Tag Archives: Carolyn Taylor

From award-winning comedian, producer and actor Carolyn Taylor, the Crave original comedy I Have Nothing premieres on September 23

From a media release:

Crave’s Original docu-comedy series, I HAVE NOTHING, drops Saturday, Sept. 23 at 9 p.m. ET with all six episodes, immediately following a special screening event at the Just for Laughs Festival in Toronto featuring star Carolyn Taylor and special guests. Created by Taylor, and produced by Catalyst and Blue Ant Studios, in association with Bell Media, the series follows Carolyn (BARONESS VON SKETCH) on a comical quest to choreograph the perfect, full-length pairs figure skating routine to Whitney Houston’s 1992 iconic hit song, “I Have Nothing.” The series will be available to Crave audiences in English and French.

Motivated by a teenaged obsession for the 1988 Calgary Olympics that also sparked Carolyn’s queer awakening, I HAVE NOTHING begins as a lighthearted nostalgic comedy and quickly morphs into a high-stakes, real-life mission for Carolyn, with a few wild detours along the way. Joining Carolyn on her mission are legends from the world of figure skating including Sandra Bezic, David Pelletier, Ekaterina Gordeeva, Brian Orser, Kurt Browning, Paul Martini, Barbara Underhill, Katarina Witt, Tara Lipinski, Kristi Yamaguchi, Adam Rippon, Elladj Baldé, and Elizabeth Manley, as well as award-winning comedian, actor, and writer, Mae Martin. Guest stars include Jully Black, Sabrina Jalees, and Elvira Kurt.

The season culminates in a performance of Carolyn’s one-of-a-kind routine, performed in front of a live audience of figure-skating royalty, die-hard skating fans, and Carolyn’s teen idols.

Episodic synopses are outlined below:

Episode 1 – Package For The Bird
After years of dreaming, Carolyn finally begins her quest to choreograph a pairs figure skating routine to Whitney Houston’s 1992 iconic hit song, “I Have Nothing”. First step: find her skaters.

Episode 2 – Do You Know About The Cold War
Carolyn gets a reality check from some Olympic medalists, but finds her groove with a social media superstar.

Episode 3 – Love is Pain
Carolyn tries to learn everything she can before her first rehearsal, with the help of some 1988 Olympic skating royalty.

Episode 4 – No Longer A Joke
It’s the first rehearsal, and Carolyn is struggling to convince her Olympic skaters that any of this is a good idea.

Episode 5 – Today Is Wednesday
With two days left to choreograph, Carolyn throws the skaters an Olympic curveball. Then, suffers separation anxiety when they leave.

Episode 6 – Buffoon Makes Good
Dream and reality collide as Carolyn and her skaters prepare for the final skate. As the night draws closer and the audience loads in, Carolyn tries to stay calm.

I HAVE NOTHING is produced by Catalyst and Blue Ant Studios, in association with Crave. The series is created, directed, and executive produced by Carolyn Taylor, and directed and executive produced by Zack Russell. For Catalyst, Vibika Bianchi and Julie Bristow are executive producers. For Blue Ant Studios, Laura Michalchyshyn, Aileen Gardner, and Sam Sniderman are executive producers.

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Link: ‘Baroness von Sketch Show’ star to lead figure skating comedy for Crave from Catalyst, Blue Ant Studios

From Manori Ravindran of Variety:

Link: ‘Baroness von Sketch Show’ star to lead figure skating comedy for Crave from Catalyst, Blue Ant Studios
“Baroness von Sketch Show” star Carolyn Taylor will front a new unscripted comedy series for Canadian streaming service Crave, produced through Catalyst and Blue Ant Studios. Continue reading.

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Production begins on the third season of CBC Gem’s Detention Adventure

From a media release:

Award-winning producer LoCo Motion Pictures is proud to announce that production on the third season of its CBC Gem original scripted tween series Detention Adventure commenced on July 5th in Toronto. In addition, Blue Ant International has secured the worldwide distribution rights to the third season of the series (outside of Canada).

In the new season, Carolyn Taylor (Baroness Von Sketch Show) will guest star in five episodes and up-and-coming singer, dancer and actor Danté Prince has been tapped to co-star as “Dash” alongside returning series regulars Simone Miller Castoro-Qualizza as “Raign Westrook,” Tomaso Sanelli as “Brett Austin,” Alina Prijono as “Joy Jayadi,” Jack Fulton as “Norman ‘Hulk’ Bean,” Lilly Bartlam as “Kelly Darnell,” Andrew Moodie as “Principal Lounsberry,” Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll as “Coach Rod,” and Stacey McGunnigle as “Miss Marner.” Benjamin Ayres will also return as a guest star as “Bruno Black.”

In season 3, the Detention Adventure Team is at it again working to uncover the secret hidden in Lawren Harris’ painting given to them by none other than Principal Lounsberry. Their investigation is interrupted after learning they will be spending one of their final weeks of school at Island School! Unimpressed when Island School proves to be a dilapidated camp, the kids soon realize that the camp is more than it appears and might just hold the answers they’re looking for. With the help of the charismatic new art school student, Dash, the team explores what Lawren Harris’ painting could mean through different art forms while forging new bonds with their fellow Island School students. But with the crew heading off to high school, does growing up mean growing apart?

Co-created by Joe Kicak and Carmen Albano, Detention Adventure is written by Kicak, Albano, Lisa Rose Snow, Jay Vaidya and Cassie Cao. The series is executive produced by Lauren Corber, Kicak and Albano. Ryan West is producer.

Detention Adventure launched in 2019 as CBC’s first original kids scripted series for CBC Gem. Since then, the series has received numerous awards and accolades including Kidscreen Award winner for Best Web/App Series: Kid and CSA winner for Best Writing, Children’s & Youth and Best Original Music. Blue Ant International has licensed the first two seasons of the series to platforms in more than 125 territories, including the US, the UK, Ireland, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, Latin America, the Nordics and Hong Kong.

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Aurora Browne dishes on Baroness Von Sketch and Great Canadian Baking Show

There are three big changes viewers will notice when they tune in to The Great Canadian Baking Show on CBC this Wednesday night.

Gone is judge Rochelle Adonis, replaced by Kyla Kennaley. And co-hosts Dan Levy and Julia Chan have been swapped out in favour of Aurora Browne and Carolyn Taylor. Browne and Taylor are also, as legions of fans already know, the writers, stars and executive producers of Baroness von Sketch Show, which returns this Tuesday night to CBC.

And while I will miss Levy and Chan’s roles on Baking Show, I was immediately smitten by Browne and Taylor’s witty cold opening and their natural rapport with the 10 new contestants.

We spoke to Browne ahead of both programs’ debut.

How did yourself and Carolyn Taylor end up hosting The Great Canadian Baking Show in the first place?
Aurora Browne: The Great Canadian Baking Show approached us, at the beginning of this year. Carolyn and I have known each other for a very long time, obviously. Long before Baroness, even. It worked out in our schedule to be able to do it with only minimal overlap. Why not? It’s such a fun show. It’s fun and lovely and to be honest, being paid to taste things is like a dream come true. I don’t think that was difficult for either of us.

We actually spoofed it on Baroness. There’s a scene in the third season with Jen and Meredith. The patient is talking about her existential angst and how she can’t let go of any of her anxiety. The psychiatrist advises her to watch a gentle British baking show. We had a little, 10-second insert. Of course, it takes two hours to film, so Carolyn was like the Mary Berry character and I was a contestant. On the day that we were doing that, we were saying, ‘Oh gosh, I could do that all day,’ just talking about food and looking at food.

Two women smile into the camera.Was what you did as hosts scripted?
AB: They do have a very talented writer Elvira Kurt who has been our friend for a long time. She has actually worked on Baroness as well. A bit of the show is scripted. We don’t come up with all those puns on our own, that’s the job of a talented person. We were doing the cold opens of the show. That kind of stuff is scripted. Also sometimes, to be totally honest, there is so much technical stuff for some of the baking things, especially the French patisserie, I really needed that in the script. It’s like texty sci-fi shows you are remembering all these things. Thank goodness for the script on those parts, but the rest of it is just us interacting with the bakers. I think the best training that Carolyn and I could have had for the show is just attending a bunch of parties because it’s a party in a way.

Starting off with 10 people and then fewer as weeks progress you just have to be comfortable going in and chatting to them, it’s just like that part in the party where you wander into the kitchen and the host is trying to get something done or trying to get something in the oven and you ask them questions. Except here on the show they must answer our questions.

They were very easy to get to know, they were just such lovely, lovely people. They are in the middle of this very stressful situation with cameras in their faces and we were just there to encourage them and Carolyn and I didn’t find it hard at all. We were just encouraging them to do what they loved and to sometimes have a good laugh with them, and occasionally commiserate with them if they were having a stressful moment, which of course happens.

Let’s switch things up and let’s talk about season four of Baroness von Sketch Show. What was it like having Jennifer Whalen as the showrunner this season?
AB: Jen Whalen is exceptional. I mean it’s a massive job because you’re the one person who goes between all the departments. All four of us worked very closely on the creative and talking with each other about everything. Jen Whalen, I see her being the CEO of something, before very long. But we also have been doing this for several years now, so we have how we handle the editing and that’s in place, how we work out the sketches that are in place. I’m always just like thankful and in awe of Carolyn and Jennifer being showrunners and how willing they are to just always take those calls and emails. I personally need a little bit of time at the end of the day where I just won’t pick up the phone. I need to not answer emails. I’m always very grateful that those two have been willing to helm such a busy, busy show because we are all so involved.

But they are both fantastic at it and I hope someday that Jen Whalen is captaining the starship and I get to be her XO, I would happily be her second in command for anything.

Two women on a climbing apparatus.There are some great sketches in the first episode. Binge-watching television and translating that into kids’ years. Tony Nappo in the sketch where he uses his kind words to make women smile. The blood pressure cuff. All great relatable stuff. The end credits featured a large group of writers and story editors.
AB: We have a structure that really allows us to welcome in voices and ideas even for a short amount of time because we have a core group of four of us are always there. Then we have some staff writers who are with us all the way through. For Season 4 we had Jen Goodhue who has been with us for every season. We had Monica Heisey in and then Allison Hogg, who had also written for us before. Then with the other people sometimes they will only come in for say three days or four days. That fresh set of eyes is really invaluable and it makes for a really fun room. I don’t think there was one person that came in that one of us didn’t know already.

It’s a pretty joyous thing. Even though it’s a large group it was manageable and it just means that you have these really funny, really talented people who are really thoughtful and interested in the world and are really ready to sit and roll around an idea to get at what’s the essence of this, what’s the funniest take we can take on it. And we were so happy always to be able to offer a paycheque at the very least to our talented colleagues who live and work in this city and the country.

We are very happy to be able to make this show where we live, and other people can too.

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

The Great Canadian Baking Show airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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Preview: Baroness von Sketch Show deals more hilarity in Season 3

Hot on the heels of Baroness von Sketch Show‘s well-deserved Canadian Screen Award wins and continued kudos from American attention thanks to IFC picking the program up, the funny Canadian ladies are back for Season 3 on Tuesday at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Once again, writers, stars and executive producers Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill, Aurora Browne and Jennifer Whalen simply nail it with hilarious characters and dead-funny views in sketches both timely and evergreen. While some Canadian periodicals write lazy columns decrying a lack of funny at the CBC, I say the network has never been stronger because of Baroness, Still Standing, Schitt’s Creek, Mr. D and Kim’s Convenience. (The jury is still out on 22 Minutes, thanks to behind the scenes shakeups.)

The return episode, “Is that you Karen?” bursts out of the gate with immediate laughs, as two ladies who haven’t seen each other in 20 years reconnect in the oddest and most ludicrous of ways. And that’s before the revamped opening credits roll. Then, in the rat-a-tat roll out of sketches, viewers get reflections on the rites of spring (with three of the four ladies dressed as dudes), the dangers of accepting a ride home from a co-worker, rogue cops and what could happen when the barista gets the name wrong on your coffee cup.

Whenever I speak to folks about the television shows Baroness von Sketch almost always comes up. There’s a reason for that. With tight writing, stellar performances (MacNeill’s over-the-top physical comedy is a standout) and truly relatable topics, the baronesses are hitting a comedy home run every week.

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