"Blame Canada?" Nope.
Blame Iceland.
Yes, local lovers of Monty Python have Iceland to thank for Naughty Bits, Between Shifts Theatre's production of the famed British sketch comedy show which runs next Thursday through Saturday (May 24 - 26) at the Eagle Eye Theatre.
Director Liz Gruber, who is back at the helm of the production after putting on An Evening With Monty Python two years ago and some episodes of Fawlty Towers last year, credits spending five and a half formative years of her youth in the Scandanavian country with her appreciation for absurd British humour.
"The TV we watched was British TV," she said at a recent rehearsal. "I was being exposed at a young age to a humour I didn't know existed. When I saw Fawlty Towers for the very first time I think that was when my sense of humour kicked into place ... it was an epiphany of a kind."
With a talented cast including Warren Daske, Skai Stevenson, Maclean Falkins, Randy Marohn, Jens Ourum, Sean Wilkinson, Aaron Gruber, Laura Shoults, Tim Shoults, Jeanne Cameron and Rick Misiurka, and a solid lineup of familiar Python sketches, Gruber is confident everyone from the newbie to the most die-hard Python fan will be satisfied with the show.
Just how naughty are the bits?
Gruber promises clean language, some sexual innuendo and no nudity - "barely," she hints - and violence only against penguins and parrots, but still cautions against bringing young people to the show.
"There are two or three [sketches] some might find offensive," she says.
To sweeten the deal, the show will feature a bar with Howe Sound Brewing Company ales both before and after the performance. The doors and bar will open at the theatre at 7 p.m., an hour before the show starts.
"The more you drink, the funnier we get," says Gruber. "Unless you're driving, in which case we're still funny."
If you can't make next weekend's shows in Squamish, don't despair: the troupe is taking the show on the road next month to Maurice Young Millennium Place in Whistler for two performances June 15 and 16.
Tickets for the 樱桃视频performances are $10 for adults and $8 for seniors and are available at Billie's Bouquet or at the door.
