Fellow Canadian band Sleddogs open with four essentially middle of the road original indie pop singles.  The videos for the first two numbers play simultaneously behind them on the big screen, which leads me to wonder do they feel visual stimulation is required as the quality of their sound isn’t enough on it’s own?  It seems so, given that I enjoyed their third song the most because of the awesome vintage Koko the Clown cartoon that accompanied it. 

Anyway, before too long the band introduces the one and only Tony Lee with a suitably cheesy gameshow type intro theme.  Lee enters in a whirlwind, immediately foisting his advertised aggressive personality upon us, crudely chatting up audience members’ girlfriends and so on.  He quickly and crassly lays down the ground rules regarding who should not participate: no-one suffering mental illness, no excessively drunk people, no hallucinogenic drug-takers, except potheads are fine for some reason.

The entire audience partakes in the first simple exercise in order to identify the best, most ‘open’ (suggestible?) subjects for the full on treatment.  These are brought down to the stage, and the remainder of the seats are filled with eager volunteers. 

What follows is a rather grotesque and often pornographic series of routines which rely mostly on sheer audacity and indeed achieve a lot of mileage on that basis.  Around a dozen or so core subjects drive cars, take magic mushrooms, get chased by sharks, witness a pornographic film shoot, become rutting animals… you know, comedy.

Tony’s deep breathy hypno-speak does have a certain mesmerising quality though I didn’t go under myself as far as I know… That’s a point – am I really a critic sent to cover this show or have I just been mesmerised into thinking I am?  He claims he discovered his natural talent when he accidentally hypnotised his girlfriend when pretending to as a joke.

Lee mostly channels his obnoxious bullyboy nature into successful humour, and by and large the audience who didn’t leave before the end (I saw at least ten) appeared to be sufficiently entertained.  I should add that Sleddogs’ accompaniment to the show proper was classy and effective, in a Late Show band kind of way. 

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