If you think there’s no such thing as a good blind date, that’s probably because you’ve never met Rebecca Northan.
The improvisational comedian brought her red clown nose, her table for two and her wistful but mischievous smile to the Brigantine Room at Harbourfront in a show starting last night.
She’s presenting Blind Date, which originally began as a 10-minute sketch at The Spiegel Show during Luminato 2007 and has since grown into a full-length piece that recently knocked Calgary on its speed-dating butt.
Northan thanks Tina Rasmussen, artistic director of Harbourfront’s World Stage performance series, for commissioning her to do something that summer.
“It was one of those ideas that arrive in their entirety in an instant,” giggles Northan. “I knew immediately it was about a blind date and it had to be in a French café.”
What about Northan herself? That, too, fell into place instantly and she emerged as Mimi, a character Calgary’s New West magazine called “the sexiest and most lovable Parisian woman to ever wear a clown nose.”
What makes this show special? Mimi has obviously been stood up by her date, and so she goes into the audience to find a replacement.
“I’ve only got two rules,” states Northan. “It can’t be an actor and it can’t be anybody I know. Because then it’s not a pure experience.
“Once or twice,” she laughs ruefully, “I picked an actor by mistake and I knew instantly what I had done, because they didn’t know how to be a real person.”
To some people a show about dating would be living hell, but not the relationship-savvy Northan (who is happily married, by the way). “I’ve had great experiences in my dating life and I’ve stayed friendly with almost everyone I’ve ever gone out with. To me, dating is the exciting ritual of getting to know someone, hoping there’s chemistry and being excited by the hope of potential.”
But — and this may be the big difference — Northan concedes that “never in my life have I been on a blind date.”
So she approaches each encounter with an innocence and a hope that never wavers. “Each evening is special, wonderful, fun … for me, for the man and for the audience. You see, I’m not thinking of myself first, I’m thinking of the guy. Wondering, ‘What does he need? A gentle, encouraging hand, or someone telling him just what to do?’”
So when she’s up there improvising as Mimi on a date with a man she’s literally never met, is that her?
“Mimi is the better part of me,” she sighs. “She’s all the things I like about myself and all the things that surprise me. For example, I’m surprised at how willing she is to be moved emotionally.”
She admits that some of the men “temporarily fall in love” with her and “a piece of me falls in love with them too. They’re all unique and I have a genuine experience with all of them.”
“When I finish each show,” she concludes, “I’d like to think I’ve given the guy 90 minutes of happy.”
If you go
• WHAT: Blind Date
• WHERE: The Brigantine Room, 235 Queens Quay W.
• WHEN: Nightly through March 7, 8 p.m.
• TICKETS: $25 at 416-973-4000 or www.harbourfrontcentre.com
