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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, August 10, 2012 · 30 That's So Weird's AJ Vaage shows his improv mettle By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF A chance rock-paper-scissors win for AJ Vaage set off a chain link of events that eventually led him to becoming a star on a nationally-televised children's sketch comedy show. Now, the Edmonton, Alberta native will be appearing in Oakville, showing what he has been up to as a result of that victory and teaching youths how to do the same. The cast member of the recently-ended, award-winning YTV show That's So Weird will be at Oakville Improv's Theatresports on Friday, Aug. 17 at Central Baptist Church. Oakville Improv is the non-profit group formerly known as Bad Dog Theatre Company Oakville. Theatresports is a kind of battle between two teams of two members for improv supremacy. Vaage's partner will be Oakville resident and That's So Weird writer Gary Pearson. "Hopefully, there will be a lot of fun. Especially with Gary, I'm going to be having so much fun. That's always something I'm going to try to do," Vaage, now a Toronto resident, said. "I go to try to make myself laugh and, hopefully, everybody else will laugh as a result because it's infectious." Aside from his performance that evening, the 23-year-old will also be teaching a special improv workshop for youths (for ages 11-17) Friday, Aug. 17 afternoon at St. Paul's United Church. "It will be a bit of an intro to improv or if they have a bit more skill level, then I'll "Rock never fails. I always go with rock," he said. That year, he had so much fun doing improv that he continued doing it more seriously. By the time he was in Grade 12, he and his group members won the provincial tournament and the group became a part of Rapid Fire Theatre, an Edmonton-based improv company. When he entered university, Vaage continued doing improv with the group. After his first year of pre-veterinary medicine studies, Vaage decided to take a year off from school. During that time, producers of That's So Weird saw his Rapid Fire Theatre put on a performance and selected a few members to audition for the show. When Vaage got the part, he never returned to university, moving to Toronto to pursue a showbiz career instead. He continues to do improv in the city, performing with a number of groups, including Toronto-based Bad Dog Theatre Company and Impatient Theatre Co. Even though it competes heavily with theatre and stand-up comedy, he said there are a number of places people can check out great improv in Toronto and some brilliant improvisers. Some of that brilliancy will be in Oakville and not just when Vaage and Pearson compete against a Toronto-based team of improvisers, Herbie Barnes and The Rez. One week later, on Sunday, Aug. 26, Oakville Improv will host two giants from the Toronto improv scene who will take over the group's regular Jam at the Moonshine Café event. Jan Caruana and Rob Baker will put on their show called That Moment When, a 60-minute improv set at 7 p.m. Following their hour-long show, the pair will do a second set with Pearson at 8:30 p.m. Tickets cost $10 per jam event. The café is located at 137 Kerr St. The Aug. 17 Theatresports event begins at 8 p.m. Central Baptist Church is located at 340 Rebecca St. Tickets cost $5 at the door. The improv workshop has limited seating and registration closes today (Friday). Tickets to the workshop cost $100. To register, contact amy@oakvilleimprov.com. Vaage can be followed on Twitter at @ AJVaage. Artscene submitted photo improvise: That's So Weird cast member AJ Vaage will be showing his improvisational skills in Oakville next weekend with Oakville Improv. teach different things about offers and team progressions. I'm a really big fan of narrative, telling stories," he said. Vaage was one of the seven cast members on That's So Weird, which ran for three seasons and ended this spring. To get on the show, Vaage had exhibited strong skill as an improviser, was the appropriate age for the show for teens and had a bit of a fluke thrown his way. "Rock changed my life. It is really an interesting way of looking at it, but had I not won that game of rock-paper-scissors when I was 15, I would have gone to school for sciences or that kind of thing," he said. When he was in high school, Vaage's drama teacher took several students to an improv workshop, which he wasn't a part of. There is an annual improv tournament in Alberta for students so the drama teacher had gathered the group of his students for it. Later, Vaage and a friend of his decided to take up improv, even though they were not part of the school team. On one particular night, one of the original group members wasn't able to attend, opening up one spot on the group, so Vaage and his friend had a game of rock-paperscissors to see who would take the last spot. Oakville NissanFamily Series PINKALICIOUS (ages 2 to 10) October 21 CANADIAN OPERA CO: HANSEL & GRETEL (ages 6 to 12) November 25 OUTERBRIDGE: THE TIME CAPSULE (ages 8+) December 22 PETER & THE WOLF (ages 6 to 10) January 27 TALES OF THE GARDEN (ages 5 to 10) March 12 & 13 BOO! (ages 4 to 12) April 7 THE OAKVILLE CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS To order tickets call: 905-815-2021 or go to All performances are at Call for arts submissions for group show Organizers of the From the Garden group show that will be on display at Sovereign House, 7 West River St., this month is looking for submissions from artists. The show has a garden theme and will run from Aug. 16-29. The show hanging will be on Thursday, Aug. 16 from 1-3 p.m. Decisions about art acceptance will be made at the hanging. For more information or to send jpeg photos of possible art submissions, e-mail artsonthebluffs@gmail.com. www.oakvillecentre.ca