Lions Cabaret, Variety Show support the community

The Simcoe Lions chorus group at a recent rehearsal.

By Chris Abbott

Editor

Simcoe Lions Club is presenting its 71st annual ‘Millennium Music Experience’ on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26.

Friday night is the Cabaret, for tables of 10, with perch dinner at 6:30 p.m. and a 7:30 p.m. show at the Simcoe Composite School Lions Auditorium. 

Saturday is the Lions Variety Show with individual $30 general admission tickets – showtime is 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are now available through the Lions website, simcoelions.com. For more information call 519-426-8562.

“We need to fill those seats,” said Lion Terry Sheppard. “It’s one of our biggest fundraisers. We have a lot of projects coming up. The beauty of it is… if you buy a ticket to the Lions show, you are supporting your own community.”

Both nights feature hilarious laugh-out-loud comedy sketches and impressive chorus music performed by Simcoe Lions - and year after year, both are extremely popular.

“People will be looking forward to a ‘bunch of goofy guys’ having fun performing comedy sketches,” said Lion Bruce Robinson, co-director of the comedy. “There’s short ones, some 20 seconds, to some that are 1-2 minutes, spread out throughout the show. We’re just having fun.”

There is also a lot of singing, said Robinson.

“These guys do the skit part, and they do some singing,” said Sheppard at a recent rehearsal.

“We just enjoy putting it on,” said Lion David Smyth, producer, noting the big attraction ‘is the Lions.’ “It’s just a good time, and I think people enjoy seeing us having a good time up there. And the fact that we are amateurs, not professionals. They know we’re going to mess up some of it, and they’re going to get a laugh out of it. And most of the audience knows us, knows a lot of the cast, so they enjoy seeing what antics we’re going to do this year.”

About 15 Lions are involved in the comedy sketches, and there are about 30 Lions in the chorus.

“It brings the whole club together,” said Smyth. “Everybody in the club has a ‘job.’ If you don’t want to be on stage, then maybe you’re out front ushering people in the audience, maybe your selling 50-50 tickets. Some like to be characters on stage, some like to sing. We have about 100 or so people in the club, and everybody has a job they like to do.”

“So it gets everybody in the club involved,” said Sheppard. “It’s ideal because any of the new people that come into our club, they can do this and feel a part of the group. It gets them to know each other, rather than just ‘going to a meeting.’ Here, you’re working together and they realize how fun it is.”

“Having fun together,” Smyth nodded.

Comedic material is drawn from a variety of sources, including ‘the internet’ and sketch comedy shows like Johhny Carson or Saturday Night Live, adding local Norfolk references.

“Some of it we write ourselves,” Robinson noted.

“Everybody contributes, that’s the big thing. It’s not just one person doing everything. Everybody contributes throughout the year, different bits they think might work. We get together and we go through all kinds, maybe saying ‘that’s not going to work,’ or ‘it might work with this change…’ It’s a real collaboration.”

“It’s a lot of work,” said Sheppard. “And it’s time consuming…”

The payoff, he stressed, is raising funds for the community.

“People know the money they pay for this goes back into the community,” said Sheppard.

“That is what we always emphasize,” said Smyth. “It’s going right back to the area… and we (Lions) do a lot.”

Capacity at the Simcoe Composite School Lions Auditorium is about 600-700, and they have brought in about 500 each night the last couple of years. This year they are hoping to approach sell outs.

Every year they get positive feedback, said Sheppard.

“When the show is over, people always say ‘that was the best show ever.’ And we say, ‘that’s what you said last year… and the year before… and the year before that…”

Timely references in their comedy helps keep it fresh, said Robinson, noting some of it relates to ‘what is going on in the world at this point in time.’

“And we all know what that is,” Robinson laughed.

Chris@granthaven.com