Local comedian and actor Kirsten Van Ritzen and her group of comedy students will be putting on their annual March Madness Comedy show on March 19. Ritzen says that the event serves as a graduation show for her students and a chance to show off their skills for the first time.
“It will feature a dozen performers who are in this current class of mine,” says Ritzen. “It’s their graduation show. Half of them will be performing stand-up for the very first time, which will be a terrifying and exhilarating experience for them, and the other half has taken my class two or three times before, so they’ve got some experience on stage. They’ve got really strong material and they already know how much fun it will be to entertain a really big crowd and get those huge waves of laughter.”
Ritzen says that one of the main goals of the show is to put a bit of a comedic touch on the state of today’s world.
“I call it March Madness because it feels like there’s a lot of craziness out there and a lot of anger, but it’s really up to each individual performer what they want to talk about,” she says. “There might be jokes about relationships, about their jobs, there will probably be a few pandemic jokes; people might choose to talk about a struggle that they’re having. I encourage people to find humour in difficult situations, such as if someone is experiencing anxiety or has lived with something like insomnia. I encourage people to find humour in difficult topics because it really can create awareness and provide a valuable connection to the audience through laughter and exploring those topics.”
Ritzen says that comedy to her is a outlet that people can use when they need to unplug from life.
“I love comedy,” she says. “We all need to laugh, especially coming out of this pandemic, life has been hard. All forms of comedy give us an outlet and a release and we need it. It’s a great pleasure to be able to perform comedy and to facilitate other people doing stand-up.”
Ritzen says that what she loves so much about teaching comedy is meeting people and helping them find their voice.
“I love that I get to meet people from all different walks of life,” she says. “In this class, we’ve got people who are in age range from 18 to 80, so that’s just an incredibly diverse range of life experiences and perspectives. I’ve met people who are college students to retirees and every job you can imagine—lawyers, teachers, firefighters, construction workers. And everybody brings their own unique sense of humour, and I really enjoy getting to meet them and to help them explore comedy and discover their own voice.”
Ritzen says that the main thing she wants out of this show is for the audience to laugh and enjoy themselves.
“I want them to have a really good time,” she says. “I think that it’s just so wonderful that we get to gather as a group to share an experience and that we’re all watching something happening live, we’re not watching a Netflix special. We’re watching a live comedian in front of us, sharing their point of view and we all get to share in that humour, so I want people to walk away saying, ‘Wow, I had a really great time. I can’t believe those comics, many of them were performing for the very first time, and they just did an amazing job.’”
March Madness Comedy
8 pm Saturday, March 19
$15 advance, $20 at door
Sports View Bar & Grill, Oak Bay Rec Centre
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