The Scream Begins Tonight!

The 17th Annual Scream Festival kicks off tonight with Die Scream Die! A Musical Revue. If you're curious about how Tony Burgess and Derek McCormack with pull off this "undead Donny & Marie" act you can get a preview by reading this interview with EYE WEEKLY's (and Joyland Joy-athon host) Brian Joseph Davies. A sample:

EYE WEEKLY It sounds like Tony wants more of a Sha Na Na variety show vibe whereas Derek would rather see Bowzer strung up in a dungeon. So, on one side of the room there are vampire fashion designers. On the other side are linguistic zombies. Who will survive and what will be left of them?

Tony Burgess To start with, there are no zombies. At least not on my side. On Corm’s side there are tush-fixated “flat” characters. Cursory inventions meant only to direct attention to their creator. And second, ask Corm how many songs he plans to contribute. Can he actually dance? Has he ever survived the cut from long list to short list? Maybe. His mom would know. Better ask her.

Derek McCormack Sha Na Na! That sounds tops. I recall contributing sketches to a comedy/variety show when I was in grade eight. The show was performed in the school auditorium. The Oscar Meyer Wiener Show, it was called. I don’t remember why.

I played the French chef in my grade six production of a play called The King’s Cream-puffs. Tony is, of course, the talented one in our collaboration. He is Marion Davies to my Hearst. He is Pia Zadora. I don’t have his magic touch for creating fully fleshed-out characters. Did you see Pontypool? That zombie girl had seen action in Afghanistan. So topical. And for your information I didn’t even make the long list for the ReLit Awards. And the long list had 372 titles on it.

Die Scream Die! goes tonight at the Gladstone starting at 7.

For those finding themselves craving more Scream, you can read Vit Wagner's Toronto Star article on the Festival as well as The National Post's and Toronto Life's takes on our 12 day cadaverous adventure.

A final reminder: the deadline to purchase tickets for our Booklength dinner with Dennis Lee is Sunday, July 5th. Click on the event listing and scoop up your tickets today!