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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, June 20, 2012 · 24 Group creates TV sketch comedy show, Rolston Rye By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF When Alexander Elliot was finishing up his radio and television education at Ryerson University, all he wanted to do was intern at The Groundlings comedy club in Los Angeles. The organization has produced many well-known comedians, including many of whom went on to star on Saturday Night Live, a favourite show of Elliot and his filmmaking inspiration. You can imagine his elation when he got accepted for an internship position at The Groundlings and his subsequent disappointment when an illness prevented him from attending. "This is where Jimmy Fallon, Kristen Wiig, Conan O'Brien, all these famous comedians come from. I'm thinking I got my foot in the door finally," the 23-year-old said. But due to an illness, followed by surgery and a lengthy recovery period, the Oakville-born-andraised comedian missed his golden opportunity. So he decided to do the next best thing. To complete his education, he produced an SNL-style show of his own, which is currently airing on RogersTV in Toronto. The show is called Rolston Rye. The show has an emphasis of making people laugh. "When I started doing this, I set aside four or five hours a week to just get together with these people and laugh. I think that's something more people need to do," he said. The "people" he refers to include a main cast of the show of six Oakvillians, many of whom are Iroquois Ridge High School graduates like himself. The main cast Artscene Marta Iwanek / oakville beaver / @halton_photog garage filmset: Pictured are some of the key members of the sketch comedy show Rolston Rye: (L-R) (back row) Alex Theodore, Phil Janes, Tyler Weyersberg, Chandler Boriska, (middle row-sitting) Joe Blake, Joob Vakili, (front row) Alexander Elliot and Hendrik Wernars. Elliot is producing the show. includes Joe Blake, Tyler Weyersberg, Sarah Dulmage, Alisha Marie Ahmed, Hendrik Wernars and Elliot, plus there are different guests on each episode. In total, the show is made by a cast and crew of approximately 12 to 15 people. Each half hour-long episode features skits, which Elliot said is comedy, not absurdity. "Growing up in a combination of Oakville and Toronto, one of my jobs as a comedian is to identify with the life that the greater population lives and deals with on a regular basis. I think what we do "When I started doing this, I set aside four or five hours a week to just get together with these people and laugh. I think that's something more people need to do." Alexander Elliot, producer Rolston Rye on Rolston Rye comments on that a great deal," he said. "It's not random, absurd comedy." The show also puts a great emphasis on the Toronto indie music scene, with a different featured musician or group per episode. "You can go out any night of the week in downtown Toronto and there's music playing. Bands are trying to get their name out there and (RogersTV) thought this would be a perfect platform to get bands," he said. The first episode aired the evening of Thursday, June 14. As the show is only available to Rogers cable subscribers in Toronto, each episode is also uploaded to YouTube. com as soon as it airs on television. As the show caters to the downtown Toronto scene, much of it is filmed in the city. However, the group has gone beyond Toronto, even as far away as Windsor to film portions of the show. And there is a bit of Oakville thrown in as well. "I film a lot of it in my parents' basement. It's very Wayne's Worldesque. I'm the guy with the crazy long hair and whenever I put on a baseball cap faced forwards, everyone says I look like Wayne Campbell," he said. Furthermore, the musical guest performances are filmed in his parents' home garage. Elliot doesn't know where the show will go after the first season of six episodes, however he has big dreams for himself. "My lifelong dream is to be on Saturday Night Live. I grew up on it 150 per cent. It's all baby steps. I know success doesn't necessarily happen over night, but I'm taking it day by day, frame by frame," he said. And Rolston Rye is one more step to get him closer to his dream. "It's all part of a big system that hopefully I can kind-of turn Tom Green and market it to MTV and turn into a global sensation." The name of the show refers to Elliot's time in university. Rye is short for Ryerson and Rolston was the name of the street he lived on when he began doing sketch comedy with the Ryerson's sketch comedy troupe, Riot. For a full schedule of the episodes and more information, visit www.rogerstv.com. Dominik Kurek can be reached at dkurek@oakvillebeaver.com or followed on Twitter at @ DominikKurek. Senior Star talent showcase Chartwell's sixth annual Senior Star talent competition is currently taking place and the Oakville location is hosting the regional competition on Thursday. The singing and instrument competition takes place from 2-4 p.m. at Chartwell Classic Oakville, located at 180 Oak Park Blvd. Local contestants aged 65 and older will compete for the opportunity to participate as the top 10 finalists in the annual Senior Star National Finale, which will take place this November. For more information on the annual competition, visit www. chartwellreit.ca. Kerr Village Art Gallery hosts open house A weekend at the Kerr Village Art Gallery aims to showcase some international artistic talent while supporting the new Oakville hospital. The gallery is hosting an open house exhibit titled Solstice Art Show and Sale Friday, June 22-Sunday, June 24. The gallery will host a silent auction with proceeds going to the Oakville Hospital Foundation to purchase equipment for the new hospital. Furthermore, the exhibit will feature works made by internationally known artists with a portion of art sales going to the hospital foundation. The artists represented are Jorge Luis Ballart, Ian Bradshaw, Lawrence Haliycz, Luigia Zilli, and Franco Anselmi. The open house runs from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on each day. The gallery is located at 374 Kerr St.