Diana Frances (comedian)

Last updated

Diana Frances
Born
Diana Frances Clent
NationalityCanadian
Alma mater Douglas College
Occupation(s)Comedian, writer, business manager
Website dianafrances.ca

Diana Frances (born Diana Frances Clent) is a Canadian comedian, writer, and business manager. She has written and performed comedy for stage, television and radio for three decades, and served as the managing director of the Vancouver-based Rock Paper Scissors comedy collective. She has been nominated for a Gemini Award and nine Canadian Comedy Awards.

Contents

Early life and education

Diana Frances Clent moved from Langley to Maple Ridge, British Columbia, when she was 13, after what she later described as a "rather traumatic family shake-up". [1] She was adopted [2] and lived with her aunt and uncle while attending Maple Ridge Secondary School. [1] She took drama courses and initially pursued dramatic Shakespearean acting, [3] but was repeatedly cast in comedic roles and was thrilled by the audience response. [1] She studied theatre at Douglas College. [3] As she entered the entertainment business, she dropped her surname which she felt sounded like "a cartoon sound effect". [1]

Career

Frances joined the Vancouver Theatresports League, where she learned improvisational techniques. Her quick wit gained her a place in the Rock Paper Scissors (RPS) comedy collective. [3] In 1991, she replaced an actor in the RPS production A Twisted Christmas Carol, an improvisational play based around a framework of the Dickens classic. [4] She returned to be a part of almost every seasonal production of the play to 2005, and later relaunched the play in 2014. [5]

RPS attracted corporate clients and found steady work performing customized comedy for conferences and also offering workshops for employee relations. As managing director of RPS, Frances was named one of the "Forty Under 40" by Business in Vancouver magazine in 2003. [6] [3] Frances also performed with the Impolite Company (IMPCO) sketch collective, [7] Urban Improv [8] [9] and Canadian Content. [10]

In July 1997, Frances starred in the one-act musical comedy I'd Probably Be Famous. [11] She directed a production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) in January 1998, [12] and staged a portion of the play as a song-and-dance number when she found that her actors could tap dance. [13] In 2001 and 2002, she performed with RPS in the improvised musical Blankety Blank: The Unknown Musical  [14] and Design For Living . [15] In 2005, Frances began performing Leave it to Cleavage, an improv show she had developed with Ellie Harvie, in which their housewife characters provide 1950s-era solutions to modern problems posed by the audience. [16] [17] [18] They were recognized with a 2004 Canadian Comedy Award nomination for Best Improv Troupe. [19]

A demand for television programming came in the late 1990s with the launch of The Comedy Network, for which Frances wrote and starred in the sketch-comedy series Slightly Bent TV (1999) and Sucker Punch (2001–2002) [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] and wrote for the 2002 satirical newsmagazine Point Blank . [25] She wrote for CTV's Comedy Inc, [26] and co-produced and performed in a comedy tour in support of its fifth season. [1] She later wrote for This Hour Has 22 Minutes . [18] Frances was nominated for a Gemini Award for writing for The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos. [27]

Frances has developed material for Vancouver and Victoria fringe festivals, [7] and is credited with bringing improvisational comedy to the Yukon after insisting on an improv segment at the 2003 Nakai comedy festival. Organizers and audiences were so impressed that Frances was booked for full improv shows the following years [25] and closed the 2007 festival with Leave it to Cleavage. [19]

In 2004, Frances wrote a CBC Radio documentary about women in comedy. [28] She has written and appeared on several episodes of The Debaters and Definitely Not the Opera , [29] contributed to the sketch comedy show The Irrelevant Show , and served as a relationship columnist with her feature Dating Diana. [30]

Frances performed with RPS on two tours for the Canadian Armed Forces: a one-month tour in 1997, visiting CFS Alert, Bosnia, Egypt, Israel, and CFB Goose Bay; [1] [31] and a nine-day tour of Afghanistan in 2003, performing at Camp Julien in Kabul [32] and nearby Camp Warehouse. [33] In 2018 and 2019, she toured with Elvira Kurt and Friends [34] and Girls Nite Out. [35] Frances wrote the 2018 ACTRA Awards in Toronto show, hosted by Colin Mochrie. [36]

Frances was a judge on sketch-comedy television competition Sketch Troop alongside Harvie and Tim Progosh. [37] She was a judge for the Vancouver leg of a twelve-city tour of Literary Death Match . [29]

Selected works

Improv shows

Scripted plays

Television

Radio

Awards

Related Research Articles

Joy Nozomi Kogawa is a Canadian poet and novelist of Japanese descent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Mochrie</span> Canadian comedic actor

Colin Andrew Mochrie is a Scottish-born Canadian actor, writer, producer and improvisational comedian, best known for his appearances on the British and American versions of the improvisational TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

Payolas was a Canadian rock band that was most prominent in the 1980s. Evolving from a new wave sound toward mainstream pop rock, they were best known for the single "Eyes of a Stranger", from their 1982 album No Stranger to Danger, an album that won the band four Juno Awards.

Paul Reginald Nelson, known by the stage name Paul Hyde, is a British-born Canadian singer-songwriter.

<i>Where the Spirit Lives</i> 1989 Canadian television film by Bruce Pittman

Where the Spirit Lives is a 1989 television film about Aboriginal children in Canada being taken from their tribes to attend residential schools for assimilation into majority culture. Written by Keith Ross Leckie and directed by Bruce Pittman, it aired on CBC Television on October 29, 1989. It was also shown in the United States on PBS on June 6, 1990, as part of the American Playhouse series and was screened at multiple film festivals in Canada and the United States.

Ingrid Kavelaars is a Canadian actress known for her role on the science-fiction series Code Name: Eternity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debra McGrath</span> Canadian actress

Debra McGrath is a Canadian actress and comedian.

Becky Johnson is a Canadian comedian, writer, actress, improviser, craftsperson and organizer.

Harry Doupe is a Canadian stand-up comedian, producer, and writer from Fort Langley, British Columbia. He has performed shows at clubs, theatres, and arenas across North America. He was the first comedian to perform three times at Toronto's Air Canada Centre, MC-ing shows for The Tragically Hip on their New Year's Eve 1999 and New Year's Day 2000 shows, as well as opening for "Weird Al" Yankovic on his "Running With Scissors" Tour.

Frances Greenslade is a Canadian writer. She grew up with four sisters and one brother playing among the orchards of the Niagara Peninsula. The family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, when she was ten. Greenslade earned a degree in English at the University of Winnipeg before moving to Vancouver, British Columbia, where she completed her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia in 1992. In 2005 Frances and her family moved to Penticton, in the southern Okanagan, where her love of British Columbia's landscape flourished and was a source of inspiration in writing Shelter, her first novel. Greenslade now lives in Penticton, British Columbia, where she teaches English Literature at Okanagan College.

Sunera Thobani is a Tanzanian-Canadian feminist sociologist, academic, and activist. Her research interests include critical race theory, postcolonial feminism, anti-imperialism, Islamophobia, Indigeneity, and the War on Terror. She is currently an associate professor at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. Thobani is also a founding member of Researchers and Academics of Colour for Equality/Equity (R.A.C.E.), the former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC), and the director for the Centre for Race, Autobiography, Gender, and Age (RAGA).

True North Calling is a Canadian documentary television series, which debuted on CBC Television on February 17, 2017. Produced by Proper Television, the six-part series profiles several young Canadians living in the Canadian Arctic territories of Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.

The 13th Canadian Comedy Awards, presented by the Canadian Comedy Foundation for Excellence (CCFE), honoured the best live, television, film, and Internet comedy of 2011. The ceremony was held at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Ontario, on 26 August 2012 and was hosted by Alan Thicke.

The 17th Canadian Comedy Awards, presented by the Canadian Comedy Foundation for Excellence (CCFE), honoured the best live, television, film, and Internet comedy from 1 January 2015 to 30 June 2016.

Chapelle Jaffe is a Canadian film, television and stage actress. She is most noted for winning the Canadian Film Award for Best Actress in a Non-Feature at the 29th Canadian Film Awards in 1978 for the television film One Night Stand, and receiving a Genie Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 3rd Genie Awards in 1982 for The Amateur.

"A Shakespearean Baseball Game", subtitled "A Comedy of Errors, Hits and Runs", is a sketch by the Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster. First performed on television in 1958 and slightly revised in 1971 and 1977, the sketch depicts a fictional baseball game with the manager, players, and umpires all speaking in Shakespearean verse. The dialogue parodies lines from the plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Richard III while referencing modern baseball culture. It became Wayne and Shuster's signature sketch, and both its television and radio recordings have been preserved as significant works.

"Rinse the Blood Off My Toga" is a comedy sketch by the Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster. First broadcast on The Wayne and Shuster Hour on CBC Radio in 1954, it was reenacted for their British television debut in 1957 and their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. The sketch recasts the Shakespearean historical tragedy as a detective story with gangster overtones. Set in the Roman Senate right after the assassination of Julius Caesar, the script has Brutus (Shuster) engaging the services of private eye Flavius Maximus (Wayne) to identify Caesar's assassin. Several lines from the sketch became popular catchphrases, including Flavius's order of a "martinus" in a Roman bar, and the repeated lament of Caesar's widow Calpurnia in a thick Bronx accent, "I told him, 'Julie, don't go!' " It is considered Wayne and Shuster's most famous sketch.

Aaron David Abrams is a former Canadian rugby union player. He played as a hooker and represented Canada internationally from 2003 to 2006. He was included in the Canadian squad for the 2003 Rugby World Cup and played in two group stage matches. Aaron finished that tournament as one of the try scorers for Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Lyons</span> Canadian public broadcasting executive (1923–2019)

Keiko Margaret Lyons was the first female vice president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). She is known for her role in the CBC's "Radio Revolution", a populist revamp of the CBC Radio network which resulted in programs such as Quirks and Quarks and As It Happens. Lyons was designated a Member of the Order of Canada in 2010 for her work in broadcasting.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Local comic seeing the world with humour". Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows Times. Maple Ridge, British Columbia: Southam Publications. 27 June 2008. p. 24. ISSN   1202-9408. ProQuest   357832602. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  2. ↑ "Rockie Awards | Judges". Playback . Toronto, Ontario: Brunico Communications. 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Down, Susan (8 August 2002). "Actors flex improv muscles: Blankety Blank is a dream job for actors who can't remember their lines. They only have to remember to keep the audience laughing". Times Colonist . Victoria, British Columbia. p. D6. ProQuest   345887431. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  4. 1 2 Conner, Shawn (4 December 2005). "Ghosts of improv's past deliver Dickens with a twist". Vancouver Courier . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. 39. ProQuest   359320744. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  5. ↑ Leiren-Young, Mark (27 November 2014). "Audience the author of Christmas Carol twists; Arts Club lets the public decide on details of Scrooge's life". Vancouver Sun . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. C15. ProQuest   1628624873. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  6. 1 2 "Business in Vancouver's Forty under 40 winners". Business in Vancouver . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. 15. Archived from the original on 24 June 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  7. 1 2 Carlson, Tim; McIntyre, Anne (4 February 1999). "Laughing live: Comedy nights at local bars and cafes provide an opportunity to see amateurs and veterans work out new material". Vancouver Sun . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. C16. ProQuest   242832325. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  8. 1 2 Wasserman, Jerry (13 September 2005). "Fringe Today". The Province . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. B2. ProQuest   269415931. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  9. ↑ "Seven days ahead". Vancouver Courier . Vancouver, British Columbia. 9 July 2003. p. 35. ProQuest   359542267. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  10. 1 2 Chai, Daniel (8 September 2006). "Busy Boothby prepares for Fringe and comedy festival". Vancouver Courier . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. 35. ProQuest   359364257. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  11. 1 2 Armstrong, John (15 July 1997). "Two dreams face same reality". Vancouver Sun . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. B7. ProQuest   242948639. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  12. 1 2 "Cafe Culture". Vancouver Sun . Vancouver, British Columbia. 5 January 1998. p. B7. ProQuest   242911184. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  13. ↑ Birnie, Peter (8 January 1998). "The complete works of Shakespeare - in two acts: Vancouver's RPS Productions attempts to squeeze all of the Bard's plays into one giddy two-hour evening". Vancouver Sun . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. C1. ProQuest   242897545. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  14. 1 2 Birnie, Peter (12 April 2001). "Well Hello, Ruthie Nichol! It's so nice to have you back where you belong". Vancouver Sun . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. C4. ProQuest   242611663. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  15. 1 2 Perry, Malcolm (7 March 2002). "Campagnolo, Taylor give Jansson his due: Board of Trade suits assemble to fete one of their own". Vancouver Sun . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. B3. ProQuest   242492120. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  16. 1 2 Hilborn, Dan (12 January 2005). "Cats and dogs at Shadbolt". Burnaby Now . Burnaby, British Columbia. p. 11. ProQuest   358614936. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  17. ↑ "Solving today's problems,'50s style". The Morning Star . Vernon, British Columbia: Torstar Media Group. 19 October 2005. p. 25. ProQuest   373062399. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  18. 1 2 3 4 "Fresh, funny and fast; Leave it to Cleavage riffs on the virtues of the good ol' days". Chilliwack Times. Shilliwack, British Columbia. 27 September 2012. p. A31. ProQuest   1081218410. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  19. 1 2 Waddell, Stephanie (30 November 2006). "Nakai poised to serve up some mirth". Whitehorse Star . Whitehorse, Yukon. p. 4. ProQuest   362364376. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  20. 1 2 Blakey, Bob (3 February 2001). "Worth Watching". Calgary Herald . Calgary, Alberta. p. G14. ProQuest   244845553. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  21. 1 2 Carlson, Tim (28 February 2002). "Variations on a screen: Whether to explore pop culture myths, improvise music or just go for laughs, three different groups are inventing new soundtracks for old films at Blinding Light Cinema". Vancouver Sun . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. D14. ProQuest   242526195. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  22. 1 2 "Move over, it's the original desperate housewives". The Morning Star . Vernon, British Columbia: Torstar Media Group. 12 October 2005. p. 25. ProQuest   372995216. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  23. ↑ Edwards, Ian (9 August 1999). "Schwarzenegger and Willis in the wings". Playback . Toronto, Ontario: Brunico Communications. Archived from the original on 7 September 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  24. ↑ Edwards, Ian (2 October 2000). "Comedy Network shows retooled for year-two runs". Playback . Toronto, Ontario: Brunico Communications. Archived from the original on 7 September 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  25. 1 2 3 Waddell, Stephanie (4 December 2003). "Festival's yuk-yuks to warm up January". Whitehorse Star . Whitehorse, Yukon. p. 4. ProQuest   362237597. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  26. 1 2 "Leave it to Cleavage at Evergreen Oct. 29". Coquitlam Now . Coquitlam, British Columbia. 21 October 2005. p. 26. ProQuest   358484716. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  27. 1 2 "Gemini Nominees: Craft Categories". Playback . Toronto, Ontario: Brunico Communications. 12 October 2009. p. 24. Archived from the original on 7 September 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  28. ↑ Chamberlain, Adrian (2 December 2004). "Comedy isn't pretty, but it's funny". Times Colonist . Victoria, British Columbia. p. D4. ProQuest   347980073. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  29. 1 2 3 4 "Wily writers do battle in Literary Death Match; War of words waged to attract new audiences to reading events". Vancouver Courier . Vancouver, British Columbia. 6 October 2010. p. 28. ProQuest   757032981. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  30. 1 2 3 Minty, Melanie (6 November 2014). "'Leave it to Cleavage' comedy comes to Surrey". The Tri-Cities Now. Port Moody, British Columbia. p. A34. ProQuest   1621693441. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  31. ↑ Inwood, Damian (5 November 1997). "Improv comedy troupe off to humor troops". The Province . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. D9. ProQuest   267599789. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  32. ↑ Pedwell, Terry (24 November 2003). "Canadian soldiers treated to racy down-home tour show at base in Afghanistan" . Toronto, Ontario. Canadian Press Newswire. Archived from the original on 3 June 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2019. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  33. ↑ McCreadie, Drew (3 January 2004). "Drafted into the Afghan improv corps". The Globe and Mail . Toronto, Ontario. p. R10. ProQuest   1368556901. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  34. ↑ "Greater Saint John journal". Telegraph-Journal . Saint John, New Brunswick. 16 January 2018. p. B2. ProQuest   1987634937. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  35. ↑ "Emotional journey awaits at Civic Chorale concert". The Post. Burlington, Ontario: Torstar Syndication Services. 22 April 2019. ProQuest   2212932756. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  36. ↑ "The 16th Annual ACTRA Awards in Toronto Nominees" (Press release). Ottawa, Ontario: PR Newswire Association. Canada Newswire. 13 January 2018. ProQuest   1987009109. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  37. 1 2 Strachan, Alex (2 October 2002). "Hockey Nightmare in Canada: Don and Rex". Vancouver Sun . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. D8. ProQuest   242506045. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  38. ↑ Birnie, Peter (17 December 1998). "Scrooge twisted into season's best Christmas spoof". Vancouver Sun . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. C21. ProQuest   242830781. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  39. ↑ Doruyter, Renee (1 December 1996). "Improv troupe makes sport of X-Files". The Province . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. B15. ProQuest   267570466. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  40. ↑ "Go! Calendar". Times Colonist . Victoria, British Columbia. 1 August 2002. p. D11. ProQuest   345888219. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  41. ↑ Birnie, Peter (13 August 2004). "Antics of improv Musketeers range from clever to puerile". Vancouver Sun . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. D3. ProQuest   242325337. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  42. ↑ Birnie, Peter (9 September 2006). "The fringe of a new Empire". Vancouver Sun . Vancouver, British Columbia. p. F20. ProQuest   242159809. – via  ProQuest (subscription required)
  43. ↑ "Nominations & Awards Archives". Canadian Comedy Awards. 2001. Archived from the original on 2 August 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  44. ↑ "Nominations & Awards Archives". Canadian Comedy Awards. 2002. Archived from the original on 2 August 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  45. ↑ "Nominations & Awards Archives". Canadian Comedy Awards. 2004. Archived from the original on 2 August 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  46. ↑ "Nominations & Awards Archives". Canadian Comedy Awards. 2005. Archived from the original on 2 August 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  47. ↑ "Nominations & Awards Archives". Canadian Comedy Awards. 2006. Archived from the original on 2 August 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  48. ↑ "Nominations & Awards Archives". Canadian Comedy Awards. 2007. Archived from the original on 2 August 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  49. ↑ "Nominations & Awards Archives". Canadian Comedy Awards. 2008. Archived from the original on 2 August 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  50. ↑ Sumi, Glen (30 June 2015). "2015 Canadian Comedy Awards nominees". Now Magazine . Toronto: Now Communications Inc. Archived from the original on 4 July 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  51. ↑ Yeo, Debra (25 April 2017). "Letterkenny and X Company take Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Awards". Toronto Star . Toronto, Ontario. Archived from the original on 26 April 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.