Recently we were asked how various events went, and what is still coming up in the month of April.

What Was
This month has had the most variety when it came to firsts for The Dandies! Looking backward…

(April 11-13) We spent this past weekend at Camp Shalom in an improv retreat with our TOTE friends. For Dale, the weekend also served as a reunion with friends from his time as a TOTE performer. If you are ever looking for improv in the Waterloo area, check them out.

Dale lead the Friday night workshop (non-verbal offers: environment and character, and verbal limitations) and to join workshops lead by UR Book/Arts (theory and practice of atomized improv) and Hugh MacLeod (effective, constructive, and productive group notes). The weekend deepened our love of improv and has us starting plans for the next stage fo development for the show.

(April 9) We had our debut Internet improv set on E-mprov last Wednesday. It was a bit odd to perform in an empty space to a camera but also fun to do open improv together. It also gave us a chance to livestream perform for some long distance friends. We will look into more virtual performing in the future!

(April 4-6) Ad Astra was a blast. It was our first convention as performers and they treated us well. From the initial booking with Kelly (thanks for the recommendation Ur Book/Arts), through to the show itself (thanks Taz & Andy), we were treated very well.

For this special Away Mission version of Holodeck Follies, we asked our talented, musical friends, Copy Red Leader to share the stage. They were fantastic, as expected, and their set was mostly Trek-inspired. They played a rebellious song to kick things off but by the end, settled into the Federation ways.

The episode followed the typical sci-fi plot: Boy meets alien virus. Boy transforms into Captain Janeway and steers the ship into imminent danger. Boy infects ship. Boy is saved by Girl. The ship is saved and returned to its previous position. The audience engaged in the set with some key Star Trek sound-effects and suggestions. We will re-introduce this type of interaction at our monthly show. We look forward to seeing the Ad Astra crowd at our next show!

Dale also re-united with his sci-fi friends from days of yore, and we made some new ones in the ConSuite. By the end, it felt like the show could have doubled in length and still held the interest of the crowd. Perhaps next year!

(April 1) A reminder that our first time being interviewed came courtesy of Emily Schooley for the Outside the Clubhouse podcast. It was a fun conversation, though sadly you won’t get to hear everything that was said. Buy us a pint and maybe we will regale you with what you missed. The podcast has two other interviews that were interesting — on Ad Astra and the Silent Film festival.

What Will Be
The Dandies aren’t done yet:

• Wednesday, April 16th (9:30 p.m.) The Dandies join Wayne Jones for his Stage Time variety show at Baltic Avenue.
• Saturday, April 19th (8:00 p.m.) they join Moniquea Marion for the wrestling-style improv show, Improv Tag Team Championship. Come cheer The Dandies (playing as The Dandy Crushers!) on to a no-holds-barred submission victory!
• Friday, April 25th (8:00 p.m.) The Dandies do a news-inspired set as part of Good News, Toronto: The Show with Kate Noyes & Korri Birch.

And you thought it was March that was supposed to go out like a lion!