Diana Frances

I’m lucky enough to be part of this kick-ass, all-female ensemble of wicked women known as GIRLS NITE OUT and we’ve embarked on a tour that’s taking us to 11 cities in Ontario to do 12 shows. Every show we seem to have a WTF?! moment so I’ve decided to write about some of them here.

We kicked the tour off on January 16th at Marketplace Theatre in Peterborough, with the lovely Linda Kash as a special guest (remember the Philly Creamcheese Angel? Lemme tell you – this gal is is even more adorable and funny than you remember from those commercials. And yes, she had to do multiple takes eating bagels and cream cheese and yes, there was a spit bucket.)

Elvira Kurt gets the audience lit up with 20 minutes of standup off the top. Watching from the wings, I’m always in awe of her ability to IMMEDIATELY connect with the audience thanks to the jokes she writes about the city as she drives in and finds parking. Plus, she makes the entire room feel like they’re not just an audience – they’re part of a memorable experience we’re having too. Which becomes even more important shortly.

I mean, look at how much fun that one guy in the front row is having. He doesn’t even need to face the stage to have a good time.

I was particularly excited about this show in Peterborough because my Uncle Carl and his husband Bobby were in the audience, along with a group of other family and friends Carl brought who I hadn’t met yet. I’d been texting with Carl to make sure they got their tickets and he said all was good – the group was out for dinner. I knew that in the mix of people was a relative of Carl’s named Peter – who had brought along his adult daughter to the show. A big deal because they’d been somewhat estranged for a while, but I didn’t know what the story was as we’d never met.

(Important note: I am adopted and met my bio dad, Herb, five years ago (an incredible story for another time). Carl is Herb’s brother and they’ve both been huge supporters of my life and career. And for a kid who grew up without any real father figures, it’s been a delight having both these men in my world.)

OKAY – back to the show. After Elvira gets the room zooming, the rest of us join her for an improv set. But the second half of the show is where the real magic seems to always happen, thanks to our improvised TALK SHOW format. We encourage people to be guests on the talk show by filling out a short questionnaire and putting it in a box. You see, most people (especially women) don’t think their lives are interesting enough to ever be a guest on a talk show. Our talk show ALWAYS proves them wrong.

The first guest Elvira chose was a real firecracker… a 70 yr old woman with a gorgeous story about becoming a late-in-life ‘Confidence Coach.’ She teaches people how to find their voice, which is important to her because her voice was silenced for years, until she got out of her abusive marriage. Wow. What an incredible ‘Day in the Life’ to re-create. It culminated in an improvised blues song (because she loves blues music) and I even had the balls to improvise a song. Which is my biggest fear, so I channeled her confidence coaching.

We legit didn’t think we could top that interview and scene, but we had time to have one more guest on the talk show, so Elvira pulled another questionnaire and up to the stage came Christy. A real life blacksmith. What? Who lives in a horse stall next to her horse. WHAT? With her boyfriend. WHAAAAT?

Christy was flat out hysterical explaining her unorthodox living arrangement. “The housing crisis in Ontario is real. “Thanks, Doug Ford.”

Then Christy mentioned that she came to the show with her dad, who bought her the ticket to the show and dinner before hand…

Something clicked in my brain. I raised my hand, stood up and asked, ‘Um, Christy – are we related somehow?’ She looked at me and said, ‘I think so! I was hoping to meet you after the show.’

Turns out, Christy was part of the dinner party that Uncle Carl had organized. When I explained to the audience that I’m adopted and Christy is basically a cousin I hadn’t met yet – the place went BONKERS.

Here’s the sequence of photos as I realized we’re related:

Needless to say, we did a scene about Christy being a blacksmith shoe-ing a horse, and she had to physically move Linda and Jennine in the scene like they were big Gumby dolls. When Karen came in as said horse – well, it didn’t end well for her. (Fun fact, almost every show, Karen ends up playing some kind of animal that ends up on the floor.)

Christy told me after the show that she REALLY wanted to be chosen to come on stage. And the fact Elvira’s hand grabbed her questionnaire out of the hundreds that went in the box? C’mon. AND… we just happened to have the fabulous photographer Dahlia Katz (https://www.dahliakatz.com/) taking promo and actions shots during the show? Take a bow, Universe. You did good work.

Not only did I meet a kinda cousin on stage (through marriage – still counts), but Christy and her dad, Peter are back chatting regularly thanks to coming to the show together.

I’m telling you – comedy can heal what ails you.

Next up this week are shows at the Sanderson Theatre in Brantford: https://calendar.sandersoncentre.ca/Default/Detail/2025-02-06-2000-Girls-Nite-Out and an already sold out show at the Shenkman Arts Centre in Ottawa. What crazy gong-show moment are we going to have next?!

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Tags: all female comedy, comedians, comedy, elvira kurt, food, girls night out, girls nite out, improv, jokes, laughter, peterborough, reunion