Seriously.

• This is perhaps the most perplexing thing I’ve ever laid eyes on. It all started out innocently enough, via the tweets of Toronto Man-Mountain himself, Ryan North:
  

  facebook.com/jacob.spiel/posts/2811947031986… hey guys I’m making my STAND UP COMEDY DEBUT tomorrow night in a smelly basement in Toronto, you should come

  None of that is particularly troublesome or confusing; webcomics creators have performed in public comedic styles for some time now, although one might have though there would be a rivalry between those on the west coast and those on the east coast, peace seems to have held. Nor is North’s description of the venue as a smelly basement in Toronto particularly unusual, as recent studies have shown that fully 37% of all worldwide humorons¹ are generated under exactly those conditions.

  Following the link to the event page itself reveals further details, including the news that this particular show is wrapping up its association with the venue (not weird), and that Scott Thompson (the Kid in the Hall², not the onetime CEO of Yahoo!, although there is a slight resemblance) will be on stage. Thompson’s not nearly the continuous presence in the Canadian comedy scene he once was, but this doesn’t rise to the level of bafflement.

  No, the thing that prompted my utter gobsmackedness is the photo on that event page, reproduced above, which is the most cognitive dissonance-inducing thing I’ve ever seen. Seriously, what the hell.

  PS: assuming that … thing … hasn’t completely melted your brain, you can enjoy the comedy stylings of Ryan North at the Crown and Tiger Bar in Toronto tomorrow night at 8:00pm EST. The event will not be recorded, so I’d advise that you sell all your possessions so you can afford transport, otherwise you will miss this once-in-a-lifetime event.

• In completely unsurprising news, Scott McCloud goes to a lot of places and does a lot of presentations on comics, creativity, and suchlike. In fact, as I write this, he is on a flight to China³ for ten days of private events at Shanghai American School, the Western International School of Shanghai, and the YK Pao School (and, no doubt, spontaneously meeting and befriending the local cartooning community).

  Some weeks back, McCloud spoke at USC’s Annenberg Innovation Lab on The Future of Comics (coming from anybody else, this title would be hopelessly overblown, but coming from McCloud, I want to hear more). Since very few of the people who follow McCloud ever get the pleasure of attending one of his presentations, I’m happy to say that USC have made a recording available at Vimeo, which is up now. If you like what you see, there was second part of the conversation with participants from the likes of Lucasfilm, DC Comics, and the New York Times.

Enjoy your weekend, and anybody that’s either near Toronto or on the invite lists in Shanghai, I expect a full report on Monday.

Spam of the day:

It was also a time when men were particularly fond of fitted blazers, checked and striped pants as well as breezy knitwear.

Well, duh. Unfitted blazers look like ass.

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¹ The fundamental particle of comedy.

² Although we are getting dangerously close to What territory, considering that Thompson fellow Kids Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney got their start in a competitive improv team known as The Audience, and the name of David Malki !’s competitive improv team is The Audience. COINCIDENCE??

³ Since I started writing that bit, it appears that the flight has been delayed due to weather; I trust that you all are thinking good thoughts for Scott & Ivy’s safe travels.