Everything about Baroness von Sketch Show, eh?

Baroness von Sketch Show, Still Standing

CBC renews Still Standing and Baroness von Sketch Show

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From a media release:

CBC today announced the renewal of its acclaimed original series STILL STANDING and BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW. Starring comedian Jonny Harris and winner of the 2016 Canadian Screen Award for Best Factual Series, STILL STANDING has been renewed for a third season (13 x 30). Production is currently underway. All-female sketch comedy series BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW (6 x 30), which made its debut in June, has been renewed for season 2 (7 x 30) and will begin production this fall. Produced by Frantic Films in association with CBC, both series will return with new seasons in 2017.

STILL STANDING – Season 2 continues with all-new episodes Tuesdays at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT)
STILL STANDING follows Canadian comedian Jonny Harris (Murdoch Mysteries) as he explores the country, veering off the main highway to discover the hidden comedy in Canada’s far-flung small towns. Each week, Jonny takes a hilarious and heart-warming journey to find humour in the unlikeliest of places — small towns on the ropes. After immersing himself in the lives of local characters and unearthing the tall tales in these tiny towns, Jonny delivers a rousing original stand-up comedy routine — a toast, not a roast — for the whole community. Upcoming episodes include a visit to Canada’s most northerly mosque in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, sharp-shooting with a former Olympian in Omemee, Ontario, and welcoming a recently-arrived Syrian family in Mabou, Nova Scotia.

Baroness

BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW – Season 1 finale airs tonight, Tuesday, July 19 at 9:30 p.m. (10 NT)
BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW is an all-female, single-camera sketch comedy series that takes a fresh look at the world’s narcissistic contemporary culture. Fast-paced and irreverent, the series celebrates the absurd, mines the embarrassing and satirizes daily lives. Drawing on 15 years of comedy experience and multiple collaborations, the award-winning, talented team of Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill, Aurora Browne and Jennifer Whalen are the writers, stars and executive producers.

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Baroness von Sketch Show

Link: Should I even write about female-centric comedy?

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From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

Link: Should I even write about female-centric comedy?
It’s a good comedy show, not a great one. The sketches are swift, the jokes good, but to me it too often amounts to mere drollery. Any sketch show is going to be hit-and-miss. Some of the real hits in Baroness von Sketch Show are MacNeill engaging, sometimes very bravely, in brilliant physical humour. She’s gifted in doing the physical gag, and often hilarious. All of the women are hilarious at times and in the dozens of sketches there are bound to be real gems. Continue reading.

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Baroness von Sketch Show

Links: Baroness von Sketch Show

From Lauren La Rose of The Canadian Press:

Link: ‘Baroness von Sketch’ offers twist on comic format
The Canadian quartet behind CBC’s “Baroness von Sketch Show” is quick to give kudos to shows that helped popularize comedy sketches on the small screen.

Yet while acknowledging the lingering influence of series like “SCTV” and “The Kids in the Hall,” the all-female cast is hoping to bring a fresh perspective to a familiar format. Continue reading.

From A.R. Wilson of DigitalJournal.com:

Link: CBC’s Baroness von Sketch Show original, relatable fun
The four comedians behind CBC’s new all-female comedy series Baroness von Sketch Show — Aurora Browne, Meredith MacNeill, Carolyn Taylor, and Jennifer Whalen — had only one rule when writing material for the show: Make it relatable. Continue reading.

From Brad Oswald of the Winnipeg Free Press:

Link: Sketch Marks
The new CBC summer series Baroness von Sketch Show appears to be earning its roster spot. The first two instalments of its six-episode run are fast, smart and consistently funny, boasting a hits-to-misses percentage that inspires favourable comparisons to some of TV’s sketch-comedy Hall of Famers. Continue reading.

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Baroness von Sketch Show, Featured

Baroness von Sketch Show lands on CBC

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“We didn’t want to make a thing that would sit on a shelf. We wanted it on TV as soon as possible.” Carolyn Taylor certainly got her wish: after being greenlit last March by CBC, Baroness von Sketch Show is hitting the air, a rocket ride by Canadian TV production standards.

Debuting Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. on CBC, Baroness von Sketch Show stars Taylor and fellow sketch comic veterans Meredith MacNeill, Aurora Browne and Jennifer Whalen, who turn a lens on society and present a satirical take on life. Like City’s cancelled-too-soon Sunnyside, Baroness is shot on-location, though the settings are everyday spots like restaurants and office cubicles rather than the Third World War.

“We wanted the characters and situations to feel relatable,” Taylor explains during a break filming in an empty corner of CBC’s Toronto headquarters. “There is no laugh track and it has a single-camera vibe.” Taylor took her series pitch to Frantic Films over two years ago; after bringing on MacNeill, Browne and Whalen, a sizzle reel was shot and shopped around. Taylor always envisioned Baroness broadcast on CBC, saying the aesthetic fit best there. Production moved at a quick clip, with guerrilla-style filming across Toronto in locations like Woodbine Racetrack, Queen St. West, Trinity Bellwoods Park, Dundas St. and Scarborough. They’ve also had to make changes on the fly: a wedding chapel was converted into a massage parlour for one skit.

“It’s all been a bit of a blur,” Whalen recalls. “We had a great writers’ room with air and light and shelves and snacks. And then we’ve had wonderful, funny people that we admire come in and play with us. I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘Would you like to come and put on your space suit now?’ ‘Yes, I would like nothing more than to do that!'” She notes Jon Dore, Ennis Esmer, Craig Brown, Ann Pornel, Alex Tindal and Toby Burner among those guest-starring in sketches.

How did the quartet come up with the title of their show?

“A baroness is not even the lowest level of aristocracy,” Browne says. “You can actually buy it for yourself. There is a whole swath of women who might have been widows and it gave them a license to go a little kooky. It seemed to have a nice mix of self-entitlement and weirdness. It just felt right and it’s a nice contrast to the stupidity that occurs on the show.”

Baroness von Sketch Show airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on CBC.

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