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Perfect girls-night-out June 21 at Key City
The Comic Strippers, or the Thunder from the Tundra, is good for guys, too!
There’s something about men willing to take most of it off – or in The Full Monty’s case, all of it off – that has women, and men, laughing along in blushed awe while wiping the tears away from their eyes.
It’s comedy gold – just ask Vancouver comedian Roman Danylo who, with three fellow comics, is bringing the fictitious male stripper troupe, The Comic Strippers, to Cranbrook in a semi-undressed, totally unscripted show, Friday June 21. It’s the perfect girls-night-out!
That said, “Guys should not shy away from this show,” insists Danylo. “The split usually is 70% women and 30% guys who attend, so it’s smart for guys to go.”
Best known for appearing for five seasons on CTV’s Comedy Inc., Danylo has gathered some of Vancouver’s top improv comics unafraid to bare their chests, and souls.
Known for their work with Vancouver TheatreSports League are improv masters and sketch comics Ken Lawson and Chris Cassillan, while David Milchard appears as the “child” in the hilarious YouTube web series, Convos With My 2 Year Old, which has had more than 40 million views.
The idea to get grown men of “normal” body types to do a strip improv show came after Danylo’s wife came home from seeing an actual male strip show.
“I thought, ‘we have torsos, we could do that.’ Here’s a genre nobody is making fun of yet,” said Danylo. “This was before Magic Mike came out. When the movie hit theatres, it actually helped us along… When we watched the movie, which had a serious take on it, we were surprised how many laughs were in it as well. The whole idea makes people giggle.” “We have comedy bodies,” said Danylo. “We do the reverse of working out. If someone gets too fit, like our tech guy noticed not too long ago, then we know we’ve been working too hard.”
Nicknamed the “Thunder from the Tundra,” when they were in Vegas and in Australia, The Comic Strippers are constantly grooving and gyrating. They sing and dance and in between scenes they banter with the crowd and perform their hilarious twist on improv sketches.
“Our improv-based comedy is based on picking apart different genres. We do some crazy twists on it. Every time we do it, the audience plays a role in the show and we get some crazed audience members shouting out to us,” said Danylo. “It’s happened on occasion where people didn’t realize this is a comedy show, but after 10 seconds they get it. We are playing with fire, but everyone has gotten the irony.” With a winning recipe of strut and sass, the boys plan to continue “stripping” until they just can’t handle the pressure any longer.
“We gotta do this now. There’s a short shelf life to this. There’s an age thing and then there will be the point where we physically cannot do this,” said Danylo. “(However,) it’s a fun show to continue experimenting with. I dread the day it becomes work. Right now, we’re still backstage giggling and doing push ups at the last minute to beef up.”
The Comic Strippers take over Key City Theatre on Friday, June, 21 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $39 (with group discounts available for six people or more) at the box office and online at KeyCityTheatre.com . The show is for 19-plus only.
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