The Vancouver Courier

Patrick Maliha has been in comedy since 1995 and he's been a key player in keeping Vancouver comedy community alive and kicking.

A few years ago he created the People's Champ of Comedy competition which takes place every summer at Darby's Pub in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood. "I put up $1,000 of my own cash in Grand Prize money and hope that someone who truly deserves it, wins. It's a great competition because both judges and the audience judge the stand-up comics." He added that it began simply as a way to keep the public excited about comedy in the slow summer months but has since grown into a 9-week event in which amateurs and pros compete.

According to Maliha, a large part of the community's success in town is the availability of performance venues. "There are rooms that are great for pros to try out new stuff and rooms for first timers to get their feet wet. It gives people who normally wouldn't be able to get stage time, more of an opportunity to improve their craft."

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Patrick Ecclesine/FOX

The winner of season six of the popular reality cooking series, Hell's Kitchen, will be awarded the Head Chef position at Araxi in Whistler, British Columbia.

Hosted by Chef Gordon Ramsay, who is known for his well-seasoned temper, this is the first time a Hell's Kitchen winner will be set-up in an existing restaurant, and one in Canada to boot!

"I think in the end the choice came up because of the Olympics," said Araxi's Executive Chef James Walt. "I think they wanted to put something through with an Olympic theme so when they came to the Sea to Sky Corridor they thought okay, Araxi is the place."

Located in scenic Whistler, BC the show should shine a welcoming spotlight on the region, which is not only co-host to the 2010 Winter Games, but is also becoming a thriving culinary hot spot.

"Obviously it's a ski town but we have a really good food scene here as well," noted Walt. "We have a hundred restaurants and—Araxi in particular—we draw 70% of our produce from the Pemberton Valley, which is just behind us."

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Sonia Mansillo

Over the last few years the City of Surrey, just East of Vancouver, has been home to Western Canada's largest Canada Day celebration and with 100,000 in attendance last year, it became one of BC's largest outdoor shows ever staged.

They're returning to the Cloverdale Amphitheatre on July 1st for this year's round of festivities, activities, music and rides in this free event for the entire family.

Headliners on the main stage include legendary Canadian rockers 54-40 and Bif Naked, who recently released her fifth studio album, The Promise.

"After 3 years of being off the road, getting married, and a year and a half of battling breast cancer, Bif Naked has been given the green light to tour," states her official Facebook page. "Bif is determined to get back on the road and do what she does best – put on a killer live show for her devoted fans." The City of Surrey is calling her Canada Day performance the comeback show of the year.

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City Food Magazine

Each year Black Hills Estate Winery hosts a release party for their Nota Bene wine however for 2009 they combined their special event with the first-ever Osoyoos Celebrity Wine Auction.

Glenn Fawcett, President of Black Hills said that shows such as Entertainment Tonight Canada caught wind that Jason Priestley (Beverly Hills 90210, Hollywood & Vine) would be co-hosting their party along with Chad Oakes (Emmy winning producer) it immediately elevated the event's profile and drew the attention of national celebrity media.

Organizers then wanted to create something larger surrounding the Nota Bene event so from the ensuing star-studded media frenzy, the Osoyoos Celebrity Wine Auction was born in just 3 short weeks.

"It had been an idea that had been kicked around for a while," noted Fawcett who said they wanted to try something a bit different this year to help promote the entire region and compliment their special annual event. Along with Destination Osoyoos they created a festival that celebrates wine, food, music and the arts in the community.

Priestley, who is also a part-owner of Black Hills, brought along television and silver screen stars such as Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek, National Treasure), Tiffani Amber Thiesen (Saved by the Bell, Beverly Hills 90201), David Cubbitt (Medium), Jann Arden, Canadian Olympic Gold-medal winning athlete Michelle Cameron, Chef Ned Bell (Food Network), Terry David Mulligan (The Tasting Room) and more.

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In 2006 Terry Moshenberg made the observation that there are book clubs, hockey leagues and even knitting leagues, but nothing for rock—so he invented it!  He founded the League of Rock in Toronto and they're about to go international, including the launch of a Vancouver program this summer.

"The League of Rock harnesses the unsung heroes of rock or the unknown musical population," he explained. "It's for grownups who rock and who have day jobs and families -- and I'm one of those people."  It brings together the types of people who have been having private jam sessions in their basements and gives them access to long-time professionals who might be looking for something new, or more ways to connect and communicate with audiences. Linking these groups by allowing non-pros to learn from industry veterans through workshops was a logical connection for Moshenberg.

The way it works is that once members are all signed up, they meet at a local "draft" event. There, they will be paired up with band mates selected by Moshenberg who says, it's kind of a reality experience. "There's no auditions or finger-pointing or anything like that. People who join, hand themselves over to creativity."

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Twilight Set Tours Vancouver

Amy Burrows has been an uber-fan of the Twilight series since the first film was released and along with Allie Henze, she's passing the super fan excitement on to other Twi-hards with a new tour business.

This month they launched TwilightSetTours.com which will host personalized tours of sets and filming locations around the Lower Mainland that have been used in Twilight movies so far. "I was excited from the moment I heard that they would be filming the second movie in Vancouver," said Burrows. Since the locations in the books are real, many around the world are already flocking to places such as Forks, Washington, La Push, and the Quileute Reservation. 

Burrows and Henze were able to visit many of the sets for New Moon over the last few months, travelling from location to location, often being able to meet cast and network with crew members. Their exclusive, by-request tours are selling out quickly and Burrows assures they will be as discreet as possible, sticking to “public locations and places where you can view the sets from public property.”

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Rebecca Bollwitt

The festival concert scene has always been important to Vancouver, rain or shine, and with such a culmination of punk/ska, independent and alternative talent the Vans Warped Tour is highly anticipated each year.

The festival rolls into Vancouver August 14th with performances from dozens of bands including NOFX, Alexisonfire, and Bad Religion. Fans can already ramp up their excitement on the tour's website, which has been turned into a social network. The online community features a Google map/tour date mashup, concert-goer profiles, comments, mobile content, and band pages.

When the lineup was initially announced, the tour instantly became a trending topic on Twitter—the microblogging service used by millions globally. In Vancouver we'll see acts like Less Than Jake whom I spoke to last summer at the Commodore about life on their own label and the impact of social media throughout their careers.

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Disney/Pixar

This week is Vancouver Digital Week, and is filled with workshops, forums, and conferences discussing new media as well as the digital gaming industry. Next year, however, they'll have to add a whole new category of events for animation as it was recently announced that Disney's Pixar studio is setting up shop in town this fall.

"The operation will be small in size and dedicated to producing short-form quality computer animation for theme parks, DVDs, television and theatrical exhibition," said Disney/Pixar president Ed Catmull.

Regardless of size, the opening of an studio such as this is good news for the Vancouver digital space which has been seeing giants like locally-based Electronic Arts Inc. trimming some fat over the last year.

Warren Franklin, Chief Executive Officer of Vancouver's Rainmaker Entertainment Inc. told the Globe & Mail of this move's importance, "It's going to go a long way to putting Vancouver on the map as a world centre for animation."

Vancouver's always had appeal to Hollywood, with its ability to look like anywhere from the Bronx to Smallville but along with scenery and using some great local talent it's also the tax credit that are so enticing. As of this past February, the province of BC renewed its tax credit for digital animation and visual effects, and it seems like it was perfect timing.

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Ferdaus Shamim / Getty Images

John Cusack's new movie, Hot Tub Time Machine, is making a splash in the Vancouver film industry. At first, it was simply a working title, however, fans around the internet are praising it for its quirky and nerdy science-comedy value.

Having finished a stay at the Fernie Alpine Lodge in Eastern British Columbia, Hot Tub Time Machine picked up filming on one of Vancouver's local mountains, Mount Seymour in April.

According to Variety, the story involves a group of friends who return to a ski lodge where they enjoyed partying as teens who then get frustrated about their current lives. When they get into a hot tub—that just also happens to be a time machine—they are transported back to 1987.

The location on Mount Seymour is so popular that they have a Twitter account setup on behalf of the lodge, which has been posting updates throughout the production (@movie_cabin).

Tweets over the past month included: "Still filming up here around the base of mystery ski lift, many of the extras have been here for 12 hrs +, many of them wearing heat packs," and "Several folks have noted that John Cusack is well liked by the mountain staff and a pleasant lad to chat with."

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Steve Louie

Their style has been described as Brit Pop-Rock and with just the right amounts of wittiness and toe-tapping melodies, Vancouver's 16mm sure produce some catchy tunes.

The group was formed years ago and although they've had several line-up changes, Matthew Moldowan (vocals, keys)  and Jefferey Josiah Powell (bass, vocals) are the mainstays. "It's kind of like dating, you know within the first five minutes," said Jeffrey about choosing their recent band mates.

Their self-titled album, that is currently available on iTunes, was released through Universal Music and they also recently played JUNOFest.

They produced a music video for the song SOS with the assistance of VIDEOfact and with such connections already, I was wondering what these two were still doing with day jobs.

"Once you disclose that you're part of a serious endeavor outside of work you have to make sure you continue to be on top of your tasks," said Jeffrey. "You don't want to compromise people's view of how you go about your business."

Their humour is never lost on or off stage and I was delighted to hear a piece of "16mm trivia" that attributes all of their current ambition to an autographed photo of Henry Winkler as "The Fonz" that Matthew received when he was young.

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Caprica is the world 50 years before the events that take place in the hit science fiction series, Battlestar Galactica and the first episode has just been released on DVD.

Magda Apanowicz who plays Lacy Rand in the series says, "Caprica and Battlestar have two completely different feels—one is post-apocalyptic and the other is when the rise and fall of a nation are right at its peak."

The story unravels the beginning of the Adama and the Graystone family sagas while Lacy Rand herself is an integral piece of the plot. "I'm in the middle talking to both sides and things unwind and unravel and come to fruition," said Apanowicz.

Fans have already reported that the two share the same intriguing, intelligent, and provocative style however being set further in the past Caprica has the elements of a more traditional drama rather than a "space opera".

Like Battlestar, Caprica is filmed in and around the Greater Vancouver area which happens to the Apanowicz's hometown. "It gives me a happy feeling when I see things are that filmed here, not only Caprica but anything that I watch that's filmed here I can tell right away...it just makes you feel that much more connected to the piece."

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ITV

The Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver is enjoying a phenominal spike in interest in their spring production of Les Miserables thanks to Susan Boyle of Scotland who took the world by storm this month with her passionate performance of I Dreamed a Dream.

Boyle was a contestant on the TV show Britain's Got Talent, described herself as, "nearly 38, currently unemployed but still looking," and lives alone with her cat, Pebbles. She's never been married, never been kissed, and certainly didn't look like a contender for the competition when she walked out on stage—yet she blew everyone away.

With roughly 100 million views of various videos of her audition that have been posted to YouTube so far, she's an international sensation and interest in Les Miserables has been re-kindled.

"I'm excited that, with her spirit and incredible voice, Susan Boyle has connected people to the beauty and power of this song," said Sara-Jeanne Hosie who will sing I Dreamed a Dream as Fantine in the Arts Club production. "But mostly it's a relief that if I get hit by a bus, the Arts Club knows exactly who to ask to replace me!"

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