Letterkenny Live show gets an F for R-rated

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following review contains content some readers may find offensive. Reader discretion is advised.

How to describe Letterkenny Live: R-rated, offensive, revolting, distasteful, foul-mouthed, meant to offend anyone and everyone.

However, a Kelowna-Community Theatre packed with millenials on Wednesday ate it up, although there was often a chorus of “Ewws!” when a particularly disgusting image was suggested by characters from the wildly-popular cult hit on CraveTV, now in its fourth season.

The 90-minute “comedy experience” stars Jared Keeso (Wayne), Nathan Dales (Daryl aka Dairy), K. Trevor Wilson (Squirrely Dan) and Mark Forward (Coach) in original sketches by the Letterkenny characters as well as stand-up comedy sets by Wilson and Forward.

The 26-city tour wrapped up in Vancouver on Thursday so the four have fine-tuned their performance to the point where they are having as much fun as their appreciative audience.

The challenge is reviewing an Rrated show like this for a family newspaper. It’s probably enough to say topics included a gay Jesus, human waste placed in other orifices and sexual practises that aren’t commonly discussed in mixed company, and probably not even among separate male-female get-togethers.

The introduction set the tone for what was to follow. After ear-splitting screams and cheers when Wayne walked on stage, he explained there were three rules: no talking, no cellphone photos and no cellphone videos. Another round of screams and cheers erupted with the entrance of Squirrely Dan. He criticized Wayne for being too nice since “This is Kelowna.”

He then belted out the same instructions with a series of Fbombs between every other word. “If you’re not spitting on the front row, you’re wasting your breath,” Squirelly Dan explained to tumultuous laughter.

Forward, who is indeed forward, warned he hates applause but he got lots of it when he saw audience members walking out to the lobby to buy more beer.

He started his stand-up routine by chasing one woman up the aisle. Then he went after a woman sitting in the middle of the front row. “You won’t sit for five minutes? What is wrong with you? You’ve been up-and-down twice in the middle of the show. You should be sitting at the back.”

When she gave him the finger, Forward turned his attention to the fan sitting beside the woman. “You’re her friend. For once, let her know she’s the b--ch of the group. Don’t pat her on the knee. You’re just enabling her.”It ended with the two hugging at the edge of the stage.

Pet owners who say their dogs love them are wrong, he insisted. “They would love the next person in line (at the adoption place) just as much. You adopt a dog because you suck at the other parts of your life.”

Seniors - and there weren’t a lot of those in the audience - also faced his sarcasm when he noted a 108year-old woman celebrating her birthday and a newspaper photographer taking her picture. “Put them down at 100 (years). Put the old people down (like we do with dogs),” said Forward.

He continued his animal theme by making fun of Canadian songstress Sarah McLaughlin’s animal cruelty commercial while badly playing In The Arms Of An Angel on a plastic guitar toy. “Are you tired of owning a dog with all four legs? Don’t you want a cat that’s an instant conversation piece?”

To the cast’s credit, they did their research on Kelowna, mentioning numerous local pubs and nightclubs including the Railway Pub, Rose’s, OK Corral and Sapphire while lamenting the closure of Flashbacks, all of them popular with this crowd.

During the intermission, it was fascinating to listen to millenials chat about how drunk they were recently and about accidentally spilling their beer in the lobby.

Wilson’s favourite topic was Canadian weather, winter specifically. “We’ve been chasing winter across Canada,” he said. “If Canadian winter has taught us anything, March 21 (the arrival of spring) is total bullsh--. Even worse, they put it on the news.

Spring has become Canada’s deadbeat parent,” he said, providing numerous examples of a parent who spends only a token amount with an offspring.

Winnipeg, the stabbing/murder capital of Canada, ignores that and instead brags it is the Slurpee Capital of Canada, said Wilson, adding: “It’s minus-Jesus Christ there. When does it warm up enough to drink Frozen Diabetes?”

Letterkenny Live is definitely for CraveTV fans who comprehend the show’s hilarious slang. When Wayne asks: “How’r ya now? (How are you doing?)”, his fans shout out: “Good n’ you? (Good, yourself?)” or “Not’so’bad. (Good as well.)”

Shneef is cocaine and Hoover(ed) some Shneef is snorting cocaine (off something), a reference to Hoover vacuums. Electric lettuce is marijuana. Schmelt and Schmeltz are rookie(s) on a hockey team.

Along with the tour, CraveTV and Letterkenny producers New Metric Media announced a multiyear partnership that includes the production of more than 40 new episodes. So it looks like we’ll be stuck with revolting for quite a few more years.

The millenials couldn’t be happier.

J.P. Squire reviews concerts for the Kelowna Daily Courier.