Jon Lajoie's transition from online to stage By Lindsey Rivait
Arts Editor December 3, 2008 More than just a regular everyday normal guy, Montreal comedian Jon Lajoie is setting out to prove his live shows are just as amusing and weird as his online videos.
 Famous for his music videos, ranging from a gangster rap, “Everyday Normal Guy,” to the sweet love ballad, “2 Girls 1 Cup Song,” and the hip-hop classic, “Show Me Your Genitals,” Lajoie has been recognized by FunnyorDie.com owners Will Ferrell and Adam McKay as being one of their personal favourites.
Lajoie’s stage show consists of his own version of stand-up, which he says serves to make fun of traditional stand-up. He also plays videos and skits as well as songs—some new and some from his online videos. “I have this course on creating successful online videos, although it’s not really a course, it’s just me being retarded,” Lajoie said.
Lajoie, a graduate of Dawson College’s drama program, began as an actor in Montreal where he played the part of Thomas Edison the Anglophone bartender on the Quebecois soap opera L’Auberge Chien Noir (The Inn of the Black Dog). >> | Nino Ricci wins Governor General's Award By Jasmine Ball
Lance Writer December 3, 2008 Nino Ricci, one of the prestigious authors UWindsor has hosted through the Writer-in-Residence program, has received his second Governor General’s Literary Award, this time for his novel The Origin of Species.
 He served UWindsor’s English Department from Sept. 2005 through May 2006, and is still grateful for his experience in Windsor.
He appreciates the time he was given to work on his writing and enjoyed interacting with the students and offering them advice in their own creative works.
Though Ricci is beaming from having won this award, he remains humble and is sure to acknowledge that many fantastic books never get the recognition they deserve.
He has judged literary contests and said, “[T]here is always a degree of arbitrariness in settling on the ‘best’ book, given that beyond a certain level of quality, the idea of ‘best’ becomes pretty subjective.”
But having an award-winning novel, however subjective, does have its perks. >>  | | Campus Kiss | | Comic artist Rachel Olsen is too real for you By Lindsey Rivait
Arts Editor December 3, 2008 What started out as a crude drawing of UWindsor English major Rachel Olsen’s father has spawned an online comic, constantly gaining more fans through Facebook. Is This Too Real For You?, still true to its crude roots, illustrates Olsen’s family members and friends, her strange childhood, and the everyday situations she finds herself in.
After finding an illustration of her father she had drawn when she was two-years-old, Olsen decided to redraw it on her computer.
“It looked ridiculous—a massively disproportionate head, with arms coming out of it, wobbly eyes, no torso. I thought it was hilarious,” recalled Olsen.
Soon she was adding in the weird things her dad would say. She showed the pictures to her friends, and then posted them on Facebook. The comics quickly outgrew the single album Olsen had designated for them and she then began the Facebook group.
Her friends and family are portrayed in the comics mostly as being strange or angry at odd things for absurd reasons. Olsen thinks they enjoy it. “I mean, my dad did throw me out recently and told me never to come back home because I’m not his daughter anymore, but he said that’s just his way of asserting the patriarchy. Nothing weird,” said Olsen. >> |
