Actionable - at the Pearl
http://thepearlcompany.ca/?page_id=2612
Actionable: Bob Wiseman (Of Blue Rodeo)
Thursday, Jan. 31 @ 7:30 pm; Friday, Feb. 1 @ 9:00 pm; Friday, Feb. 8 @ 9:00 pm; Saturday, Feb. 9 @ 7:30 pm: $15
Bob Wiseman may be best known as the keyboard player for Blue Rodeo, and has won several Junos and a Lifetime Achievement
Award from CBC Radio 3 but his theatre and film credits are as accomplished as his work in music. Wiseman will be bringing his hit one-man musical comedy“Actionable” to The Pearl Festival.
Actionable is an hilarious account of Wiseman’s struggles in the music industry in trying to establish a solo career. The show has gained rave reviews from critics as diverse as Talking Heads’ David Byrne, who called it “as real as life and death and sometimes funny, too,” and Ron Sexsmith who called him “Canada’s Tom Waits”.
Adrian Chamberlain of the Victoria Times-Colonist gave it five stars and described it as “high artistic value – unlike anything you’ve seen before or could even try to imagine.”
The show features Wiseman’s trademark quirky songs on accordion, guitar and keyboard, as well as his stories using Super 8 film, video projection and PowerPoint.
Wiseman risked legal action when he took the name “Prince” after the Minnesota guitar icon changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol (and henceforth became known as “the artist formerly known as Prince.”)
Actionable includes songs such as “My Cousin Dave” (criticizing David Geffen) and “Have a Nice Day” (a mockery of right-wing Canadian lawyer Doug Christie). The show chronicles legal run-ins with Prince, Warner Music and Pepsi, among others.
“The stories themselves are all pretty funny. The songs almost all heart breaking,” said Plank Magazine writer Paul McKinnon. “The audience didn’t know what to think…if you’ve never heard them before they are quite the treat. The show is full of laughs, but at the core of it all is Bob Wiseman’s achingly beautiful music.”
Award from CBC Radio 3 but his theatre and film credits are as accomplished as his work in music. Wiseman will be bringing his hit one-man musical comedy“Actionable” to The Pearl Festival.Actionable is an hilarious account of Wiseman’s struggles in the music industry in trying to establish a solo career. The show has gained rave reviews from critics as diverse as Talking Heads’ David Byrne, who called it “as real as life and death and sometimes funny, too,” and Ron Sexsmith who called him “Canada’s Tom Waits”.
Adrian Chamberlain of the Victoria Times-Colonist gave it five stars and described it as “high artistic value – unlike anything you’ve seen before or could even try to imagine.”
The show features Wiseman’s trademark quirky songs on accordion, guitar and keyboard, as well as his stories using Super 8 film, video projection and PowerPoint.
Wiseman risked legal action when he took the name “Prince” after the Minnesota guitar icon changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol (and henceforth became known as “the artist formerly known as Prince.”)
Actionable includes songs such as “My Cousin Dave” (criticizing David Geffen) and “Have a Nice Day” (a mockery of right-wing Canadian lawyer Doug Christie). The show chronicles legal run-ins with Prince, Warner Music and Pepsi, among others.
“The stories themselves are all pretty funny. The songs almost all heart breaking,” said Plank Magazine writer Paul McKinnon. “The audience didn’t know what to think…if you’ve never heard them before they are quite the treat. The show is full of laughs, but at the core of it all is Bob Wiseman’s achingly beautiful music.”