Wednesday, September 13, 2006
The Brampton NEWS by T. GREGORY ARGALL

Laughter, Music and the “Y”

Every good evening at the theatre should include some laughter and some good music. Last night laughter and good music were available in great abundance when Phil Cristi and the staff of the Brampton YMCA organised an eclectic evening of great entertainment, under the collective title "Brampton YMCA Welcomes The Rose Theatre."

Before the show even started, the entertainment had begun. While the white-gloved staff of TK's Catering weaved their way through the gathering crowd in the lobby, bearing trays of delicious hors d'oeuvres, a jazz quartet did some free-form jamming at the west entrance. I watched some wonderfully cool music being smoothly created in front of me while a hundred conversations mingled with the clink of wine glasses behind me and I felt the long workday melt away, forgetting all about the rain and traffic I'd been facing mere minutes earlier.

When the time came to enter the theatre, the doors opened, the audience politely filed inside (unlike going to the cinema, I've noticed that you rarely find rude people at the theatre) and about eight hundred people got their first look at the inside of the Rose Theatre. People whispered, "Look at that," to the person beside them, while pointing at something high above, near the ceiling or on the stage. The visual impact of seeing the performance space for the first time is definitely a wow-moment.

(The is was not my first time seeing the theatre. This past weekend I spent about ten hours a day in the building and I've seen the performance space from both sides; from the audience and from on stage as a performer. I like the place. I'm glad that Brampton has a venue on this scale. I could prattle on for pages and pages with minute details about the acoustics and the technical design and the backstage area, but that's a prattle for another time.)

After the standard "turn off you cell phones; there's the fire exits" announcement, Phil Cristi, General Manager of the Brampton YMCA, welcomed the audience, thanked the sponsors (ScotiaBank and TK's Catering), and introduced the Master of Ceremonies for the evening, Anthony Sherwood. In addition to being a member of the Brampton YMCA, Sherwood is an actor, writer, producer and director of some repute. Comfortable in front of an audience and not short of charm, he kept the evening flowing smoothly. Brampton Mayor Susan Fennell also had her time at the podium. I like my elected officials to have a sense of humour and Mayor Fennell knows how to get a laugh.

With the welcoming speeches done, the formal program of entertainment began, starting with Paul Huschilt, a professional speaker and storyteller, according to his website, www.paulhuschilt.com.

Presenting a mini-seminar on the "Seven Humour Habits for Laughing at Life," Huschilt apparently injected about 12 litres of caffeine directly into his veins immediately before taking the stage. His forty-five minute presentation had more energy that I have in a month. He entered running and singing, then ramped it up from there. This is a corporate motivational seminar that could play at the Just For Laughs Festival.

Understanding that no detail is too small for a laugh, Huschilt utilized old-school technology and presented what he calls a Low Budget PaperPoint™ Presentation. He maintained the gag throughout, never forgetting to press the large button drawn at the bottom of the over-sized sheet of paper before turning to the next page. Breaking the actual process of laughing down into several individual steps, he performed the most hilarious examination laughter that I have ever seen. To demonstrate the importance of saying "No", he actually had eight hundred people participating in a game of "Simon Says."

An eleven year-old lad named Alex was pulled from the audience so that Huschilt could show the psychological and physiological benefits of giving. Apparently, the act of giving actually releases chemicals into your system that improve your breathing, give you more energy and just make you feel happier. After being teased with chocolates that he never got to eat, Alex was rewarded with copies of Huschilt's book and DVD, along with a large bouquet of roses. Later, during the intermission, Alex presented the bouquet to a woman who was sitting a few seats down from me. I don't know whether he knows her or just chose her at random, but hidden behind the jokes and laughter, Huschilt's message about giving was not lost on Alex.

The second half of the evening featured Jeff Sommerville and the Jazz Mechanics with their "Tribute to Sinatra." For more that twenty-five years, the Jazz Mechanics have represented Brampton and Canada on the world stage, never failing to impress. They have been performing and recording with Sommerville for the past seven years and the time together has resulted in a cohesive package of great music.

When doing Frank Sinatra's music, it is too easy to become cheesy and slide into a Joe Piscopo-style parody of Sinatra. Sommerville walks this slippery slope and comes away clean. No parody here, just a respectful performance of some great songs. Sommerville doesn't need to imitate Sinatra's voice because his own voice, although slightly different than Frank's is still perfectly suited to this style of song.

But the voice is only part of the song. The music accompanying the voice is equally important. The Jazz Mechanics have truly earned their reputation. This is a great band, eighteen musicians playing as a single unit. As the audience was filing back in after the intermission, the Mechanics were warming up on the dimly lit stage. When a great jazz band is arming up, that's a show in itself and I would happily have listened to that for hours, but that was just a vague hint of the great things to come.

The songs that Sinatra sang are songs that everyone knows. Even people who don't think they know any Sinatra songs, will, upon hearing one, say, "Oh, I know that one," and will soon find their toe tapping against their will. Sommerville and the Jazz Mechanics flawlessly performed a lengthy set of up-tempo songs that had the same feel-good effect on the audience as Huschilt's performance had earlier.

If I had one complaint about the evening, it would be the incomplete feel of some of Sommerville's anecdotes. With many of the songs, Sommerville had a preamble with a brief history of the song. Before singing "The Tender Trap" for example, he explained that it was the title song from a film that Sinatra made with Debbie Reynolds. Everyone in Hollywood though that Sinatra and Reynolds would be the next Bogart and Becall, the next Fred and Ginger, and that they'd be making movies together for years. "But they never made another picture together," said Sommerville, then he sang the song.

In the back of my head a small voice was screaming, "Why not? Why didn't they do another picture together? Don't tease me with half a story!" But I soon forgot about that little voice because I was enjoying the song so much, so it would be a relative minor complaint.

The evening finished, as any Sinatra tribute must, with a powerfully and moving rendition of "My Way," bringing the program back to its Canadian origins with the classic written by Canada's own Paul Anka.

From start to finish, it was an fantastic evening and a fitting start to the diverse program of the Rose Theatre's inaugural season. Adding to the enjoyment, was the knowledge that it was all in support of the YMCA and their community-based programs.

T. Gregory Argall is a Brampton-born playwright whose works have been performed on five continents. He has also authored a children's book aimed at encouraging literacy. He is a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a grandfather, an uncle and, most-recently, a great-uncle. For more information about his writing, visit http://www.lulu.com/tgargall