{"id":3800,"date":"2012-08-19T10:38:47","date_gmt":"2012-08-19T17:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=3800"},"modified":"2012-08-22T09:56:49","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T16:56:49","slug":"comedy-crosses-the-blue-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/08\/19\/comedy-crosses-the-blue-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedy crosses the Blue Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Its name is not directly homage to the costly Johnson Street Bridge, but it does tie Esquimalt and Victoria together: it\u2019s the Blue Bridge Comedy Festival. This year is the first shot at what will become an annual laughfest here in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe festival is both Esquimalt and Victoria,\u201d says festival director Dan Quinn. \u201cWe didn\u2019t necessarily want to go with calling it the Esquimalt Comedy Festival because then it would be limited, and calling it Victoria wasn\u2019t quite right. The Blue Bridge was an iconic thing, but it\u2019s also what connects Victoria and Esquimalt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quinn himself handpicked the best comedians for the fest, which will showcase a variety of comic styles\u2014from the shameless Nikki Payne to the charming Rob Pue\u2014at various venues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe comedians are all my choice,\u201d says Quinn. \u201cI\u2019ve been in comedy for 19 years and have seen them all. They are all my favourites and I wanted to have them open the first year of the festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

This includes comedy\u2019s new superhero Damonde Tschritter, one of the many supporting acts to perform during the fest this week. He credits Richard Pryor as giving him the best laughs, and gala opener Brent Butt as a comic influence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Damonde Tschritter (photo provided)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFrom about 1998 to 2002 Brent ran the Room at the Urban Well in Vancouver, where all the top comics went to when I started,\u201d says Tschritter. \u201cYou\u2019d have to have new material every week because the crowd was consistent. Because of Brent I accelerated and learned really quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tschritter describes himself as a \u201chilariously fantastic storyteller,\u201d and while he that may sound immodest, hey, when was the last time you heard a story involving a \u201cRocky Mountain bear fucker\u201d? And he\u2019s from around these parts, which could explain why he\u2019s so eager to perform here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to do a show with all these really funny pro comics who entertain and inspire me at the same time,\u201d says Tschritter, \u201cand it\u2019s at the Esquimalt curling rink.\u201d<\/p>\n

The talent that\u2019s about to travel across the blue bridge is tremendous. There are plenty of shows to see and the fact that it\u2019s happening here all in one weekend is convenient.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be top-level talent,” says Quinn, “it\u2019s really a great chance for people to see top-level entertainment in one weekend.”<\/p>\n

Blue Bridge Comedy Festival
\nWednesday, August 16 to Sunday, August 19
\nbluebridgecomedyfestival.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Its name is not directly homage to the costly Johnson Street Bridge, but it does tie Esquimalt and Victoria together: it\u2019s the Blue Bridge Comedy Festival. This year is the first shot at what will become an annual laughfest here in town. \u201cThe festival is both Esquimalt and Victoria,\u201d says festival director Dan Quinn. \u201cWe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3801,"comment_status":"open","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":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800","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=3800"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3821,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3800\/revisions\/3821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}