Toronto troupe set to create a Frenzy.
Members of the Davisville Village sketch comedy troupe Frenzy. The troupe will perform at Theatre Passe Muraille at 10 p.m. on Nov. 12 as part of the 2009 installment of the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival.
Photo/COURTESY
A quintet of Davisville Village residents will whip audiences into a frenzy with two performances at the upcoming Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival.Kevin Dowse, Miguel and Freddie Rivas, Marco Moltisanti and Steve Boleantu, better known to audiences as the sketch troupe Frenzy, have been performing around Toronto for the past few years, though the Sketch Festival holds particular appeal for the troupe.
While they had performed in various incarnations, the troupe really began to take shape at their first festival performance a few years back.
"The 2006 Sketchfest was one of the first shows we really took seriously," Freddie Rivas said.
They were an instant success at that year's festival, winning the NOW Magazine Audience Choice award as Sketchfest crowds' favourite group.
"That might have just been my dad filling out ballots and stuffing the box," Boleantu said.
The troupe formed organically. The Rivases are brothers, and Moltisanti was a longtime friend. Dowse and Boleantu met at university, and the group worked together in various combinations until settling in as a single entity.
Frenzy specializes in fast-paced, surreal comedy, coming at crowds with short, high-energy bursts of funny. With most of the troupe having a basis in theatre, they also showcase well-honed performing chops.
As with any group who spends an inordinate amount of time together, their chemistry is evident in the way they interact even when not on stage, often picking up on one another's thoughts. That undoubtedly helps them along when writing sketches, most of which come out of improvisation and some of which are tested on crowds when still in incomplete form.
"If we have an unfinished sketch, sometimes we'll put it into a smaller show to see how the audience likes it," Miguel Rivas said.
By keeping many of their sketches short, they also avoid having their concepts drag on and risking losing the audience.
"That's a safer way of doing things than trying a whole sketch and then thinking 'that would have been better if we didn't do five minutes on it'," Miguel Rivas said.
"I still say fart sandwich would have been a good sketch," countered Dowse.
Frenzy will perform at Theatre Passe Muraille along with fellow Toronto sketch troupes punchDRYSDALE and Dinkus at 10 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 12, and will later take the stage at Comedy Bar alongside New York's Free Love Forum and Vancouver's The Skinny at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14.
For tickets or information, visit www.torontosketchfest.com