So Many Laughs at Canada’s Top Comic Finale

Nick and I are still laughing over what we heard at the finale of the Top Comic competition, featuring performances by a group of Canada's top eight rising comedy stars and headliner Maria Bamford, which we had the pleasure of attending on Thursday evening.

Presented by SiriusXM, it was part of the 7th Annual Toronto Just For Laughs Festival, the 10-day event that included shows by 8 headliners and 42 other comics, held in various venues around the city.

The Top Comic competition began back in the spring, with the registration of hundreds of people from across the country. From that group, 60 contestants were selected to compete at the Calgary and Toronto auditions over six nights in May. Judges chose 18 semi-finalists to participate in a Canada-wide online vote, with 8 moving forward to the finale, which occurred in Toronto on September 27th, 2018.

The show, held at The Winter Garden Theatre and hosted by comic Ben Miner of SiriusXM’s Canada Laughs, began with a performance by last year's winner Gavin Matts. Then, the 8 finalists each gave a short set.

Given that these select few had risen to the top of many applicants, it doesn't need saying that they were each excellent.

(If you click here on SiriusXM's site, you can access a video of each of them doing their thing, along with the other ten contestants who made it to the pre-finale round.)

After their sets, while the judges consulted and text-votes were tallied, the audience was treated to a performance by Maria Bamford, who, in addition to many impressive achievements within the world of comedy, stars in the semi-autobiographical Netflix comedy series Lady Dynamite, created by Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development) and Pam Brady (South Park).

Following Maria's show, the winner and two runners-up were announced.

The prize for the winner included the coveted "Top Comic" title, $25,000, and guaranteed performances at four Just For Laughs Festivals: Australia, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. Also they won a spot in a Just For Laughs television special to air on a Bell Media property in the 2019/2020 broadcast season. The runners-up each received cash prizes of $2,500 and TV spots at the 2019 Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, as well as a co-headlining show at Just For Laughs Toronto in 2019.

In pictures, here's how the evening went ...

We'd been invited to enter through the stage door which was at the back of the building ...

Holiday! Sauble Beach : Part 3

Hello! Today, I'll share the third and final post about our lovely trip to Sauble Beach, which we took on the second week of September. (If you'd like to see the other posts on the subject, click here : Part 1 and Part 2.)

We left off after our little road-trip away from the beach area, over to a river with waterfalls and Great Blue Herons.

That evening, the ever-changing sky over Lake Huron, looked stunning once again, so we went for a walk.

Holiday! Sauble Beach : Part 2

Hi! In my previous post, I began telling you about the week Nick and I spent up at Sauble Beach.

(To quickly fill you in, that's a long sandy beach/cottage community on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, located a 3 1/2 drive north-west of Toronto. We rented a cottage there for the second week of September, which is off-season so we nearly had the place to ourselves, which suited us fine.)

So, you've heard about the first couple of days of our holiday, when the weather was on the cool side. It rained nearly the entire day on Monday and then the weather changed completely after than, becoming hot and sunny. We almost got to the point of needing to turn on the air conditioning at night, but opted to just leave the windows open instead.

That resulted in my waking up one night in a bit of a terror, imagining a murderer cutting the screen and getting in. What would we use as a weapon? What would the escape route be. Of course, this was just me worrying, but coming from downtown Toronto as we do, we never go to bed while the ground floor windows are open.

Then, another night, I was awakened by the eeriest screeching of what I assume was an owl, who must have been just beyond the window. Yikes! Haha, I guess I'm not making our calm and relaxing vacation sound so calm and relaxing! Aside from those two fright-nights, it was lovely, I promise.

On Tuesday morning, we were greeted by this cute curious character ...

Holiday! Sauble Beach : Part 1

Hello, hello! We've just been on holiday at Sauble Beach.

It's an 11 kilometre strip of very soft sand on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, located a 3 1/2 hour drive north-west of Toronto. Back before I met Nick, I went to this lovely place with family, for four summers in a row, and have such treasured memories from that time. That was 20 years ago, and, although we had discussed going to Sauble together quite a few times, Nick and I never got there, for one reason or another. But this year, I planned ahead and finally made it happen. It was his first time there.

Seeing it again after all that time felt like I'd entered the twilight-zone; it was surprising (and wonderful) how little about it has changed in two decades! It's the place where time stands still, and where nature's finest is on full display.

We rented a cottage last week on Second Avenue, just south of the main road. We couldn't see the beach from there but it was close enough to walk barefoot, in our bathing suits and cover-up.

The choice to go in September, after Labour Day, was intentional, as, according to their wiki page, Sauble gets as many as 30,000 visitors on hot weekends, and 60,000 on long week-ends, during the summer months. We preferred the idea of a quiet holiday, so risked the possibility that we might face questionable weather and booked a week after the crowds has left the area. The weather started off on the cool side, and it rained all day on the Monday, but it warmed right up to full-on summertime temperatures by the third day, so we got to enjoy a touch of autumn and some hot sunny days, with comfortably cool nights throughout.

(For visitors who might prefer more action, I'm not exaggerating when I say it was quiet. There were people around, but not many. A couple of the restaurants, a few shops, and an ice-cream stand were open along the strip, between Monday and Friday, but most places were shut. It got busier and more places were open on the weekend, but clearly, most businesses and cottages close up after Labour Day. We liked it that way, but that level of quiet might not be for everyone.)

We'd only seen a few pictures on-line of the cottage we were renting, so, my fingers were crossed that it would be a good place to spend a week. I need not have worried as it ended up being totally fine, containing all the basic necessities and a choice of comfortable beds in its three bedrooms, albeit with little in the way of charm or decor. Also, it had an excellent internet connection, an added bonus that is certainly not a given in many rural areas.

As is the case with most cottage rentals, we were to bring our own linens, blankets, pillows, towels, toiletries, etc. We also brought along our own sharp knives and cutting board and some food items. But knowing there was a full grocery store nearby, we didn't worry about bringing all the food and drinks that we'd need for the week.

We arrived in the early evening on Saturday. By the time we'd unloaded the car, made up the bed and gotten settled in, it was getting dark out. Nick had thoughtfully pre-prepared a couple of marinaded salads -- this coleslaw, and this Moroccan Chick Pea and Rice Salad -- which we had for dinner, along with some homemade bread. He'd mixed the dough in the morning, let it rise while we traveled, and then baked it in the oven at the cottage! We also shared a bottle of red wine, which we'd brought with us.

By the time we were finished eating, it was completely dark out. We grabbed the flashlight and went out for a short walk, to get a look at the beach, but we didn't venture far, as we didn't really know the lay of the land. It had been a long day anyway, so we just went to bed after that.

In the morning, we had a couple of peaches and some toast for breakfast, while watching a variety of birds flitting about, all around the cottage.

Walk With Me in Toronto : Yonge Street From Bloor to College

ass="aligncenter size-full wp-image-40656" src="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/yonge-street-toronto-south-of-bloor-period-of-transitio.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480">Greetings! Welcome back if you've come from Part I of this walking tour. And if you've come directly here, this is Part II of a post about a long walk with interesting sights in Toronto.To back up, with The Toronto International Film Festival on right now, there are many visitors in the city -- I thought you'd like suggestions of interesting places to see, so I documented a walk I took with my friend Stella recently.In the previous post, we covered part of what is called "Toronto's Bloor Street Culture Corridor", going eastward from Spadina to Bay Street. Today we'll be turning south at Yonge Street and heading south down to College Street.In getting that wikipedia link for Yonge Street (above), I just read something I'd never heard before ... sidewalks were first invented in Canada with Yonge Street in mind. They were created to run alongside the muddy track so pedestrians could remain somewhat clean. This was back in around 1794 and the sidewalks were made from treebark.I mentioned in my previous post that the two areas covered in Part I and Part II are distinctly different, even though they are located relatively near to one another. What you'll see here on Yonge Street, is a neighbourhood that's very much in the middle of massive change. There are construction sites and partially completed towers everywhere you look, amoungst the beautiful, although somewhat rundown, historic buildings that border the street.There is so much going on and I am really excited to see it all unfold, as the brand new and modern structures mix in with the treasured old ones!Note: The photo at the top of this post looks north from Yonge and St. Joseph Street, taken when we were about midway between Bloor and College.Ok, here we go ... Descriptions will precede the photographs at each stop.