Comedy Idol & Updates

-The finalists have been decided for tonight's Comedy Idol showdown. KENDALL GAWRYLUK took the Judge's Choice, and KELLY SOLODUKA won the People's Choice. SHAWN GRAMIUK and POWERMANN also had fantastic sets. Judge and EDMONTON SUN columnist STEVE TILLEY put it best when he commented that basically three or four guys had great sets. Two of them would advance and two of them would get screwed.

For those of you keeping score at home, this is the line-up for the Finals tonight at Yuk Yuks:
J.P FOURNIER
STEVE MCCARTHY
SEAN LECOMBER
ANGIE ISMOND
DAN BRODRIBB
MARK SALAMANDICK
ANDREW IWANYK
TRAVIS ROBINSON
KENDALL GAWRYLUK
KELLY SOLODUKA

Looking at the list of finalists, not only are they very good comedians, they're all great people as well. It should be a great night. The Edmonton comedy scene has always been very supportive. Even a lot of the local professionals have been coming down to watch the shows and give us tips and support. I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be doing comedy.

One of the reasons I hate comedy and writing contests is because it implies that the comedians or writers who end up in the prize rounds are 'better' than the ones who didn't. In the case of Comedy Idol, a lot of guys didn't make it to the finals simply because of the numbers game--NAVIN PRATAP, SHAWN GRAMIUK, POWERMANN, and TODD KREPAKEVICH are all fine comics and deserve to be seen. The good news is, all of them perform around town on a fairly regular basis, which mean there should be plenty of opportunities for you (yes, I mean you personally) to go out and see them either at the comedy clubs or the open mics around town like Blue Chicago (organized by KATHLEEN MCGEE) , Brado's (sp?) (organized by SEAN BAPTISTE) and a couple rooms run by BRIAN HEGGE.

-JEFF L. BURKE is starting work on his first feature film called FRITZ, and I auditioned for a part. This is a project Jeff has been working on for sometime, so it's great to see him finally getting the opportunity to realize his dream. I wish him all the best.