5.0
Funny Thing, it's relative
Jim Slotek
There's an implied wink in her tone as Trey Anthony talks about the benefits of being black in February.
"We're just the 'in' thing right now," the young comic actress enthuses. "I'm very busy this month, booked solid. There were times I used to be begging, 'Let us perform! We'll do it for free!' Now it's bookings, interviews, one after the other."
Talented and ambitious, Anthony is the sort who naturally looks past the short-term boom of Black History Month (even one with a bonus Leap Year day).
Her seven-year sketch troupe The Plaitform - which headlines at the Brigantine Room tomorrow as a feature of Harbourfront Centre's Kuumba Black History Month program - plays regularly at Second City's Tim Sims Playhouse, and has a strong following among young African-Canadians of Jamaican heritage.
A lot of us (in the troupe) are first or second generation Canadian, and are trying to assimilate, but at the same time, we still have ties to the West Indies. We're all under 25, except for my aunt who is a guest actor. And a lot of the humour comes from my family talking and this whole different culture you don't get to see on television.
"Our audience is between 19 and 35, and they're like, 'Oh my God, that's like my mom,' or 'that's just like my grandmother.' "
The troupe - rapper Kevin White, Rachael-Lee Rickards, Temperance Reid, P. Barrington, Super Nova, Louis Mercier, and Anthony - are all black, "although we have a guest actress who is a Jim Carrey," Anthony laughs, referring Carrey's stint as the white guy on In Living Color.
They play schools often, largely because they like to play stereotypes from both ends, creating fodder for discussion. There's Anthony's own Carlene The Dancehall Queen character, which she's also played at Yuk Yuk's all-black Nubian Disciples nights.
"I did my whole (Yuk Yuk's) show in patois, and I did Carlene as my first sketch. She goes to the job interview and the interviewer says, 'Why me can' work Monday 'cause Monday me car go down Eglinton to buy me linen, to put on me sequins, and Tuesday me definitely can' work Tuesday, cause…' She has all these excuses why she can't go to work, and at the end of the day she says, 'The reason me can' get a job in Canada is Canada is racist.'
"And she's a typical dancehall queen loaded with jewelry and you find out that she's more interested in socializing than looking for a job. I know a few Carlenes," she laughs.
On the other side, there's Rickards' portrayal of 'White Trash Tina.' Rachael-Lee is black but she's very, very, very fair. So when she puts on a wig, she can look white.
"She meets a black guy at the bus stop and all the stereotypes come out. 'So where do ya live, Jane and Finch? Do you got any weed on ya?' And at the end, you find out that she's the one that smokes weed and lives on Jane and Finch."
The English-born, Brampton-raised Anthony found herself re-energized, careerwise, after spending time in New York last year as an intern on The Chris Rock Show.
"I painted his office blue, did a lot of photocopying, and brought a lot of coffee," she says. "It was a good experience, but humbling. A lot of people were saying, 'I was right there where you are, and now look at me.' They also let us sit in on writers' meetings. And I got to be in two sketches.
"I just really love Chris Rock. He's a lot different in person, really shy."
Her other big hero? Carol Burnett.
"She was so talented and funny, she could do great patois," Anthony says with a laugh.