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Baroness von Sketch Show

Link: Baroness Von Sketch Show Is the Best Thing to Come Out of Canada Since Ryan Gosling

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From Lauren Mechling of Vogue:

Link: Baroness Von Sketch Show Is the Best Thing to Come Out of Canada Since Ryan Gosling
In addition to being extraordinarily funny, Baroness Von Sketch is acutely of the moment, as if precision-engineered for a time when women’s issues are coming out of the margins and Canada has reached an unprecedented level of cool, effectively usurping places like Portland, Oregon, as an aspirational liberal enclave. Continue reading. 

From Sydney Parker of Splitsider:

Link: The Creators and Stars of ‘Baroness von Sketch Show’ Arrive in the States
“When we created the concept of the show we wanted to create a bunch of different POVs. In our lives, the show reflects ourselves, our friends, our moms, our babysitters — we’re totally influenced by what we are surrounded by. So that truthful inspiration is how we got a lot of inspiration for the show.” Continue reading.

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Baroness von Sketch Show

Link: The Baronesses Are Coming! And Filling a Comedy Gender Gap

From Karina Onstad of The New York Times:

Link: The Baronesses Are Coming! And Filling a Comedy Gender Gap
At home, “Baroness Von Sketch Show” has cleaned up at the Canadian Screen Awards and earned comparisons to Canada’s last big sketch comedy export, the 1990s series “The Kids in the Hall.” One major difference: “Baroness” is created by women (not men who often dress up as women) and almost entirely written and directed by women, too. Continue reading.

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CBC’s Baroness von Sketch Show is back for even better Season 2

In what’s quickly become a wonderful summer tradition, CBC marks the end of June with the returns of Still Standing and Baroness von Sketch Show. Look for my interview with Still Standing host Jonny Harris elsewhere on the site; this column is all about the funny ladies of Baroness von Sketch Show.

Returning Tuesday at 9 p.m. on CBC, the first season was a riotous romp through the minds of Carolyn Taylor, Aurora Browne, Jennifer Whalen and Meredith MacNeil and the crazy, kooky and creative characters and situations they came up with. The group won a well-deserved Canadian Screen Award earlier this year for Best Writing for a Variety or Sketch Comedy Series and they’ve returned to form in this sophomore season. (Check out my feature story on the ladies in Canadian Screenwriter Magazine.)

The troupe’s Mad Max-inspired bit has been posted on social media over the past few weeks and is the first sketch following Tuesday’s opening credits for the episode entitled “It Satisfies on a Very Basic Level.” Filmed on the shores of Lake Ontario, it’s a well-written, supremely acted segment showing a quartet of strong women in a post-apocalyptic world where all men have been killed so ladies may rule. At least, that’s what we’re led to believe, though the truth comes out. MacNeil, as in Season 1, grabs laughs not just with her delivery and facial expressions but her entire body. A sky-high orange mohawk and fur cape complete her ludicrous look.

Browne nabs a serious laugh in the next skit regarding showing ID when shopping for a certain item, a brief history lesson on menstruation is given next, followed by an uncomfortable situation that arises when someone forgets not to ask about one woman’s ex.

Unlike Saturday Night Live, where sketches often go on way too long on expired laughs, Baroness Von Sketch Show is tight, quick and to the point. The Season 2 writing room contained—in addition to Taylor, MacNeil, Whalen and Browne— award-winning author and poet Zoe Whittall (The Best Kind of People), author Monica Heisey (I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better: A Woman’s Guide to Coping with Life), Jennifer Goodhue (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), standups Mae Martin, Elvira Kurt and Dawn Whitwell, Ann Pornel and Alex Tindal (The Sketchersons), playwright Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, Ify Chiwetelu, artist and writer Mariko Tamaki, Evany Rosen and Nelu Handa. The result? A summer of continuous laughs.

Baroness von Sketch Show airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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Baroness von Sketch Show

Link: Canada’s female-led ‘Baroness von Sketch Show’ primed for U.S. debut

From Lauren La Rose of The Canadian Press:

Link: Canada’s female-led ‘Baroness von Sketch Show’ primed for U.S. debut
It’s shaping up to be a royal summer for Canada’s “Baroness von Sketch Show” as the female-led foursome is set to bring its irreverent comedy to audiences on both sides of the border.

Cast members Aurora Browne, Meredith MacNeill, Carolyn Taylor and Jennifer Whalen are all back on board for the show’s second season, which returns Tuesday on CBC-TV. The series will also make its U.S. debut on IFC in August.

But even with the potential of much wider viewership, there will be little change to the homegrown sketch show’s signature style. Continue reading. 

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