Every few weeks Second City hosts a couple of sketch comedy acts for two nights in their Theatre 73.  Last night and tonight it’s Toronto troupe Potato, Potato and Montreal based Small Friend Tall Friend.  Details on this are going to be a bit sparse as the house programme contained almost no useful information and the two groups web presence seems to be limited to Instagram (Kids these days!).

Anyway it was fun in a Fringe kind of way (though way more comfortable than most Fringe venues).  I really rather like Potato, Potato’s slanted look at life in Toronto; the housing crisis (room mate drops dead when forced to flatshare with a cat), Ontario Place (apparently gifted to Doug’s favourite German metal band), Doug again (this time shooting a cyclist) sand Olivia Chow (crashing everybody’s parties).  Daft of course, but nicely paced and energetic.  I’d go see them again.

Small Friend Tall Friend was all about identity politics, being in one’s twenties and being gay.  Not really my hot buttons.  I did though like the spoof on corporate “Diversity Training” where the only thing that’s really unsayable is how much people are paid; especially if it’s less than minimum wage.  There was a fun take on the new Nosferatu movie too.

The venue is worth checking out.  Second City’s digs are on the third floor of one of those shiny new buildings on Harbour Street.  It’s up two flights of moving staircase and there’s a restaurant/bar for before the show and table service of the full menu in the theatre; which is very nice.  The vibe is kind of a cross between the TD Music Hall at Massey Hall and the Cineplex in Dundas Square though the beer selection and the food is much better than either.  I’m actually quite curious now about seeing the regular Second City show.