Tony Aspler’s Weekly Wine Pick: a remarkable red for an affordable price

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10:52 am

Paso Robles is making some rich, full-bodied red wines like this well-priced Cab. Wine grapes were introduced here in 1797 by the Spanish conquistadors and Franciscan missionaries. Deep ruby colour; cedary nose, of black fruits with a floral top note; medium- to full-bodied; remarkably elegant for the price with a tannic lift on the finish.

Food match: lamb chops; gourmet pizza

Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon, 2010, California, $19.95. LCBO Vintages #738823

Post City Magazines’ wine columnist, Tony Aspler, has written 14 books on wine and food. Tony also created the Ontario Wine Awards and has been inducted into the New York Media Wine Writers’ Hall of Fame. He can be heard on 680News.

Weekend Warrior: Planet in Focus Film Festival, The Gentlemen’s Expo, Sauced!, The Whole Life Expo, Veggielicious

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5:22 pm

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Looking for something a little different this weekend? These suggestions will rouse even the most dedicated homebody off the couch. In this edition: a hot sauce tasting, an expo for the modern gentleman — as well as one for the naturalist — and an environmental film festival.

The Gentlemen’s Expo

When: Nov. 22-24
Where: Metro Toronto Convention Centre (South Building)
Details: Built around the mandate to “be more interesting,” The Gentlemen’s Expo is a platform for the modern gentlemen to learn and be entertained. For the man that craves fashion advice that doesn’t come from his mother or girlfriend, TGE features 10 pavilions ranging in subject from tools to travel to booze to grooming. For a $30 one-day ticket, attendees will have access to all vendors and celebrity talks, and six complementary drink tickers. $5 from each ticket sold is donated to Movember Canada.

Planet in Focus Film Festival

When: Nov. 21-24
Where: TIFF Bell Lightbox and AGO Jackman Hall
Details: The 14th annual Environmental Film Festival highlights films that celebrate the earth and promote an environmentally conscious perspective to food, energy, Aboriginal perspectives, and health. The festival also educates about and encourages the adoption of ecologically sustainable processes in film production. Full schedule and tickets are available online.

The Whole Life Expo

When: Nov. 22-24
Where: Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Details: If learning the difference between whiskey and bourbon — or a half and a full Windsor knot isn’t quite your thing — the Metro Toronto Convention Centre has another expo on this weekend that may be a little more up your alley. The Whole Life Expo is Canada’s largest show for natural health, alternative medicine and eco-friendly lifestyles. Featuring over 75 speakers and 200 vendors and exibits, tickets are $15 and can be purchased at the door.

Veggielicious

When: Nov. 15-30
Where: Various locations
Details: You've heard of Summerlicious and Winterlicious, so Toronto foodies, take note of Veggielicious, a celebration of vegetarian food in its third year. Restaurants around the city will offer deals on selected eco-friendly and heart-healthy vegeratian meals. Check out the website to find listings of participating restaurants near you.

Sauced!

When: Nov. 23
Where: 99 Sudbury
Details: Sauced! takes place this weekend, featuring 10 top Toronto chefs showcasing dishes prepared with hot sauce. Chefs’ own hot sauces will be for sale and there will be samples galore. If hot sauce isn’t your thing, most dishes will be available heat-free.

Female rockers light up the ACC

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4:55 pm

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For all that is different in the music stylings of twenty-something rock femme fatales Lights and Hayley Williams, similarities can be found in their respective abilities to command attention through their sheer force of presence.

Lights, sporting a baby bump in her sixth month of pregnancy (her husband is Blessthefall frontman Beau Bokan), opened for the Williams-led Paramore on Wednesday night at the Air Canada Centre, employing her airy, ethereal sound to lead into Paramore’s energized pop/punk spectacle.

Following a quick, entertaining set by nerd–chic indie group Hellogoodbye, the Timmins-born Lights (real name: Valerie Anne Poxleitner) took to the stage for what she announced was her final live performance before taking time off to “take care of this mystery person here.” She wasn’t prepared to bounce around the stage as Williams would do later in the night, but that’s never been the style of the mellow, melancholy singer, anyway. Instead, her powerful-yet-delicate vocals buoyed some otherwise repetitive instrumentals during a 45-minute showing that included crowd favourites “Toes” and “Drive My Soul.”

If the crowd reception that Lights received was warm, then the response to Williams and Paramore was red hot, with 5,000 fans (the ACC employed their smaller, ‘Sears Theatre’ set-up) standing and cheering on their explosive arrival.

Emerging onto a brightly lit, avant garde-style stage, the band carried that energy right into their peppy opener, “Grow Up.” Their uneven set featured several standout highlights (they played the ‘have an audience member sing with you’ gimmick to perfection on “Misery Business”) and a few lows (“When It Rains” and “The Only Exception” seemed out of sync and ill-fitting with the rest of the two-hour show).

But the unmistakable bright spot — figuratively and literally — through it all was the fire-haired Williams, whose spastic dance moves and exuberant enthusiasm made her impossible to look away from. The 24-year-old projected a genuine glee for performing and a real appreciation for her fans.

Even beyond the magnetic appeal of her physical presence on stage, her voice possessed a stunning sharpness and versatility that helped her shine on both upbeat and slower, softer tracks. On the band’s brief cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” it wasn’t difficult to close your eyes and see visions of Stevie Nicks performing on stage.

I know that Paramore is a band (and credit to guitarists Jeremy Davis and Taylor York for sticking around through a tumultuous stretch for the group), but this night was clearly about Hayley Williams and Lights, two of the premier females in modern rock n’ roll.

First Draught: Beau’s The Tom Green Beer

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10:43 am

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Earlier this year, two icons of the Ottawa area — Beau’s All-Natural Brewing and actor-comedian Tom Green — got together to brew a milk stout. The style was a key plank in the beer-as-health-tonic argument during the early 20th century when prohibition was on the horizon.

This duo were one of a list of brewery-celebrity collaborations (Royal Wood and Ed the Sock also made the cut) featured at the Session Toronto event that capped off Ontario Craft Beer Week last June. Tom Green held up his end of the bargain by taking the beer on Jimmy Fallon’s late night show on NBC.

Milk stout gets its name and healthy reputation from the milk sugar that is added to the brew. In some cases this unfermentable lactose will also give a rounder, fuller mouthfeel.

This one pours a dark walnut brown with hints of amber at the edges. Dark, organic malts drive espresso and chocolate to the top of the aroma list. Rich fruit, likely from the English ale yeast, and a touch of sweetness complement those roasted flavours on the palate.

The Tom Green Beer could use a bit more creaminess, but it’s only fair to mention that it was originally designed for a mid-June release, on what happened to be one of the hottest days of last summer, when drinkers tend to prefer something more sessionable.

During the Late Night appearance, Tom Green announced that the beer will be available in the United States in the new year. This will be one of the first Canadian craft beers to make the jump into an international market.

Beau’s All-Natural Brewing’s The Tom Green Beer, $4.85 for a 600 ml bottle, LCBO #365627

Music: Ronnie “The Hawk” Hawkins in Toronto for a rock 'n' roll history lesson

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9:40 am

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Ronnie “the Hawk” Hawkins changed Toronto. He blew his way through town like a bottle of pure thunder was opened up on an unsuspecting city. We still haven’t recovered. And for that, we all owe the Arkansas native our thanks.

When Hawkins steps onto the stage at Massey Hall for an evening of music and memories celebrating his 50+ years in music, on Nov. 21, he’ll hear that thanks — and more — from an adoring crowd that has been touched by the magic of Mr. Dynamo himself.

Where would we be if he hadn’t brought his Southern rockabilly music to town? If he hadn’t taken a chance on a “little roadie” named Robbie Robertson? If he hadn’t waited around for Levon Helm to finish high school before heading up to Canada to perform? Where would we be without his camel walk, the predecessor to Michael Jackson’s moonwalk?

Nowheresville Jack, population zero and dropping fast. Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks came up to Canada via Hamilton and landed with a noisy, rock ’n’ roll thud in the middle of Yonge Street. And it was on this legendary strip that Hawkins held court as the supreme ruler of getting down with your bad self for 14 years.

“Yonge Street is the greatest in the world,” says Hawkins, explaining that, because this was Toronto the Good, it was the only place in town with drinking and entertainment establishments.

“Toronto, Canada, has been unbelievable for us. We hit it in ’58, the same year Tommy Douglas got medicare through, and I said I was living in the Promised Land.… I was lucky enough to be there 14 years… Nobody could do that today because it was there, just the start of rock ’n’ roll in Canada.” One of the finest showmen in rock ’n’ roll, Hawkins also had some incredible players come up through the ranks of the Hawks, including, well, the Band, but also David Clayton Thomas, Beverly D’Angelo and David Foster. The mega-producer Foster, according to Hawkins, was quoted as saying he “learned more in Ronnie Hawkins’ band, before during and after, than he’d ever learned anywhere doing anything else. And it had nothing to do with music.”

A gigantic laugh bursts through the phone.

The Hawk is 80 now. But his memory is still razor sharp. Not surprising, considering he’s also a walking, talking miracle of science after beating pancreatic cancer after his doctor gave him 90 days to live.

When he got the news, he started partying like it was the end of the world and he knew it.

“We did things that would have killed Charles Atlas,” he croons. “Arnold Schwarzenegger could not have lived through what we did. And he’s tough.”

After some intense shenanigans, some healing herbs that Robbie Robertson sent over and contacting a telepathic healer who apparently shrank his tumour with his mind, he was cured. Nobody really knows how it happened. But here he is.

“I think what healed me was all those women praying for me to come and see them one more time,” says Hawkins.

On Nov. 21, Hawkins, who currently resides on a massive spread outside of Peterborough, will be telling some stories from the past, and he has plenty of them. In addition, he’ll be singing five songs as long as he is able. His backing band, the Weber Brothers, includes his son Robbie.

Specials guests are rumoured to be dropping by. Hawkins says he’s not allowed to name names, just in case, but if they show, well, “It’s big time.”

No surprise there.

Table Talk: Joanne Kates reviews Woods

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4:16 pm

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I am gobsmacked. Utterly confused. Freaked out even. When Bruce Woods was chef at Modus Ristorante (2011–2012), he produced some of the best traditional Italian food in Toronto. There were ethereal gnocchi, deep rich sauces, great hunks of fabulous meat and wonderful pastas. It’s not as if chef Woods arrived on the scene fresh from nowhere in 2011. He cooked at Il Posto in the late ’90s, when it was really good, and then at Centro from 2002 till 2009. Toronto gourmands will remember that, before chef Woods got tired (or bored? or unhappy?), his early work at Centro was terrific.

Finally this year he gets his own restaurant and gets to call it Woods. Wouldn’t you put your best work into a place with your name over the door? Wouldn’t you want to show the world just how great you can be? Maybe you’d be overwhelmed by the pressures of ownership and the fear of failing when you’ve bet everything you have — which one assumes he had to do in order to get his name up there in lights. Or maybe as the owner you’d be more in the office than in the kitchen?

There’s not much other explanation for the appalling mediocrity of the food at Woods. It’s not bad. But we expect great from Bruce Woods, and this isn’t it.

There’s a salmon tartare starter that tastes nicely of raw salmon and not much else. Ho hum. Same deal for the scallop starter. They’re nicely seared, but the fixings are blah. Corn soup with bacon is creamy, rich, and in no way extraordinary. Organic heirloom tomato salad is better, a pile of very good tomatoes enriched with great sheep feta and roasted walnuts. The main course list is surprisingly conservative, as if to cater to a less than adventuresome clientele. But does Toronto really need a not-quite-tender flatiron steak atop Roman gnocchi (slightly tough) with braised short ribs (not very interesting tasting) and smoked tomato compote? I do not personally believe that smoking does anything for tomatoes.

Then there’s the cod and crab, a huge hunk of cod with what we think is crab although it’s hard to find the crab, with polenta, mushrooms and spinach in a kind of sloppy mass. Similar issue with the duck breast. It’s pleasant, but the garnishes are hard to find, identify and keep separate. And the pickerel.

This may be on account of the extreme darkness of the room. It’s a breathtakingly gorgeous space (ex– Colborne Lane), with high ceilings, huge old wooden pillars and fabulous big wooden tables with very generous spacing. But dark. So dark that several tables are reduced to using their Flashlight apps to read the menu. Which could explain why the garnishes are impossible to parse.

With desserts chef Woods cuts loose with iconoclasm that seems out of character from the savouries. Buckthorn pavlova is buckthorn berries (how’s that for unusual?) made into purée atop soft meringue with milk chocolate ganache for a heart, and black sesame ice cream on the side. Which is like tahini with sugar. Raspberry macarannade is mascarpone mousse with raspberry purée threaded through it and basil ice cream (??) on the side. Tastes good except for the weird ice cream.

My recipe for success at Woods? Lose the entire menu ASAP. Start cooking the exact same food chef Woods produced at Modus. Pasta. Gnocchi. Rich simple sauces. Trad Italian is something Toronto understands and adores. Do that, and turn on the lights. Put pasta perfection under that fabulous ceiling, and the people will come. He’ll be going to the bank with a wheelbarrow.

Woods, 45 Colborne St., 416-214-9918

Joanne Kates trained at the Ecole Cordon Bleu de Cuisine in Paris. She has written articles for numerous publications, including the New York Times, Maclean’s and Chatelaine, and she was the Globe and Mail’s restaurant critic for 38 years.

Searching for the city’s top sustainable soup at the Ocean Wise Chowder Chowdown

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3:58 pm

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Last night the trendy Fermenting Cellar of the Distillery District played host to a gathering of the chowder-loving masses. Their purpose: to raise funds for Ocean Wise, a national sustainable seafood initiative started by the Vancouver Aquarium.

The event featured a lineup of 14 of Toronto’s top chefs all serving up their tantalizing renditions on fish chowder made with sustainable seafood contending for the title of 2013 Ocean Wise Chowder Chowdown Champion.

Chowders ranged from traditional (Royal York chef Joshua Dyer’s Classic Seafood Chowder recipe is 82 years old, and the longest running item on their esteemed menu), to quirky (chef Siobhan Dolan of The Sweet Potato served up a dairy and gluten-free Baja Fish Chowder combining a roasted shrimp and lemongrass stock poured atop a warm shrimp and avocado salsa, topped with crispy halibut skin). All were paired with beer.

Chef Charlotte Langley of Catch restaurant presented her “Taste of Home” chowder, creamy halibut stock with clams and muscles still in their shells, topped off with a fried biscuit. A homage to her grandmother's recipe.

Once bellies were (over) filled and cups were emptied, the panel of judges (including Food Network host Andrea Nicholson, and Brad Long of Evergreen Brick Works’ Cafe Belong) revealed the winner. Trattoria Mercatto chef Doug Neigel’s Zuppa Di Vongole chowder won over the judges with a recipe featuring Ontario parsnip brood, Ontario chili squash butter and crispy polenta-crusted littleneck clams, paired with Double Trouble Brewery’s Prison Break Pilsner.

Drink This: a gin and tonic from Nota Bene

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3:35 pm

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Bourbon is dead. Well, at least that’s what the folks over at Nota Bene think. The new cocktail menu at the upscale Italian eatery keeps the focus trained on gin, which owner Yannick Bigourdan became smitten with while on a recent tour of Spain. Gin and tonics ($17) are the name of the game but here, the beverages have a bit of a Choose Your Own Adventure lean.

The menu is divided up into a selection of gins (hailing from the likes of the UK and France), tonics and type of ice cube. Scotland’s Botanist gin is a fitting pick for the season, having a fuller floral bouquet than others on the list. We matched it with the house tonic — amber in colour thanks to the real cinchona tree bark used to make it — and selected a single block of ice, providing minimal dilution. The best part? Each cocktail is accompanied by a mini tray with slices of cucumber, a smattering of dehydrated hibiscus petals and a test tube full of dried juniper berries, allowing patrons to doctor the drink as they wish.

The result is a bout of grown-up fun.

Nota Bene, 180 Queen St. W., 416-977-6400

Karolyne Ellacott is a features editor at Post City Magazines. She pedals around town in heels, eating sandwiches and drinking cocktails. She writes about that, and about other stuff too. She is also on Twitter.

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Theatre Review: The Sacrifice Zone

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1:19 pm

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If David Suzuki and Tim Flannery collaborated with Cirque de Soleil and the Fifth Estate, they might come up with something like Theatre Gargantua’s new drama The Sacrifice Zone, running at the Factory Studio Theatre until Nov. 30. Toronto’s Theatre Gargantua is a hearty theatrical feast—contemporary, multi-disciplinary, multi-media. In collaboration with Aussie/Brit playwright and human rights lawyer Suzie Miller, they have developed a challenging show that examines how much people can sacrifice for justice, their families, their jobs, and other sometimes conflicting priorities.

Directed by Jacquie P.A. Thomas, Theatre Gargantua founder and artistic director, the show holds personal connections for everyone involved in bringing it to the stage because Gargantua’s meticulous production “cycle” began in the spring of 2012 when the company got together and told stories of injustice relating to their own families and experience. These stories furnished the starting point for Miller’s script.

The story, which seamlessly incorporates mystery, social commentary, and philosophical dialogue, is conveyed through a collage of dialogue, movement, acrobatic dance and image projection. It’s not one of those things you watch and whisper to your companion, “We could totally do that." The collective experience and accomplishments of Miller, Thomas, dramaturg Bruce Barton, the ensemble and the rest of the creative team is astounding.

The experience offered by The Sacrifice Zone is thorough. While still in the lobby you hear the ethereal but contemporary world music of John Gzowski (sound designer and live foley) enticing you into the mysterious performance space where you are asked to follow a narrow carpet to your seat. The back wall is a very wide projection screen placed at a steep angle away from the audience making the stage into a triangle. The triangle motif is repeated in five uniform but asymmetrical frames, each with a translucent pane like a shower door, which are imaginatively employed as the dynamic and flexible set (set design by Michael Spence, also a cast member and associate artistic director of Theatre Gargantua). These frames, one for each of the five cast members, are moved about fluidly to form doors, walls, furniture, school yard, or whatever a scene requires. Costume changes are likewise inventive and fluid (costume designer Sheree Tams).

Swirling light like aurora borealis projected on back wall, (lighting and projection design by Laird Macdonald), and chanting figures emerging from shadow and breaking into choreographed movement might provoke a cynical traditionalist to grumble about sound and fury signifying nothing, and maybe some acrobatic manoeuvre might make you think, “Now they’re just showing off," but from the first words the story is taut and emotional. The drama and tension builds for the whole 75 minutes.

Much is left to the imagination. No time, place or resource is specified, and although the story reflects, for example, ensemble member Ciara Adams’ (Laura) experience as a music teacher in Fort McMurray, it could be set in any number of places in the world where industry brings destruction along with prosperity. The basic premise is that, in a town built on resource extraction an industrial explosion kills a number of workers. The company wants to pay off the grieving families and get back to business, but as two individuals push for an inquiry into the accident that killed their spouses, the community becomes divided. The pair knows they “won’t be too popular” in the small town where their quest for justice, or at least an explanation, imperils thousands of jobs. Community tensions lead to shunning and bullying amongst the children of those for and against the inquiry.

Adults play the children effectively, with an especially powerful characterisation by Gargantua veteran Joel Benson as Sam. The various relationships depicted—mother (Michelle Polak) and boy; a couple newly in love; the shared pain of widow and widower—are intensely authentic. To illustrate the interplay between executives, workers for and against the inquiry, their families, and other community members, many characters are named or briefly presented but only a few are developed, each member of the tight and balanced ensemble playing numerous (mostly archetypal) roles.

The script does not pretend the issues are black and white. It is not a matter of singling out a bad guy to punish. In varying degrees, everyone is affected and everyone is implicated. One employee speaks of suing the company, another responds “We are the company” and argues that industrial destruction of the environment is the inevitable result of the consumerist lifestyle our society refuses to abandon.

Whether taken as entertainment or food for thought, The Sacrifice Zone will hold your attention.

$22-25. Theatre Gargantua's The Sacrifice Zone, Factory Studio Theatre, runs until Nov. 30

Evan Andrew Mackay is a Toronto playwright and humorist who writes about culture and social justice. Find more of his writings at goodevaning.wordpress.com.

Toronto’s best all-season farmers’ markets keep the local food coming all year

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4:54 pm

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Visiting a farmers’ market may feel like a distant summer memory as the skies over Toronto turn a dismal grey, but don’t go running for the refuge of your local grocery store produce section just yet. Locavores rejoice! Many of the city’s best farmers’ markets stay open year round. Just don’t expect to find Ontario raspberries. Seasonal eating is the name of the game.

Here’s a rundown of our favourites.

Evergreen Brick Works Farmers' Market

Location: 550 Bayview Ave
Hours: Sat. 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Details: The Evergreen Brick Works is a great Saturday outdoor getaway destination. Take the free shuttle bus into the valley from Broadview subway station. Aside from the usual market fair, warm up with Tibo Teas artisan beverages, which are handcrafted from indigenous plants. Toorshi Foods sells awesome all-natural pickles and preserves, and the handmade Belgian waffles are always a winner. There are usually activities for kids, and plenty of room to hike and explore.

The Wychwood Barns Farmers’ Market

Location: 601 Christie St.
Hours: Sat. 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Details: This is a good one to visit if you’re adverse to cold as the whole market is housed in the large industrial barns. Get acquainted by taking the Wychwood trivia-filled tour. There’s plenty of gluten-free and sugar-free baking, pies, jams, and cured meats, plus a bevy of market-regulars to bend your ear about all things food.

Toronto Botanical Garden Organic Farmers’ Market

Location: 777 Lawrence Ave. East
Hours: Thurs. 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Details: Perfect if you want to stay in bed on your Saturday, and pick up something special for a Thursday dinner. Try the breads and pastries from Marche 59 and awesome Indian curries Clay Pot Catering. Bet you didn’t know you could eat milkweed pods? Apparently you can buy some here.

Some others worth mentioning:

Dufferin Grove Farmers’ Market

Location: 875 Dufferin
Hours: Thurs. 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The Farmers' Market at St. Lawrence Market North

Location: 92- 95 Front St East
Hours: Sat. 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Sorauren Farmer’ Market

Location: Wabash Ave and Sorauren Ave
Hours: 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Venus in Fur returns to Canadian Stage

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12:31 pm

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Move over Nutcracker. Just in time for the holidays, Canadian Stage announced today that they will be remounting Venus in Fur at the Berkeley Street Theatre from December 13-29.

The risque comedy, which ran earlier this fall at the Bluma Appel Theatre, will feature Jennifer Tarver directing once again, as well as Rick Miller and Carly Street in their original roles of Thomas and Vanda, for which the duo received critical acclaim for their onstage chemistry. The set design of the hit production will be reworked for the Berkeley Downstairs Theatre.

“We couldn't be more excited to remount the show in our more intimate, see-it-up-close Berkeley Street Theatre space,” said Matthew Jocelyn, artistic and general director of Canadian Stage. “Our holiday gift to those who saw the show and want to see it again, as well as to those that missed it the first time around.”

$29-$59. Canadian Stage Venus in Fur, Berkley Street Theatre, 416-368-3110

Dave Foley, of The Kids in the Hall, returns to stand-up and has new TV project in the works

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10:19 am

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Venerable T.O. comedy troupe Kids in the Hall never really went away. They’ve pursued solo projects, many to great success, but they’ve managed to stay friends, and as a result, we get treated to fantastic reunion shows somewhat regularly. One of the many fantastic pleasures of life in Toronto.

I opened up a club in Montreal recently, and having need of a knock-out performer to open it up, I called upon Kid in the Hall Dave Foley. Wait, you say, is he even a stand-up? The answer is yes. Foley started out as one, way back when he was 17, at Yuk Yuk’s in Toronto.

You might say he’s gone back to his roots. Things haven’t been so smooth for Foley over the past decade or so. After the hit sitcom News Radio, the good offers just dried up. He found himself in a series of low-budget films, jobs taken to meet child support payments calculated at his megawatt career high. He hosted a poker tournament TV series. “I don’t even play poker,” he told me.

To make matters worse, he couldn’t even work in Canada while his child support lawsuit settled. The police would have arrested him the minute he crossed the border. It took a few years before his legal wranglings were settled and he could accept work in his home country. But then, slowly, things started to turn around. He started doing stand-up again and put a lot of attention into the crafting of an act. A lot of actors doing stand-up simply try to milk their fame until something better comes along. But Foley put real work into it, developing risky, intelligent material that often got him into trouble in clubs, especially in the Bible belt. Foley is an outspoken atheist. His material isn’t so much anti-religion as pro-science. Still, there’s a lot of squirm-worthy bits that would make any person of faith uncomfortable.

His show begins with a playful dissection of gender roles based on the misconception that many people have of Foley, assuming he is gay. The Kids in the Hall flirted openly with cross-dressing in the series. There were no women in the group, and Scott Thompson cast a long queer shadow. It’s one of the more revolutionary things about the sketch troupe, but it led to some comical confusion in Foley’s life that he shares with audiences.

The long closing bit is a controversial take on the last taboo word. The racial epithet that got Michael Richards in so much hot water a few years ago. Foley would probably criticize me for not using the actual word in this column, which is the point of the bit.

There’s a collective gasp in the audience when he throws the word around so freely, but he’s obviously no racist. He’s using the word to expose our hypocrisies in dealing with race, language and liberal guilt. It’s a shocking piece in the best way.

Foley has a new sitcom coming out on CTV, a comedy about a PR firm. What they call a “workplace sitcom” in the tradition of News Radio. The show, Spun Out, just might put Foley back where he belongs. He’s one of our best comic actors, and he deserves to be in a hit show. I only hope he won’t abandon his stand-up when it happens.

Post City Magazines’ humour columnist, Mark Breslin, is the founder of Yuk Yuk’s comedy clubs and the author of several books, including Control Freaked.