Latest news with #GrindstoneComedyFest
Edmonton Journal
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Edmonton Journal
Kenny vs. Spenny, Ivan Decker polar opposite hilarious at Grindstone Comedy Fest
Organizers wary Kenny vs. Spenny would get somehow illegal at Grindstone Comedy Fest didn't have to long to wait to grit their teeth a little as the former was waving a weapon around at the latter's face on the mainstage Friday night. Article content 'Anyone out there have a knife?' 58-year-old Kenny Hotz beckoned the way improv artists usually ask for audience prompts — 'TOILET!' — his long-time comedy partner Spencer Rice begging him to just kill him already when one showed up. Article content Article content The now-grey, former reality TV stars doing a two-night headliner stand at Grindstone's sixth annual mixed-maniacal-arts fest did not exactly disappoint their 23-year reputation of being sloppy, vicious and preposterously cruel to each other in a peak Gen X version of Abbott and Costello, walking out already spilling drinks with one working mic between them, bitching about being put up at — content warning from here on — a word that rhymes with Bum 'Fart Inn.' Article content Article content Like any resilient bully victim, Rice deflected the jabs away from him, towards the audience and our city, calling the Oilers losers — he lost $300 betting on them — and dismissing Edmonton as the r-word version of Calgary. Article content Article content 'The truth is we're only here because we were cancelled,' Rice moaned, noting they used to take meetings in Hollywood. 'This was not the dream we had growing up.' Article content Article content In the spirit of things, the crowd cheerfully yelled 'F— you!' back at them. Article content This sounds insane, but it was all somehow therapeutic, tension still kept in since the second year of playoff disappointment, maybe? Article content They did not do any gross-out challenges, though they threatened to have Spenny perform oral sex on his former Toronto babysitter. Article content One heckler in a Kenny vs. Spenny T-shirt kept yelling back and forth at the duo, Kenny calling her to the stage, which she obliged, then yelled, 'Sit down, you f—ing slag!' which she seemed to appreciate. Article content Yeah, so not exactly Folk Fest 'what a glorious city!' banter, but essentially an escalation between performers and audience where the two basically checked off every sort of offensive thing you can't say any more, except they can and they did.
Edmonton Journal
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Edmonton Journal
Kenny vs. Spenny ride the mayhem of Grindstone Comedy Fest July 2-6
Article content It's a brilliant tradition Grindstone Comedy Fest has forged, bringing wild and line-crossing Canadian TV legends to its outdoor stage: Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch of Kids in the Hall in the last two years, no less — with a bonus freaky Kevin McDonald in December. But with gonzo humiliation athletes Kenny vs. Spenny headlining the July 2-6 comedy summit Friday, GCF festival director Joses Martin just doesn't know what to expect.
