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When Conor Bradbury takes the stage in Duel Citizens, The Second City Toronto’s 90th mainstage revue, audiences are not simply watching him perform sketch comedy. They are mainlining an irrepressible and inexhaustible performance energy that was born decades ago … in his grandma’s closet.
Bradbury has wanted to be a performer for as long as he can remember – “actually, even longer than I can remember.” His family loves to remind him of his early commitment to the bit: “When I was 4 years old, I used to impersonate Guy Smiley from Sesame Street. I’d hide in the closet at my Grandma’s house, and then burst out yelling ‘It’s Guuuuuuuuuuuy Smiley’.” He had a lot to learn from these humble beginnings: “I’m told this was cute at first, but that I simply wouldn’t stop doing it. So I guess I had a natural affinity for performing, but not a great sense of when to move on from a bit.” But he learned. And he grew.
Now a mainstage regular at The Second City, as well as a member of the acclaimed sketch troupe Sex T-Rex, Bradbury moves effortlessly between improv, scripted comedy, and screen work. Although he loves “all kinds of performing,” improv comes to him most naturally because he loves storytelling and creating narratives … but hates sitting down to write. “This sentence alone took me about 15 minutes to construct,” he quips wryly. Improv, by contrast, allows him to be creative and leaves no room for his “hyper critical editor brain to slow things down”. That said, he assures that “I have gotten better at ‘sit down’ writing over the past 5 years or so, but still prefer to write on my feet – because, despite what many in this industry would have you believe, improv IS writing.”
Duel Citizens is a high-energy sketch revue that deploys stellar cast chemistry in service of a blend of political and everyday humour. The all-Canadian ensemble — Bradbury, Coko Galore, Devon Henderson, Christian Smith, Tiyawnda, and Scott Yamamura — delivers a fast-paced mix of satire, musical numbers, and absurdist sketches. The show “definitely tackles the recent Canada/USA relationship,” notes Bradbury, “but it isn’t bogged down by it. I think it’s a great balance with some political satire and lots of ‘balls to the wall’ (that’s an expression, right?) silly comedy.”
The sketch Bradbury is most proud of is “Sweet Chili Heat,” in which he introduces a character named “Mr Sweet Chili Heat” – in the hope that “Second City has to buy me a bag of chips every night (because Second City is owned by a multi-billion dollar private equity company and can afford it).” He has no pretensions and quickly concedes, “it’s obviously a very dumb premise”. But the sketch does have an edge: “It’s also a satire about the small ways we choose to ‘fight back’ against big corporations (and how often we seek small, achievable, symbolic victories – rather than push for real, meaningful change).” The kicker – and the small symbolic victory for him? “We now literally get a bag of Sweet Chili Heat bought for us every night. I figured we’d be sick of them a week into the run, but we’re still going strong 6 months in!”
Bradbury is just as candid – and reflective – about sketches that have missed the mark. “I’ve had lots of moments on stage that didn’t go as planned. At Second City, they build shows by doing something called ‘premise-prov’, where you pitch loose ideas for sketches, and then improvise them in front of an audience.” One particular premise-prov scene stands out for him above all: “a scene with Devon Henderson and Christian Smith that got absolutely ZERO laughs. At one point, we were all just on stage staring blankly at each other. Our characters were a new homeowner, the ghost of David Bowie, and Paul Bernardo. We had no idea how we’d gotten there or how to get out of it… and then the lights turned off, and it was on to the next scene. We all just died laughing backstage. It had failed so badly that it had circled back to being fun again (not for the audience – they couldn’t have hated it more – but for us as performers)!”
“It was a good lesson for me that failure really isn’t as scary as we make it out to be,” he notes. And this lesson motivates him to push the envelope without fear in his own work – and to seek inspiration from others in the Toronto sketch comedy scene who are doing the same. On this note, “two improv troupes come to mind: Mrs Beast and Little Miss Normal. They run a monthly show together and are both built of incredibly talented performers. I’ve seen them do some really avant garde stuff, as well (Mrs Beast did a multi-room ‘Sleep No More’ style show at Bad Dog’s Blockbuster week, as well as a self-produced House Party Show this August). Check them out!”
Beyond the Second City stage, Bradbury’s next project blends humour, performance, and community. He’ll be hosting GOTH PROM on October 4th at VideoCabaret, a one-night-only costumed funfest fundraiser in support of Sex T-Rex’s wild new show, which is currently in development. For ticket information, visit sextrexcomedy.com.
Duel Citizens is now playing at The Second City Toronto. For tickets and showtimes, visit secondcity.com.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine
