Human Interest
a live talk show ~ next one in June (more details to come)
Human Interest with Col Cseke
A live talk show here in Calgary, packed with comedy, interviews, games, drinks, and more!
Host Col Cseke welcomes compelling Calgarians to the stage in a hilarious night poking fun at the news and revelling in the interesting humans that make Calgary the fascinating and infuriating place it is.
Featuring those classic talk show segments we all know and love like Lionel Richie’s Hello music video, petty FOIP requests, Depression Cafes, three headed news monsters, and more.
Our guests aren’t famous, they’re something better… interesting!
Missed the last show? Check out the recap below (& sign up for the newsletter so you catch the next one)
Held at Inside Out Theatre the night kicked off with Meg and Mike’s charming welcome, Col pitching his ideas for Depression Cafes in downtown Calgary, and the Three Headed News Monster!
The first guest of the night was Dad, Journalist with The Narwhal, and aging trouble maker Drew Anderson! After discussing Drew’s work uncovering more of the truth behind the shady Alberta moratorium on renewable energy we chatted allot about the FOIP process (FOIP = Freedom of Information and Privacy) - the process for journalists (and anyone else!) To request information from the government. Then we played Petty FOIPs! In his journalism work Drew FOIPs for legit, important info, but we wondered what was the pettiest FOIP we could ask the government. Audience suggestions included any and all Pornhub search terms sent from government devices, what catty things leadership candidates said about each other, and something something about location services. Ultimately we decided to FOIP the province for any and all communication between Premiere Danielle Smith and recent AB visitor Tucker Carlson!
After the break we were joined by “Jordan Peterson" who’s got beef with Drag Story Time, particularly the book choices. To toughen us all up he read the saddest kids book, The Last Puppy. Sadly JP couldn’t get through it without chocking up.
Then we welcomed actor, writer, and blind bimbo Ashley King! After chatting about the good, the bad, and the ugly of the described video world we played “Hello, is it me you’re describing for?” Where brave and valiant audience members took turns ad libbing audio description for Ashley, describing Lionel Ritchie’s 1984 music video for “Hello”
After Ashley we were joined by two kick Trans artists and community builders, Tiffany Thomas and Riki Entz! Riki and Tiffany both showed such compassion and empathy when discussing Alberta’s proposed anti-trans legislation - before playing a game of Sweet 16 where we ran a tournament to decide what’s the worst thing about puberty we sure wish we could’ve blocked - SPOILER - we landed on the Loss of Innocence and the Accompanying Existential Dread (narrowly beating out smelling so bad you have your own signature B.O.)
Finally, Drew returned to the stage to tells us all how he translated “what kind of emojis did Danielle and Tucker send to each other” into proper journalistic language (posted below for anyone curious). All leading to one of the nerdiest and best moments in the show - a packed house chanting FOIP, FOIP, FOIP, FOIP til we burst, throw confetti, and send this very legitimate FOIP request in to the actual provincial government! Here’s how we worded the FOIP request: “Please provide all briefing notes regarding a meeting with Tucker Carlson, as well as all communications sent by Premier Danielle Smith and her staff -- including, but not limited to, emails, WhatsApp messages, text messages or messages sent on other platforms, as well as handwritten notes - to Tucker Carlson and his staff. Please also include notes from meetings, handwritten or otherwise. Timeframe: Dec 01, 2023 to Feb 15, 2024”