Nkasi Ogbonnah brings her wit, values – and yes, enthusiasm! – to Second City Toronto’s new (and final) show, CERB Your Enthusiasm

In one bittersweet hour, Nkasi Ogbonnah will make her mainstage debut – and complete her first mainstage run –  at The Second City Toronto this Saturday, November 14. 

She is part of the ensemble performing a new sketch comedy show topically named CERB Your Enthusiasm (directed by Ashley Botting), and the show will stream one time only on November 14 at 8 pm. Andrew Bushell, Hannah Spear, Natalie Metcalfe, Chris Wilson, and Tricia Black round out the cast, with musical direction by Ayaka Kinugawa. 

Why just once? And why streaming only?  The Second City’s longtime venue on Mercer Street is about to be demolished to make way for – what else – condos! “Isn’t that the answer for everything in Toronto now?” Ogbonnah deadpans. The original plan was to open the show last month for a 6-week run. However, it was forced to close right after previews when Toronto returned to a modified Stage 2 closure, in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. The earliest reopening permitted was to be this weekend, the last before the condo developers tear down the theatre. And the virus’ recent spike killed even that option. 

And in this topsy-turvy time, that’s not all!  The company had been on the cusp of opening a newly-built venue near Harbourfront this December . . . but those plans are on hold while it seeks new ownership to take it in a more inclusive and representative direction. This decision plus the pandemic closures mean that, for now, the future of The Second City Toronto is on a firmly indefinite hold. 

Taking everything in stride, Ogbonnah is hopeful that Saturday’s show won’t be a “one off”, and that the cast will be able to perform it again in a temporary home “for a bit, anyways”, before the new theatre is ready. But “No matter what, I’m still so proud of what we were able to accomplish and do in such a short amount of time, in a very weird world,” she smiles. “So no regrets here!”

CERB Your Enthusiasm is Ogbonnah’s first mainstage show, but she is no stranger to The Second City. She has been involved with the company since she was 15 years old, first as a student and then a performer. She was invited to the mainstage cast by way of the family company. When the CERB Your Enthusiasm  invitation came, she felt “a wee bit uncertain”, but in the end, COVID-19 made her say yes. “As a comedian, and especially one at Second City, what’s going on in the world plays such a big part in creating the show,” she notes. She recognized the pandemic as “such a unique period in our history that we (hopefully) won’t see again in our lifetime, but while we’re stuck in this reality, I might as well take advantage of this unique situation”. 

The ensemble created the sketches almost entirely over Zoom, with a solid chunk of the work taking the form of solitary writing at the laptop. Despite the minimal number of in-person rehearsals, Ogbonnah is confident that audiences will get a typically high-quality Second City show – albeit in a “cuter, smaller package”. Yes, the experience will be different. Instead of communally celebrating and commiserating through satirical sketches and audience-inspired improv, we will be at home watching a livestream. But watching people live on a familiar stage – even on the computer – is still a “snippet of a comfortable normal” we once knew. And, Ogbonnah adds, that itself “can be a nice break.”

The sketches will touch on diverse topics, including what’s happening in the world “because you can’t just ignore it. But we approach it all with levity”. But fear not: she promises “some silly stuff in there, as well”. One of Ogbonnah’s favourite sketches is one she wrote called Racial Role Play. It centres on a married couple (played by her and Chris Wilson). The wife decides she wants to spice up their relationship by role-playing as a white person. “It’s probably up there as one of my favourite things I’ve ever written. I love it because it screams me.” 

And that’s how she knows it was a good decision to join the troupe – because her unique voice is heard in the show. While this is a funny scene, it’s at times uncomfortable. As a writer, Ogbonnah loves playing with discomfort…to “metaphorically hold an audience by the edge of a cliff. But I will NEVER let them go. I will ALWAYS keep them safe.” Unlike most Second City sketches, Racial Role Play does not end on a joke. Laughter is a release, especially after heavier topics. It helps people to move on from feelings of discomfort or unease. But every now and then, Ogbonnah thinks it’s more powerful to “sit in a moment”. She made the deliberate choice to end the scene on a “sad, defeated, and tense note” because her character, a Black woman, is “frustrated as hell with a world that always feels like it’s against her”. That feeling comes from a very real place. Ogbonnah wants audiences to “really feel, for just half a second, a tiny, tiny fraction of the feelings that I, and other BIPOC individuals feel constantly. Because in real life we don’t get a blow line to ease tension. We don’t get to laugh it off . . . so for one hot second, neither do you.”

Those feelings intersect one of the most critical questions of the day: “How important is representation?” Asked for her thoughts, Ogbonnah offers one name: Kamala Harris. Ogbonnah says she has “NEVER seen someone who was half Black and half Brown, like me, who is in such a high-profile position. Ever. For the first time, I feel really seen.” When she tells people that she is mixed, more often than not, they respond with, “You’re half white?” – as if that is the only option. The presumption of that response had resigned her to, well, never seeing other people like her. Ogbonnah’s mind was so blown by Harris that “I cried.” And the comparison of the two is apt: there has not been a Black woman on Toronto Second City’s Mainstage in 17 years, and Ogbonnah is the first woman of South Asian descent to appear in a Toronto Second City mainstage cast. But Ogbonnah is quick to clarify: “Look, I’m no Kamala. I’d be a terrible VP, but I hope in some small way, someone sees me and sees themselves in me.”

Ogbonnah is prolific and was “insanely busy” when the pandemic hit in mid-March. She had just appeared with collaborator Kat Lewin in their wonderfully acerbic historico-political sketch comedy 1623 at The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival. And when everything came to a screeching halt . . . she decided to step back. Between the end of March to early July, she didn’t write, do online shows, or podcast. Instead, she spent the time working out, cooking, and learning about space. She toyed with the idea of seeking a job at the Canadian Space Agency, but laments that the holes in her retina and her background in comedy disqualify her. Today, she is “way more invigorated and creative as a person right now” and has just started work on a new project called The Untitled Black Sketch Comedy Project: “It’s the first (to our knowledge) all-black comedy ensemble. I can’t describe just how excited I am about it, and how my cup runneth over with ideas.”

Even so, the pandemic has inevitably changed the way that she works. Given the current state of the world, if artists wish to create and perform in a way that supports their health and well being, and also – “and this is just as important,” she insists –  supports the health and well-being of others, they have to do things differently. “Is rehearsing over Zoom the best way to rehearse? Probably not! Is it the safest way to work in a pandemic-riddled world? Absolutely. It means you sometimes may have to step outside of your comfort zone and do things you may not have seen yourself doing before.” Even when performing live becomes viable, it will still require adaptation for the new reality we are then inhabiting.  “Hopefully,” smiles Ogbonnah, “when this is all said and done, we have some equally unique ideas that grew from this.”

Until that time, she urges people to support artists. “If you have performers in your life, be there for them, check in with them.” Those artists are still creating, and they need support in their new endeavours. And on Saturday night, people should check in with The Second CIty, and be there for Ogbonnah’s mainstage debut and CERB Your Enthusiasm’s one-and-done complete run.

Say goodbye –  for now – to a Toronto comedy institution. And whet your appetite for more to come from this rising star.

© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2020