A renowned comedy and improv company is making its way to Orillia later this month, and profits from the show will be donated to Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH).
The Second City’s The Absolute Best Friggin’ Time of Your Life is a two-hour show featuring sketches and interactive, improvised material that includes members of the audience.
The show takes place at 7 p.m. Oct. 28 at the Orillia Opera House.
Cast member Scott Yamamura said the best part of the show is getting the audience involved.
“We’ll have (the audience) be a part of the show by yelling out suggestions, and then we base scenes off of them,” he told OrilliaMatters. “It’s quite fun because it’s interactive and it’s what live shows are great for: bringing people together, something that I think people are really missing right now.
“Anything can happen and they’re so fun. It keeps everything light and every audience is different.”
Event promoter Tim Hillson, who works as an eye physician and surgeon at OSMH, said he got the idea to bring the company to town and donate proceeds to the hospital in 2018, after seeing one of the shows in Toronto.
“I thought this was something that people in Orillia would enjoy … so I just contacted them and said, ‘Can we bring you up to Orillia?’” he said. “You pay them their booking fee, and then you rent the opera house and just sort of set it up.”
Hillson said the proceeds from ticket sales go directly to the hospital. Over the course of 2018 and 2019, he managed to secure roughly $20,000 to donate to the hospital as a result of the show.
“We skipped last couple of years because of COVID,” he said. “This year is going to be great, though, because it’s almost sold out. There’s only about 20 tickets left.”
Beyond the evening show, Second City will host an improv class for 15 local high school students free of charge Oct. 28.
“We’re just teaching the basics of improv … and the fundamentals of the Second City way (of doing) things,” Yamamura said. “It’s going to be a lot of games, a lot of fun, a lot of breaking people out of their shells and kind of getting used to doing improv.”
Tickets for the show can be purchased at the Orillia Opera House box office or website.
