Comedian Todd Barry works a crowd in T.O.
Catch his special on Netflix before seeing him during his live show at Comedy Bar
Todd Barry Watch this if: You like to live, and laugh, dangerously.
Comedian Todd Barry gets by with a little help from his friends, but none of them are his audience members. After some backing from his pal Louis C.K., Barry released a sleeper hit special last year that followed a seven-city tour of pure crowd work, with zero prepared material. You can now catch Todd Barry: The Crowd Work Tour on Netflix before seeing him bring the live Crowd Work show to Toronto and learn key tips in avoiding getting lambasted in public: don’t bring coffee, don’t have a beard, don’t say anything at all. Barry can latch onto anything and everything.
Saturday and Sunday, Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor St. W. Veruca Salt Watch this if: You never stopped fighting the “Seether.”
It all started in 1991, when actress Lili Taylor introduced Nina Gordon and Louise Post. And that’s a great way to start anything really (we bet a knitting club would have been pretty amazing), but the band that resulted from that meeting was the best case scenario.
In 1998, Veruca Salt came to a sour end when the two singers, plus Jim Shapiro and Steve Lack, went their separate ways. But now the Chicago rock band — held in the same esteem as Hole, Mazzy Star and Liz Phair — is back on tour with a new album, Ghost Notes. To get into their Lee’s Palace gig, you’ll need a real golden ticket.
Tuesday, 8 p.m., Lee’s Palace, 529 Bloor St. W. Dive Watch this if: You like indie opera, The Little Mermaid and “electroacoustic” experiments.
With the whirlwind of Panamania over, it’s time to give our attention back to some of the little guys in Toronto. Not to say that names such as opera singer Fides Krucker, director Alex Fallis, actor Earl Pastko and composer Nik Beeson aren’t already established, but their new production, Dive, an adaptation of Giuseppe Di Lampedusa’s The Professor and the Siren by Richard Sanger, sounds like a challenging but promising new work. Best to just jump right in.
Thursday to Aug. 9, the Array Space, 155 Walnut Ave.