his abusive alcohoic father (Oh ha ha ha, very funny, Kev…) and his experience working with The Kids in the Hall. It was incredibly funny (I plan to add “masturbation fire,” to my common vocabulary), even with the serious and sad subject matter of his father thrown in.

Also, there were songs! Great songs! With dancing! Unfortunately, Kevin is not a fantastic singer and dancer.

My favourite song was about him being passive-aggressive. I really should have written down the lyrics, because it was definitely a song I could relate to, being extremely non-confrontational myself! And the stories about KITH colleague Scott Thompson, whom I very much enjoyed in Prom Queen: The Marc Hall Story, by the way, were outrageously hilarious, and highly inappropriate.

I would highly suggest seeing this, if it comes to your part of the world. Or the KITH when they go on tour this spring. (Which I am psyched for.)

Also, catching my eye, while flipping through the High Performance Rodeo program, was BASH’d, which is toted as A Gay Rap Opera. Featuring flaming rappers Feminem and T-Bag, this progressive piece, performed using rap and spoken word poetry, depicts life during the same-sex marriage debate in Alberta. As I’ve mentioned, Alberta is highly Conservative, and many people are ignorant to… a lot of things. Don’t get me wrong, I love most Albertans, and they are very friendly, and I am one of them (ha ha) but the ideals here are quite…torn. We are caught between these old traditions and what is now socially right. Anyway, this seems like something I would thoroughly enjoy, and it goes up next week. I’m not sure if I will be able to make it, but I hope to make an effort!