Armed with a ukulele and donning brightly coloured shirts, the men of Tickle Trunk graced the stage and claimed victory against their competitors.
The East York actors and improv performers, Rob Baker and Carmine Lucarelli, performed last Saturday night, along with a third member, Alastair Forbes, in Bad Dog Theatre's Globehead 2008 competition.
Globehead is an annual improv tournament that showcases the talent of Toronto's funniest performers from all over the city including Scarborough and Etobicoke, said host and producer, Kerry Griffin.
"It's a chance to get many of the best performers of the city together in one place and showcase them," he said. "It also helps to promote the theatre and improv and comedy in general," he said.
Now in its sixth year, the competition takes place each week for the month of January, and has eight troupes facing off every Friday and Saturday, producing four winners. Each week, the same process takes place until only the top two troupes are left standing to meet in the finals.
No strangers to this competition, this is the third time Baker and Lucarelli have been in Globehead, this time as Tickle Trunk, a children's musical entertainment group "for adults" spoofing The Wiggles, said Baker.
Losing in the finals last year, this year they won and will be competing in the semi-finals Friday, Jan. 18. Both said they're happy they won because they get to have some more fun being the Tickle Trunk characters, and fun is what Globehead is all about.
"It is called a competition, and somebody does lose at the end, but nobody really cares, it's not about the competition," Lucarelli said.
"We had a blast, it was a really fun show and the audience loved it. It was goofy, it was not art by any means, it was foolishness and we all had a lot of fun," Baker said.
Globehead is fast-becoming Toronto's premiere improv event, and already their first two weeks have sold out. Griffin credits its success to the variety of performers and the uniqueness of the event.
"It's just a great show and a showcase for some of the best improv around in the city and it's a lot of fun," Griffin said. "It's a great alternative to the usual things you may do on a Saturday night."
Both Baker and Lucarelli said there aren't many other events like this in the city where they can let loose and perform improv.
"It's a chance to work with close friends performing things that may not fit in well anywhere else, in any other type of show," Lucarelli said.
This, along with the enthusiastic audiences is why they like to compete in Globehead year after year.
"The audience loves it, there's a lot of energy in the room so I love doing these shows because of the energy," Baker said.
The remaining shows are Jan. 18-19 and Jan. 25-26 at 8 p.m., the semi-finals and the finals, respectively. Tickets are $10 and can be reserved by phoning the hotline at 416-491-3115 or on the website, www.baddogtheatre.com