New comedy, harmonica, cooking courses

Sketch comedy writing, an introduction to the harmonica and cooking with a Swiss chef are now on Fleming College’s continuing education course lineup.

The city’s community college added the three new courses for the fall school year.

The sketch comedy writing and cooking classes are evening courses that run over a number of weeks, while the harmonica class is a one-day affair. They all take place at the Sutherland Campus on Brealey Drive.

The sketch comedy course will be led by Dave Pearce. He’s a three-time Canadian Comedy Award winner and spent two seasons writing for George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight.

Pearce’s course will teach students how to create original sketch material for stage or screen. They’ll learn how to use their own experiences for material, how to generate a premise and how to use classic sketch structure to get the most out of an idea.

By the end of the five-week course, students will have created two, short sketches.

The course runs from Oct. 18 to Nov. 15 on Thursday nights from 6 to 8 p.m.

Chef Kevin Olinger will be instructing the cooking courses. He was born in Switzerland and raised in Canada. Olinger started his career as a young apprentice in family restaurants in both countries. He’s a graduate of Fleming’s culinary program management program and is now a seasoned instructor of it.

Olinger will be teaching introductions into pasta, tapas, wild game, harvest desserts and holiday baking.

Course run overall several evenings from Sept. 24 to Dec. 3 and course fees include all needed ingredients.

The introduction to playing the harmonica workshop will be taught by Carlos del Junco. He’s won two gold medals from the Hohner World Harmonica Championship in Germany and as well as multiple national awards. Del Junco, a diatonic player, has toured North America and Europe for the last 15 years, while teaching as well.

The workshop will teach students how to hold the traditional 10-hole harmonica, how to achieve proper tone, and the basics of playing single notes. Students need to bring their own harmonica. The course runs on Oct. 20 from 9 to 5 p.m.

NOTE: To register visit Fleming College’s website at www.flemingcollege.ca