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Canada's Wonderland teases AlpenFury opening

Canada's Wonderland teases AlpenFury opening

CTV News4 days ago

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The park says the world-record breaking ride is set to open in a 'couple of weeks' and will become the fastest launch coaster in Canada. (Source: Canada's Wonderland)

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Gen Z TikTok star Jack Innanen tackles generational tension head on in Adults
Gen Z TikTok star Jack Innanen tackles generational tension head on in Adults

CBC

time33 minutes ago

  • CBC

Gen Z TikTok star Jack Innanen tackles generational tension head on in Adults

After achieving astronomical online fame for his TikTok sketches, Toronto's Jack Innanen did what so many rising entertainers do. He moved to New York to pursue new acting opportunities. And success quickly followed, with Innanen scoring a starring role in FX's Adults, the latest evolution in the hangout sitcom about a bunch of 20-something New Yorkers stuck in arrested development. Ironically, the show landed Innanen right back in Toronto, where the city's busy streets and brunch spots approximate New York's vibe. "It was really funny," says Innanen during an interview with CBC Arts, "to work so hard to get that visa, move out immediately and then get shipped right back home." Innanen is once again on home turf, making the most of a local press day talking about going from social media to sitcom star in Adults, which is essentially the Gen Z and extremely online answer to Friends. It's the day before Adults premieres. Innanen started his morning flaunting the per diem he received in colourful Canadian cash on Instagram (making things extra local by playing Drake tracks over each story). Not long after, he's throwing those dollars around on a breakfast TV show. In the TikTok sketches that earned him more than three million followers, Innanen is usually performing two types of characters — school teachers, desperately single men and unsuspectingly horrible people among them — who engage in conversations that go from casual to extremely twisted. The actor started making those videos when he was attending the University of Toronto and credits the environment around him as inspiration for those sketches that got him global recognition. "I would just walk to class and look at the characters of Toronto," he says. "I see someone and would be like, 'I wonder what this person would be like stuck in an elevator' or something. Just living in Toronto, you kind of get punched in the face with cool stuff or funny, interesting people." In Adults, Innanen plays Paul Baker, a spacey hearthrob who was originally written as being from Colorado but rewritten as a Canadian. Innanen suspects the rewrite was made to accommodate his "sorrys" and "abouts." Paul Baker, who is always addressed and referred to by first and last name, is the newcomer to an extremely tight, verging on co-dependent friend group who all crowd around the same Queens, NY home. The show, which was at one point titled Snowflakes, also stars Amita Rao, Owen Thiele, Lucy Freyer and Canadian stand-up Malik Elassal as the various members of Friends 2.0. But unlike Ross, Rachel and Chandler, these titular adults are raunchy, diverse, extremely versed in global and social issues, and are often too disillusioned by the state of the world to have ambitions. In the pilot episode, the gang speaks enviously of an old classmate who achieved viral victim status, just to give you an idea of the bar they aspire to. A lot of the show's comedy is premised on how unprepared Gen Z is in today's world, to the point that Adulting 101 programs are being offered to help a generation raised with Uber and Venmo learn basic functions like changing a tire or filing their taxes. In the first episode, Elassal, playing Samir, steps into a bank in need of a cheque to pay for a furnace repair. The scene's a riot because of how utterly lost Samir is when it comes to finding the words to request such a thing. "I just got my cheque book the other day," says Innanen, at 26, relating so hard to that bit in particular. "Can I not just e-transfer my landlord? Now I have to get cheques! I have to mail a check to pay my taxes. A lot of paper bureaucracy is a big thing for me. What are we doing? Why can't I just text my vote in." Innanen also speaks to the generational tension that makes for so much of the show's most hilarious gags, especially when it feels like these characters are on completely different wavelengths, making basic comprehension impossible. Older characters tend to speak in practical or cancellable vernacular, to which Gen Z, and Innanen's Paul Baker in particular, might respond with a compilation of words so random and chaotic that it verges on poetry. When Innanen's Baker asks a gun shop owner, "what is the spectrum of your language?" it feels like he's capturing the essence of the show. "There's not only a language crisis but just an understanding crisis," says Innanen, elaborating on how Adults speaks to the zeitgeist. "There's a difference in just our understanding of the world. You talk about the job crisis or something, and your parents say, 'go in and just give the CEO a hard handshake and give him your resume and you'll get the job.' It's like, no. I've applied to 600 jobs on Indeed and heard nothing back. My job doesn't exist anymore because AI took it last week. It's just gone now." In speaking on a near-molecular level to a whole new generation weaned on social media discourse, Adults is also part of a wave of new shows made by studios going online to tap talent. Innanen references English Teacher, a brilliant sitcom about the culture wars created by TikTok star Brian Jordan Alvarez, and Overcompensating, the new Prime Video comedy (also shot in Toronto) from Benito Skinner, aka BennyDrama on social media. Innanen isn't even the only online star involved with Adults. The show's creators Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw first earned notoriety for a speech they delivered in front of Hillary Clinton at their Yale graduation. They performed a bit as a couple breaking up as a metaphor for moving on, and made the former secretary of state laugh out loud at a double entendre involving the word "endowed." "You're given the format of a speech —we're going to kill that," says Innanen, about what his generation can achieve. "You give us the format of a TV show — we're going to kill that. Someone who makes TikToks: they're a talent there, and they can also be a talent in this field." Of course, Innanen acknowledges that there's a huge adjustment from making content for the smallest screen (our phones), where instant gratification is king, to working on collaborative projects on the more traditional small screen. "You get to live in a scene with other people," he says, "and you have call backs, an actual narrative, an actual character, build an actual world, instead of a joke I'm trying to get off in like 45 seconds. Totally different. "Also, the waiting for over a year for [the show] to come out, that's really tough," Innanen adds, reminding us that the instant gratification when it comes to TikTok content goes both ways. "I'm used to, like, filming it. I edit it for a few hours. And it's out. And then, I never think about it again."

Mark Critch honours his dad — journalist ‘Mr. Crime' — with new award and shares stories
Mark Critch honours his dad — journalist ‘Mr. Crime' — with new award and shares stories

CBC

timean hour ago

  • CBC

Mark Critch honours his dad — journalist ‘Mr. Crime' — with new award and shares stories

The late Mike Critch was a celebrated radio journalist for decades. He passed away in 2015. This year, his son, actor and comedian Mark Critch, created an award to honour his father. It's part of the Atlantic Journalism Awards, the 'Mike Critch Excellence in Crime Reporting Award.' Mark speaks with On the Go's Krissy Holmes about playing his dad in the TV show Son of a Critch, and his father's work.

Connor McDavid's wife takes shot at Florida Panthers in Instagram post
Connor McDavid's wife takes shot at Florida Panthers in Instagram post

National Post

timean hour ago

  • National Post

Connor McDavid's wife takes shot at Florida Panthers in Instagram post

The Stanley Cup final between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers hardly needs any more fuel added to the rivalry between the two teams, but the wife of the biggest star in the series certainly supplied some on Monday night. Article content Lauren Kyle McDavid, the wife of Oilers superstar Connor McDavid, took a thinly veiled shot at her husband's Cup opponents in a post to her Instagram stories. Article content Article content Article content The post, which went online while Game 3 was still going on, featured a screenshot of an Internet search result for the Alberta Rat Control Program — an obvious reference to the tradition of Panthers fans throwing plastic versions of the pest onto the ice after home playoff wins. Article content The screenshot reads the 'Alberta Rat Control Program, established in 1950, has been instrumental in keeping the province essentially rat-free.' Article content Article content The screenshot also details how the program has been highly successful in keeping rodents out of the province for several decades. Article content While the Panthers have their own team history with the rodents, trade-deadline acquisition Brad Marchand also has earned a pest-like reputation over the course of his career and has often been to referred to as Rat — mainly by opposing fanbases. Article content However, the timing of Lauren's post was questionable at best. The Oilers were blown out in Sunrise, Fla., in Game 3, giving the host Panthers a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 is set for Thursday night at 8 p.m. before the series shifts back up north to Edmonton for Game 5 on Saturday night. Article content Kyle and a few of her fellow Oilers WAGs also are yet to attend a game in the final this year, jetting off to Greece last week for some fun in the sun. Article content However, the women do have a good reason for the getaway: The bachelorette party for Celeste Desjardins, fiancee of Edmonton superstar Leon Draisaitl. Article content Article content The ladies' journey has been well-documented by Lauren on her Instagram Stories, sharing snaps on the plane and at their sunny destination. Article content McDavid did note the timing of the trip was a bit less than ideal, considering what their hubbies are up to at home. Article content 'PSA – when the bachelorette falls on less than ideal timing but we will be back for the good stuff!!' Lauren wrote Wednesday night. 'Go Oilers!!!' Article content Desjardins also shared a snap of Mikayla Nurse, wife of Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse, on her Instagram Stories, writing 'We're reaaaaady!' Article content

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