20 - The Prince George Citizen -Friday, October 25,1991 Entertainment Pain in butt aided career THE FAR SIDE By GARY LARSON : TORONTO (CP) — When Sandra Shamas started performing her one-woman comedy show she learned several important lessons. She found out she has a tendency to carry tension in her butt And she also found out that has meaning. -Here’s the scene: Edmonton’s Fringe Theatre Festival, August 1987. Shamas was performing solo fOr the first time. The show: My Boyfriend’s Back And There’s doing To Be Laundry, a comedy that included insights about the world through stories from her life. (The cold already creeping into tlSe Alberta evenings in August was getting her down, and she had a« pain in her behind. As things sometimes happen, she stumbled upon an open air massage booth. So she paid $5 and got a massage. And while the masseuse was grinding her thumbs into Shamas’ brittle backside, she was giving her a* little lesson: Plenty of people p^ck their anxiety behind them. Tliese are the people who fear moving forward. • Wow. This woman was profound. She caught Shamas as she was making a huge step in her career, testing the water alone. And she also pressed out that tension. Shamas has felt that backside pressure since, but not often. She’s inoving forward, out from the small Fringe audiences and on to jigger stages across the country. She is currently performing in My Boyfriend’s Back and There’s Gonna Be Laundry II, The Cycle Continues. It is the second instalment in a trilogy. “Usually when I get the butt pain I know it’s a huge challenge. By the time it hurts — I’m already in the middle of it.’’ Shamas has no problem talking about her backside, or any other part of her body for that matter — at times in graphic detail. Stories about Shamas’ life are the backbone of her show. She talks about things we all experience: your mother cutting your hair, dating habits, breaking up with your boyfriend, trips to the gynecologist. And she’s willing to admit these things can be funny. Even when she gets serious, she’s funny. ■ Shamas chose a restaurant called Mars Food in Toronto for a recent interview. The narrow, old-style 6stablishment with the step-up counter and stools and a few cramped booths at the back is one of her favorite haunts and it pops up often in her shows. . Shamas has a remarkable sense pf humor and a face so elastic she can punctuate her wit by glaring with a widened brown eye down her long nose and raising one eye- Sandra Shamas is making her mark with a one-woman show. brow well in to the centre of her forehead. She can hold that stare long enough to force you to laugh, then wait for you to finish. In her show, Shamas talks about a death in her family. “There’s a whole quadrant (of my show) that deals with my father’s death, because my father’s death was the springboard on to my path of self-actualization and discovery. Two weeks after he died I stood on stage alone for the very first time and told the story of the funeral. And it was black as hell, but it was real. The story is real.” After seeing the show, one critic suggested Shamas had little reverence for her father. “Well yes . . . BEMMY'S BENNY'S CHICKEN ■THE BEST THIS WEEK'S SPECIAL 12 PC. COMBO INCLUDES 12 pcs. Chicken Large Fries/MOJO Medium Gravy Medium Salad All for only. $17 99 WE DELIVER Sale Ends October 31,1991 3105 - 15th Avenue Prince George, B.C. Phone 564-8660 No M.S.G. WAGERS CASINO « At Holiday Inn £ M George St. Super Liberal Rules! OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 6 p.m. • 2 a.m. •BINGO; * AT 425 Brunswick St. * * SATURDAY J * Seniors * * Activity Centre * J Doors Open 11 a.m. * * Early Early * * Bird 12:40 p.m. * * Reg. Games * * 1:00 p.m. * * Lie. #766147 * J EVERYONE WELCOME * Admission NOW ONLY $5 •. . HALF P RI CE TUE S DAY S (Bo s ed on Adult Adm is sion) tMasterzvorks Concerts A programme of much loved and popular classics Includes Mendelssohn’s "Midsummer Nights Dream”, Schubert’s "Unfinished Symphony” and especially for Hallowe’en a story and music which tells of midnight tombstones and skeletons. Saturday, October 26 - 8:00 p.m. Sunday, October 27 - 2:00 p.m. Vanier Hall Tickets are available at Studio 2880 and at the door. Reduced rates for students and seniors SENIORS & CHILDREN $4 But it’s like saying you should have dealt with his death in the same Norman Rockwellian fashion as anything. But that’s not true, and that’s not my life. That’s not a lot of people’s lives. I was never close to my father ... But when he died, I made my peace with my father and I used the only gift that God ever gave me, which was my humor, to deal with it. And that’s what I offer up to the audience. “The story is funny only because we dealt with it in very funny ways. It’s not like we’re such hilarious people. My sister called me . . . and said ‘Sandra, Dad died at 8 o’clock.’ And I said ‘Are you sure?’ “You know, you just say these things. You say them. And she said, ‘Yeah I’m pretty sure. You know, he didn’t stand up when I came in the room.’ “That’s funny, it’s very funny.” Shamas knows she’s funny, but doesn’t put humor first when she’s writing her material. “Telling the story is the first prerequisite, and telling it in a way that is not harmful to the audience. Because, if you look at what I tell, it has a potential to b painful.” Vera looked around the room. Not another chicken anywhere. And then It struck her — this was a hay bar. P E A N U T S UJE HAVE TO MEMORIZE A BIBLE VER5E FOR 5UNPAY SCHOOL..DO YOU KNOW ANY SHORT ONE5? LUKE 17:32... * REMEMBER LOT'5 WIFE" REMEMBER] WHO? J x --- i %y $ £0 HA HA! I HAVE TURNED , MVSEV.F mS\BLE! . Bl REMOVING W CVCSWMG. L CAN PERPETRATE m CRIME UNDETECTED! 1 HAVE COMPLETE TRES&M! CALVIN! V1WAT OH EARTH I CAN GET rm YKW ARE YOU DOING INTVE s._ mw\NG' _j COOttE OAR- YtmtCUT -- YCWR CLOTHES ON?/7 \