Keith Alessi is reminding audiences with his play it\u2019s never too late to seize the day (photo by Erika Conway).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWell, it wasn\u2019t my intent for it to be a project,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople told me, \u2018Hey, you should tell your story.\u2019 So, back in 2018, I intended to just do it to see what it would be like, and that was at the Toronto Fringe Festival 2018, and when I come to Victoria, we\u2019ll be up to show 330 or so. What I like most about it is it just keeps changing. It\u2019s a one-man show, I can change it everyday if I want. It keeps evolving, it keeps having impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alessi says that the main message of Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me But Banjos Saved My Life<\/i> is that it\u2019s never too late to seize the day and follow your dreams.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message of the show is don\u2019t wait to pursue your passions,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople tend to stick things in their closet, that\u2019s the metaphor I use in the show about things that are in your closet. People tend to think they will get to things one day, but there is always a reason life gets in the way that they don\u2019t. So basically, I\u2019m telling people, \u2018You\u2019re never too old to pursue your passion.\u2019 For me, I was 61 years old when I got my diagnosis, so it took me a long time for that light bulb to go off for me. That\u2019s really the heart and the soul of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alessi says that doing this play helped him grow socially.<\/p>\n
\u201cI interact with people I wouldn\u2019t have interacted with in my business life,\u201d he says. \u201cI deal with a lot of creatives now… I think it\u2019s made me a more well-rounded individual by expanding my circle of acquaintances and friends, the groups of people who might not have been people I would have naturally gravitated to otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alessi donates all of the box office proceeds from Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me But Banjos Saved My Life <\/i>to charity. He says that since the play started, including donations, he\u2019s raised over $900,000 for cancer, music, theatre, and community charities. But beyond that, Alessi says that the main thing he wants audiences to take away from the play is a mix of inspiration, fun, and enjoyment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want them to feel good, first of all,\u201d says Alessi. \u201cI want them to be inspired and I want them to reflect upon their own lives and their own priorities. I think there is a message in there for a lot of people about the importance of pursuing things you are passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me But Banjos Saved My Life
\n<\/i>7:30 pm Friday, April 5,
\n2 pm Saturday, April 6, and
\n7:30 pm Saturday, April 6
\n$35, Langham Court Theatre
\nlanghamtheatre.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me But Banjos Saved My Life is a comedy, but it tackles some serious issues. The one-man show portrays main actor\u2019s Keith Alessi\u2019s recovery from cancer. \u201cThis show is basically my life story,\u201d says Alessi. \u201cI was a corporate executive who had spent my life collecting a world-class banjo collection that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,309],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-april-3-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25305"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25367,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25305\/revisions\/25367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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