VACT’s 13th Annual Asian Sketch Comedy Competition Returns March 29 & 30: Etch-YOUR-Sketchoff!#$%!! 4: DOUBLE UNLUCKY

VANCOUVER, BC (March 1, 2012) – I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Chicken, BANANADRAMA, The Pork Filled Players (Seattle), The Yangtzers and Misfits of Komedy (MOK) are five teams of Asian Canadian performers and writers who have signed up to compete in Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre’s (VACT) annual ETCH-YOUR-SKETCHOFF sketch comedy contest at the Roundhouse Performance Centre on March 29 and 30. Being the 13th annual Asian comedy night and the 4th Etch-YOUR-SketchOFF – numerically, this will be “Double Unlucky” for those with Western and Eastern superstition!

All groups have 2 weeks to write and rehearse at least 2 sketches, which must incorporate two creative elements provided by VACT and chosen at random by each team. Through this 2-week process, groups will have access to comedy consultants to help during this tight timeframe. On March 29, each group will be given an 8-12 minute set to perform their sketches in front of a live audience, where a panel of celebrity judges will award the winner the coveted RICE BOWL trophy. On March 30, in a 2nd performance, the audience will be the judge where they will award the PEOPLE’S CHOYS AWARD to the top team. Hosted by Dennis Litonjua from Flip N Funny Comedy.

Bollywood Shenanigans formed I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Chicken to make fun of brown people in 2008 while the Pork Filled Players is a sketch comedy institution in Seattle, Washington and the Northwest’s longest running Asian American Theatre group. BANANADRAMA started as a group of strangers who had no friends to form a group but were placed together and went on to win the Rice Bowl and the People’s Choys Award twice. The Yangtzers are also previous winners of the People’s Choys Award. David Dimapilis, a member of last year’s team F.O.B (Fresh Off the Boat Comedy) that swept the awards last year, will be leading a team of 18 – 25 year olds in their first competition.

These very creative teams will spark hilarious competition for the coveted Vancouver Rice Bowl and People’s Choys this year. Asian Comedy Night has been a sold-out event every year and the annual show has provided a rare showcase for various Asian stand-up comedians and sketch groups from all over Canada and the US. As a developer of new talent, VACT had previously incubated such successful local Asian-Canadian sketch comedy troupes as HOT SAUCE POSSE and ASSAULTED FISH.

For more information please visit http://www.vact.ca.

Event Details

Etch-YOUR-Sketch SKETCHOFF!#$%!! 4 – Double Unlucky
@ Roundhouse Performance Centre
Davie & Pacific Blvd., Vancouver

Performance Dates and Showtime

March 29 and 30 - Both performances at 8 PM
 
Ticket prices
$18 - general admission in advance - online at www.VACT.ca
$23 - general admission at the door – cash only
All prices include taxes & service charges

For media access please contact Joyce Lam at the e-mail address or phone number listed below, no later than March 23, 2012.

VACT (Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre) aims to produce quality plays in which Asian-Canadians take on culturally or artistically significant roles. VACT works to dispel Asian stereotypes by producing leading and/or supporting roles where Asian-Canadians are depicted realistically in the performing arts.