As the Irish Rovers used to sing…wasn’t that a party? Last night friends, family and fans of comic magician GLENN OTTAWAY gathered at the Revue Cinema on Roncesvalles in Toronto to raise funds and awareness of Glenn’s encounter with a known scam artist who swindled him out of his life savings in a fraudulent theatre deal. On stage, well-known comedians, magicians and even a pair of mentalists celebrated Glenn’s career and encouraged the audience to dig deep to help Glenn and his depleted bank account. Thanks to comedian/magician Matt Disero, who created the one-night only comedy concert, some of the country’s top headliners volunteered their time and talent, so here’s a brief pictorial account of The Rocky Horror: It’s a Wonderful Life Anyway show.When I arrived at the Revue Theatre, I first ran into the adorable and funny Mini Holmes (below) who was making some last-minute tweaks to her set.Matt took the stage to greet everyone (below) and share a few thoughts about the evening’s meaning and to thank all the acts who came out to support Glenn, and even showed a groovy videotaped message from Canadian music legend, the one and only Gowan, a longtime friend of Glenn’s, then introduced the night’s MC, Mike Bullard.As usual Mike Bullard (below) was brilliant, acerbic and swift to pounce on hecklers and the poor unfortunate man, Kyle, in the front row who became the night’s comedy punching bag!First up was Mike Carbone. I used to book Mike (below) back in the 80’s and always loved his king-of-cool delivery whether he was performing to business crowds, hipsters or in biker bars. Then next up was the amazing and baffling mentalist duo, The Evasons, who confounded the audience, including our man Kyle, (below) with Tessa’s psychic gifts while Jeff sought out the volunteers. They fooled me, that’s for sure.Then Mike brought up another brilliant and baffling sleight of hand artist, David Peck (below)Make way for Mini Holmes and her maxi comedy set…she nailed her set and had us all laughing our asses off! Next up , the dapper and dandy Brian Roberts whose suit hid a multitude of magical mysteries!Brian was followed by Richard Forget (below) who again picked poor Kyle to play along with a card trick that involved some awe-inspiring deck choreography.Young comic sleight of hand artist James Alan (below) took the stage and had us all enthralled with his “dance of the red thimbles”…how did he do that?Then it was time for us to welcome That Canadian Guy…Glen Foster (below). Glen and Glenn has been working together since the 80’s – I frequently booked them into Yuk Yuk’s and for road gigs way back then so last night was a real Glen, Glenn and Glenda kinda night..LOL!Mike then brought the man of the hour up on stage……ladies and gentlemen…Glenn Ottaway. Huge ovation, laughter and quite a few tears! Glenn shared more of his story with us and thanked everyone who helped put the night together as well as the performers. He then presented Matt Disero with a special gift for being the captain of that evening’s ship and we could all see how moved Matt was. Bravo, Mr. Disero, you did good. As the generous folks of The Revue Theatre gently herded us all out afterwards (they had a 9:30 film to show), there were lots of hugs and smiles and I grabbed a few more pics like this one below with “Magic” Mike Segal (left) and Gordon Precious (right).Here’s Mike again with Gordon and Bob Taylor (far right) and a young lady fan of Glenn’s. That Ottaway guy is a real chick magnet!!FYI: Gordon and Bob are both past presidents of the Toronto ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
Below, James Alan waves goodbye from backstage…what a charming young performer.Glenn bids farewell to his fans and thanks everyone for coming out.You can follow Glenn here on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/glenn.ottaway
as well as all the wonderful entertainers who made The Rocky Horror such a success.
Matt Disero http://mattdisero.com/
Mike Bullard http://www.newstalk1010.com/Shows/BeyondtheMicwithMikeBullard.aspx
Mike Carbone http://www.mikecarbone.com/Home.html
Jeff & Tessa Evason http://evason.com/
David Peck http://www.davidpecklive.com/
Mini Holmes https://www.facebook.com/Miniholmes
Brian Roberts http://brianrobertsmagic.com/
James Alan http://www.jamesalan.ca/
Richard Forget http://www.richardforget.com/home.html
Glen Foster http://www.thatcanadianguy.com/