Don’t Move To Toronto: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

Karen Tortora-Lee — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 17:00:14 +0000

Ten Questions. Ten Answers. And one Big Surprise in the audience …

Don’t Move To Toronto

produced by Fresh Hell

The show follows Daniels’ move from a contented collegiate life to the unpredictable big city, and will be familiar to anyone who has been dumped, evicted, threatened, fired, or bankrupted. Using a musical playlist of the most heartfelt love songs of the last generation and her years of experience as a stand-up comedian and storyteller, Daniels presents the brutally hilarious tale of a perfectly happy life absolutely ruined by moving to the Big Smoke.

Show Info:

Wed Feb 24, 2016 | 5:30PM
Fri Feb 26, 2016 | 7:10PM
Sun Feb 28, 2016 | 12:10PM
Tue Mar 01, 2016 | 7:10PM
Thu Mar 03, 2016 | 10:30PM
Sat Mar 05, 2016 | 5:30PM

Under St. Marks New York, NY $15/$18

Answers by Zoe Daniels

(writer/performer)

1. Forget the PR version. When you’re talking to your friends, how do you explain this show to them?
Zoe: This show is all true stories of the insane year I had after moving to Toronto. You know all the bad things that usually happen in your 20′s? Those all happened to me, all at once. At a certain point I was just like “Yes, yes, this is the worst. Bring it on. What else can go wrong? Show me.” Just bathing in my own tears.

2. Here’s a scenario: After the show some audience members go have a drink. What’s the part of the show you hope they’re discussing?
Zoe: Probably the part where my neighbour goes insane or where my boyfriend dumps me in the dumbest way possible.

3. What drives your show – character, theme or plot?
Zoe: Character + theme. I do a couple characters from my year who were just too silly not to mock, but the overall show is in my voice and the theme is a combination of “You gotta laugh or you’ll cry” and “Woo0o0o0owwww, life is absurd.”

4. In rehearsals, read-thrus, or prior incarnations, what’s the one thing someone said about the show so far that made you (or the team) the most proud?
Zoe: A friend of mine said “I laughed, I cried, I was on my period.” A reviewer from the Pioneer Press (the big newspaper in Minnesota) said

“Daniels offers a comedic voice for a next generation [and] tells her personal stories [...] with such wit, humor and sarcasm, that it has you wanting to know what happens next and laughing throughout”

5. If money and resources (and even reality) were no object what is the most lavish, luxurious, pointless prop, costume, effect – anything – that you would spend money on for this show?
Zoe: I would bring my audience to Toronto with me an perform a year-long show where I would recreate every day in painstaking detail, including the awful apartments, ridiculous jobs, and hysterically bad trip to Europe.

6. What’s the one thing you’re looking forward to regarding the FRIGID Festival itself?
Zoe: Verrrrry excited to see what people are doing back in the homeland. I live in Canada now so it’s always sort of novel to see American theatre. Also, I hope I see some dance shows because I never tire of being like “HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THAT I CAN’T DO THAT AMAZING.”

7. Is there a scene, a moment, a gesture … anything at all in the show that you anticipate may get a completely different reaction depending on the audience that night?
Zoe: Yeah, one of the big jokes in the middle is a kind of crushing moment – sometimes the audience gets sad instead of laughing because they’re worried about me but I gotta tell you, don’t be – it’s really, really funny.

8. What’s your favorite line from the show?
Zoe: “The owner was a 5 foot 2 lady the color and texture of beef jerky, she drove a pink Hummer with her initials on the side in pink and she had a ponytail facelift… and also a regular facelift.”

9. What’s the last thing you usually do before the beginning of a show?
Zoe: Pushups to waste my adrenaline.

10. You scan the audience and you see a face that stops you dead in your tracks – who is it? And why are you shocked?
Zoe: Oh, for sure my ex-boyfriend who features in the show but has 100% not seen it. But honestly, that is exactly the kind of thing that was happening during that first year in Toronto – huge, comically horrible bad luck – so I wouldn’t be surprised if it did happen.

For your sake, Zoe, I’ll cross my fingers and hope that of all the surprise guests that could show up, that ex isn’t one of them. Sounds like you’ve had enough comically bad luck.

The rest of you – don’t forget to check out Don’t Move To Toronto.

-*-*-

Horse Trade Theater Group will present the 10th Annual FRIGID New York Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4^th Street between 2^nd Avenue and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1^st Avenue and Avenue A) February 16-March 6. All shows run 60 minutes, or less. Tickets are available for purchase in advance at http://www.horsetrade.info/

The Happiest Medium » fresh hell

Don’t Move To Toronto: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)