Mark Allan
Special to the Record
Courtenay-bound comedian Roman Danylo has something in common with Archimedes.
The ancient scholar is still remembered for shouting Eureka (Greek for ‘I have found’) when he stepped into a bath. Archimedes noticed the water rose, and deduced in an epiphany (another Greek word) a theory of water displacement.
And Danylo?
After trying other concepts, including a CSI parody, the Vancouver comedian was trying to think of an “interesting idea that would bring them in the door,” as he puts it.
“I was sitting in the bath one day and my wife comes home from a real male stripper show, and she was like, ‘It was packed!’” he recalls in an interview.
“It occurred to me that that is a genre than no one’s really tried to parody.”
According to legend, Archimedes was so excited about sharing his discovery that he leaped from the bath and ran into the streets naked.
Danylo and his fellow Comic Strippers won’t be nude when they perform Oct. 30 at the Sid Williams Theatre, but what male stripper parody would be complete without some above-the-waist disrobing?
The show is billed as a male stripper show and improv comedy show. The Sid audience can expect four of Canada’s best improvisational comedians performing as a fictitious male stripper troupe.
They sing, they dance, they try to be sexy, but they’re really just funny.
Improv and parody “are both going on the entire time all the way through,” Danylo explains. “The show is like a shirtless Whose Line Is It Anyway? with a lot of trippy dancing in between.”
As with any improv show, there’s lots of interaction with the audience.
He assures the Comox Valley that the show is “fairly clean. We don’t even really swear. It’s a lot cleaner than your average comedy club. There’s a lot of innuendo, but it’s fairly light-hearted.”
The performance is suitable for both genders, he assures. “You’re not going to see any horrible thongs.”
An adult-only show, the Comic Strippers are billed as, “No extreme nudity, just extreme hilarity.”
Having performed a number of successful shows, they have incorporated crowd-pleasing improv moments into their routine, he says.
Of a larger group of nomadic improv comics, four will come to the Comox Valley. Besides Danylo, who starred for five seasons on CTV’s Comedy Inc., David Milchard, Ken Lawson and Chris Casillan will appear at the Sid.
The Comic Strippers have existed for only two years, but have performed in the past year to sold-out venues in Las Vegas and Australia.
For more about the Blue Circle Series show, visit sidwilliamstheatre.com or phone 250-338-2430.
For more about the Comic Strippers, visit thecomicstrippers.com or see their Facebook page.
Mark Allan is a freelance writer and former editor of the Comox Valley Record.