Last November, Cocktales: The Retooling ran at Calgary’s cozy Vertigo Studio theatre and the show sold out almost instantly. Now it’s back, at the Jack Singer Concert Hall October 21st and 22nd, as well at the Myers Horowitz Theatre on the UofA campus in Edmonton October 23rd to 26th.
The show is hilarious. After seeing it last year, I cannot do it justice in words, how awesome it is. The talented cast took me from laughing so hard my stomach hurt, to sadness, to shock and awe. Now that the show is back, take advantage of this opportunity to see it, instead of hearing your friends discussing it once it is too late.
The show has run three times in Calgary, in 2001, 2002 and 2007. Each run sold out, and now Ground Zero/Hit and Myth are taking the show to a broader scale. GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine caught up with Ryan Luhning and Joel Cochrane from the company to talk cock.
“We were approached by Jeff Parry Promotions about putting it in a larger venue,” Cochrane explained. “It isn’t like A Christmas Carol where you can run it every year. But there is a market, a lot of people didn’t get to see it last year. It is the start of taking CockTales from a Calgary-based show to going to other cities and selling it in other markets, and a wonderful opportunity to see how the show transitions from our club days to our arena rock days...if it even does.”
”Or if it even does, and that is the best part of the experiment: we want to see if it will or not,” added Luhning. “We love the 150-seat cabaret style but past shows like Puppetry of the Penis, Menopositive, Vagina Monologues, these shows went on to much larger things after starting with the same roots. I think the work is going to translate nicely whether there are 100 people or 1000. But it is a great experiment to see where we go from here.”
If you did see the show last year, you know how good it is. But this year will see some changes, Luhning said.
”We are in rehearsals now, and seeing what may not have worked so well last time and adding new pieces. One topic that hasn’t been touched on yet is vasectomy, so we are talking about that in this version. We are still adding, taking away and fleshing the script out a bit more. I don’t know if this show will ever be finished, you can always take away and add new songs and pieces. It is just an amazing project to be a part of.”
One of the strongest pieces in the show is titled My Father’s Penis. Cochrane simply sits on stage and does a monologue about his father, reflecting back on his childhood and then fast forwarding to adulthood and visiting his father, who is dying of cancer. The room goes quiet except for sniffling, and it truly is an amazing, powerful piece of theatre.
“It is the anchor piece. It is strategically placed second-last for various reasons, because people connect to it and it completely comes from left field. It also shows a tender side to what has been a very shticky show up to that point. It is an absolutely beautiful piece and you just tell the story, it requires nothing else,” Cochrane said. “It is a great piece to be able to do, and there is a moment every night when you can hear the pin drop and it is dead silence in the house. On stage you just hear the silence and the rustling from people crying. It is a pretty powerful and moving piece to get to perform every night and I love doing it.”
The show then transitions into a monologue best described as a young farm boys’ experimentation, and one of Luhning’s favorites.
“Everybody loves a good cow-fucker story. It always has that great reaction with half the audience in shock and the other half is laughing hysterically. It is such a well-written piece, and last year we were outside the theatre and we actually had a fan who came running up and said ‘awh dude, that last piece, that totally happened to me when I was a kid!’ You have to leave them on a lighter note. You can’t let them leave the building holding on to My Father’s Penis. That piece has always finished the show.”
”It is our Freebird or our Stairway to Heaven,” Cochrane quipped.
The show will appeal to everyone – those with a penis, those who play with penises, and those who do both.
“Our biggest audiences were women and gay men. That is just fine, that is who buys tickets and is smart enough to come to theatre. Would we like straight guys to come? Sure we would like everyone to come. We had a lot of stags and drag queens show up as well,” Luhning said. “We have had so many people tell us what they related to from the show. Anybody who has a penis will be able to relate to the show. To me it is just great entertainment. If you have seen it before, there are going to be a few things you haven’t seen. And if you haven’t seen it, talk to the people who have. It is such a great entertaining night out at the theatre.”
Cocktales
October 21st & 22nd – Calgary
October 23rd – 26th – Edmonton
www.groundzerotheatre.ca
www.jeffparrypromotions.com
