This week’s Simple Fun Special Guest Star, Ryan Pilling, has an incredible appetite for learning fun and quirky facts about anything and everything in the world. So much so that he has a blog that every kid and grown-up neeeeeeeeeds to check out. It’s called, “Learn Something New Every Day“; and that’s what Ryan does: he teaches something wacky and wild and new every day. Have you ever heard of the South American Frog that grows backwards? Yeah, it starts off bigger than when it finishes! Kids, that means you would shrink into being Grown-ups!

The CICF office will never forget what a bright and shining light he was. Throughout last year Randy volunteered with us two to three days a week. He kept us enticed with tales of exciting movies, stories  of the elaborate costumes he created each Halloween, good music and great parties. Added to that, his studies at the University of Victoria, where he was working to gain his Master’s in Conflict Resolution, made for endless interesting conversations.

If you had the great fortune to meet him you know that Randy loved life and it showed.

Randy, we will miss you greatly.

Grown-ups, Mandy Stobo is a Calgary-based multi-disciplinary artist who is gaining meteoric renown for her latest project entitled, “Bad Portraits.”
Based on the premise of sending brightly coloured and be-speckled sharpie pen and watercolour-based portraits to celebrities via twitter, Mandy has amassed quite the following of celebs, twitterati, art critics and the public–all eager to see her next creation or get a portrait of their very own. We had a wonderful time filming with Mandy at Calgary’s Market Collective, building Bad Portrait-inspired masks and putting on masquerade plays with a few excited kids who walked by. Try making one of your own “Mandy-Masks” at home. They’re really simple; just watch how she does it.

Care to see her slew of Bad Portraits, read the conversations an (often) unsolicited painting will prompt with a celebrity, or care to commission a Bad Portrait yourself? Tweet Mandy: her handle is @BadPortraits

You can also catch info for her upcoming events and past shows at mandystobo.com.

Kids, we’ve got a great gym right here in Calgary that is one of the few parkour-based training centres in the whole wide world! It’s called No Limits AFC and its manager, Amanda “Panda” Holmedal, decided to share with us one of her favourite moves, the headstand!

Lots of people think of parkour as an extreme sport because parkour athletes (called traceurs and traceuses) can be seen jumping off ledges, flipping over rails, and climbing on their hands and feet along the tops of high walls. But as we shared in our last blog post featuring traceur, Jim Sinclair, parkour is all about NOT being extreme.

Extreme sports usually use pieces of technology like bungee cords or parachutes to help you do things that your body would not regularly be able to do (like jump out of a plane and land safely). But the idea behind parkour is to get really good at doing things that you learned how to do when you were a baby, like rolling, crawling and climbing. For parkour you don’t need any technology at all. Most parkour athletes just wear light, flexible clothing and a pair of shoes–some don’t even wear shoes! In parkour you are trying to move your body in the most natural way possible, so you only do moves that your body can do on its own. “But,” you might say, “traceurs are able to do things that seem impossible or like only superheros should be able to do them.” Yes, they do. And they are able to because traceurs practice, practice, practice, and start off with simple moves that are really easy to have fun with–like headstands.

In this Simple Fun video, Amanda “Panda” is showing us all how to have fun standing upside-down. She teaches us headstands first because they are a very important and fundamental move in parkour. By doing a headstand you learn how to balance without your feet on the ground. It can feel really weird at first to use just your arms and your head for balance. But, if you keep practicing you’ll find your stomach muscles, neck, back, legs and arms all get very strong. And remember the motto Georges Hébert used that inspired parkour, “Be Strong to Be Useful” (see our last post to read about the history of parkour). So the stronger you are the more useful you can be in helping other people and learning more parkour skills.

To get as strong as possible make sure that you watch and listen to Amanda very closely as she teaches you to do a headstand and then watch the video as many times as you need to learn how to progress to handstands. Progressing safely and comfortably is the way to get really good at parkour. That’s why one of the most popular mottos of parkour is “être et durer”, which, in English, means, “to be and to last”. Parkour is so much fun that you will want to be able to do it all of the time. So, build up to new moves by getting really good and strong at every level of the progression that comes before it. That way you’ll learn how to do lots of fun, cool and totally amazing things with your body while staying safe and comfortable the whole time. HAVE FUN!

Grown-ups, if you are over twenty, we’re sure you can count on more than one hand the number of injuries you have that flare up each time you go to the gym or slip on some ice.

Injuries are never fun, especially when they are persistent. Contrary to popular belief, and, seemingly counter-intuitively, parkour is phenomenal for rehabilitation. Because you are focusing on fluid movements that are based on natural human–almost infantile–abilities, with no dependence on sporting technology, properly progressed parkour is incredibly gentle on your body and soothing. Consider this, if you jump lock-legged off of a one-foot-high stair you can break your back and fracture your legs; but seasoned traceurs are able to jump off twenty-foot-high walls, land, and continue to run unscathed. The secret is to maxime the effective transfer of energy. The traceuse jumps forward off the wall, lands with outstretched (though slightly bent) legs, striking first with the ball of the foot and toes, then absorbs the impact with the flexibility of her feet, ankles, knees, hips, spine, chest, and neck, all while transferring the downward energy of the jump into a forward roll. This takes practice, but the ability is built from increasing your range of motion, strengthening your muscles and learning to accentuate the speed, receptiveness and accuracy of your body’s natural processes.

Our host, Amanda, is the picture of parkour-rehabilitation. Three years ago she was struck by a car while jogging. The impact damaged her L4 and L5 vertebrae, severed a ligament in her left hip and sustained a violent concussion and further brain injuries. Nearly concurrently, her mother was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer–she passed away within the year.

These events swept Amanda into a deep depression. But, as she describes it, parkour gave her a pathway out.

The only thing that kept me going throughout…was my need to get back to training in the discipline I loved so much. I started getting back into training by doing small balance techniques and different isometric conditioning to build my body back up to be at a level where I could train again. Since the accident and my emotional pain, [I have] recovered myself to the point of surpassing my previous skill level…

Parkour is my form of meditation, it is the one thing that I can do that lets me live in the moment and not focus on the past or what is upsetting me at the time. I want to share my personal love for the discipline of Parkour and free-running with everyone. Also to show that it doesn’t matter how old you are or if you are a man or a woman or what injuries you have experienced in your life, there is a place for Parkour in everyone’s life.

–Amended from personal interviews with Amanda Holmedal and her profile as one of the World Freerunning Parkour Federation‘s Featured Female Athletes

You heard her, grown-up or kid, broken or resilient, parkour holds a way for all of us to have Simple Fun.

Words to Learn

For Kids:

bungee cord: remember the rubber bands that our Simple Fun Video hosts, Donovan Deschner and Pat MacEachern used to show how to do magic and make a guitar out of a Kleenex box? Imagine if you tied thousands and thousands of those rubber bands together. You’d get a really long, bouncy, elastic rope; or, ‘bungee cord’. Some people use one type of ‘bungee cords’ to tie things down because they stretch easier than ropes. Other people use a different type of ‘bungee cord’ to do an extreme sport called bungee jumping in which a person will attach one end of a very long and strong ‘bungee cord’ to something like a tall bridge and then attach the other end of the ‘cord’ to their ankles. Then they jump off the bridge and bounce with the cord. Bungee jumping is a lot of fun but YOU HAVE TO DO IT WITH TRAINED PROFESSIONALS. (your parents should always try it first)

flexible: being able to change and adapt to different things without breaking. You’ll be best at parkour and even going through everyday life the more flexible you make your muscles. Stretch to get flexible. You can make your mind more flexible too by challenging it with puzzles or real-world puzzles like choosing parkour lines (learn about parkour ‘lines’ in our previous blog post).

impossible: not able to happen. Many things humans do everyday at one point in history seemed ‘impossible’. It seemed ‘impossible’ to travel to England from Calgary in a day, it seemed ‘impossible’ to create a vehicle that could fly (like a plane) or roll (like a car) at hundreds of kilometers per hours; but we do it now. It may even seem impossible for you to practice parkour, but by learning moves and progressions you’ll start doing all sorts of things that once seemed ‘impossible’.

ledge: a flat surface that comes out from a wall with very little room to walk or balance on.

parachute: a big piece of cloth attached by strings to something like a backpack that a person wears when jumping out of a plane or off of a very tall building or cliff. The cloth opens up when released from the backpack and catches so much air that it slows the jumper down enough to land safely on the ground. Again, ONLY DO THIS WITH TRAINED PROFESSIONALS WHEN YOU ARE OLD ENOUGH (AT LEAST 18) AND MAKE SURE YOUR PARENTS DO IT FIRST.

parkour: a movement-based practice that uses natural human movements (running, jumping, climbing, balancing, etc.) as its basis. The main idea of parkour is to move from one place to another as quickly as possible by going over, around, under, or through as many obstacles as is needed.

progress: developing toward a higher level of skill. To get good at doing handstands you need to first learn to do headstands, then go through the handstand ‘progressions’. Eventually you may have ‘progressed’ so far that you are safe and comfortable doing handstands on ledges way above the ground–but you have to practice lots of ‘progressions’ for a long long time first.

straddle: to place your legs wide, wide apart, to make them form a shape like a big ‘V’.

traceur / traceuse: a male person (boy or man) who practices parkour is called a ‘traceur’. A female (girl or woman) who does is called a ‘traceuse’. These are French words that come from another French word, “tracer”, which means to “trace”. You know when you want to draw a picture just like something you’ve seen so you put a piece of thin paper over the original picture and “trace” the lines? Well, when a parkour athlete runs from one place to another the way they chose to take is called their “line”, and because they chose to run over that “line” it is like they are “tracing” it. So, we call parkour athletes ‘traceurs’ and ‘traceuses’.

For Grown-Ups:

No Limits AFC: parkour is a discipline that is designed to help you move efficiently and safely through obstacles in your everyday (often urban) environment. But sometimes it is nice to build up your confidence with knowledgeable instructors and a soft floor. No Limits Alternate Fitness Concepts Gym provides a vestige in Calgary for introducing yourself to parkour and pushing the limits of collaboration on your skills. They also often work with Breathe Parkour Magazine to host open, public parkour ‘jams’ in and around Calgary. Come to the gym and a jam! For anyone interested in parkour and the traceur community, No Limits is definitely the source to follow on Facebook and Twitter.

parkour: a movement-based practice that uses natural human movements (running, jumping, climbing, balancing, etc.) as its basis. The main idea of parkour is to move from one place to another as quickly as possible by going over, around, under, or through as many obstacles as is needed. There are various forms of parkour that have developed out of showcasing specific skills which are less concerned with efficiency of movement. This other type of parkour is often referred to as “freerunning“.

traceur / traceuse: a male person who practices parkour is called a ‘traceur’. A female who does is called a ‘traceuse’. These are French words that come from another French word, “tracer”, which means to “trace”. The derivation occurs because when a parkour athlete runs from one place to another the route they chose to take is called their “line”, and because they chose to run over that “line” it is like they are “tracing” it. So, we call parkour athletes ‘traceurs’ and ‘traceuses’.

For more “Words to Learn” and the interesting history of parkour, check out our previous blog post, “Simple Fun: PARKOUR! ROLLS! with Jim Sinclair.”

Kids, do you ever climb trees or roll around on the ground? How about playing on jungle gyms at the park? Tag? Grounders? Guess what? You’re doing parkour.

It’s true. When you run and jump and roll you are doing some of the most fundamental moves of parkour!

A lot of people hear the word “Parkour” and think it’s a new extreme sport that involves doing backflips off of everything. Actually, it’s not a new sport at all and it’s not even that extreme. In fact, calling parkour a “sport” is incorrect. Sports usually involve teams or individuals competing  against each other for a prize or to win. Most forms of parkour don’t involve any competition at all. Instead, they focus on the opposite of competition, something called “altruism“.  Altruism is like the best type of friendship: one in which you always help anybody else who needs it. And, if you think about it, when do people need the most help? Usually it’s when they are really scared. Parkour helps you overcome that fear and help other people–just listen to this story:

Once upon a time…well, a specific time…one hundred and ten years ago to be exact…in a land sort of far away called Martinique, there was a very beautiful and lively city called Saint-Pierre. And in that city there lived a very smart man called Georges Hébert. Georges loved to travel. He went all over the world. He visited so many different continents and learned all about as many cultures as he could. One continent he really liked was Africa. He found it interesting there because many of the Africans he visited chased animals to get their food. That made them really good at running through fields and jumping over trees at the greatest of speeds.

Then one day a terrible thing happened. The mountain that the city of Saint-Pierre was built on started to erupt! It was a huge volcano! Pieces of rock  and trees were flying through the air. Buildings were falling down and red-hot lava was flowing through the streets starting everything it touched on fire. Everyone was very very scared. Everybody, that is, except Georges Hébert.

He looked at the people of Saint-Pierre who were running from the lava, getting trapped by fallen trees and rocks and buildings…and he thought back to the people he had met in Africa. He thought about them running and jumping over everything in their way so that they could chase and get away from animals as fast as they could.  He knew he could use what the Africans had taught him to help the people of Saint-Pierre.

That day Georges Hébert saved 700 people’s lives by helping them escape from the deadly volcanic eruption in Martinique.

Seem like a wild story? Well, it’s true. Georges Hébert was a real person who really did save the lives of 700 people in Saint-Pierre when Mount Pelée exploded in 1902. When he later returned to his home in France, he used what he had learned in Africa and saw as life-saving in Martinique to train people in the French military. Hébert focused his training on developing the natural movements that all humans learn when we are babies: rolling, balancing, crawling running, wrestling, climbing and jumping. He thought that the better people were at moving their bodies in all types of different ways the more they could help each other in scary situations. His motto was “Be Strong to Be Useful.”

A couple of generations later, a boy in Paris, France, named David Belle, created something he called, “le parcour”. He called it “le parcour” because he was running and jumping around in ways that were inspired by things his dad had learned in the French military. In the military David’s father had trained on obstacle courses called “parcours du combattant”, or, ‘combat courses’–the ones that were designed by Georges Hébert. Mr. Belle had to learn to go from one place to another as quickly as possible by going over, under, along, or around any and all obstacles.

Over the years “le parcour” has come to be called “parkour” but it still upholds the ideas of going past any obstacle as quickly as possible and being strong to be useful.  

Because parkour is based on developing your body’s natural way of wanting to move it means that there is room for as many different styles of movement within parkour as there are people practicing it. Sometimes, when people who practice parkour, called “traceurs“, want to do movements that come from breakdancing, gymnastics, martial arts, or even things like skiing, the type of parkour that they practice becomes less about moving from one place to another really quickly, and more about playing with style. Because this form of parkour is about being totally free to move in any way, this type of parkour is often called “freerunning“.

Whether you are practicing parkour to move really quickly or to free run, what it means is that there is lots of room in parkour to try your own thing. Today’s Simple Fun video host, Jim Sinclair, has practiced parkour for six years and even still he is inspired to add new types of style to his parkour. He uses dance and balancing, even swimming and acrobatics to develop his style. You can do the same. Take whatever it is you already like to do–maybe it’s swimming or bike riding–and think about how you can use the way you move up and down and all around in water or zip really fast down the street on a bike to help create your style when are running around on the playground at school tomorrow. It might sound really off the wall, but traceurs know that bouncing off the wall is a ton of fun. And it will help you to be even better at helping your friends; or, being “altruistic”.

Grown-ups, ever the performer, Jim avidly endeavours to master anything remotely challenging. Be it parkour, literature, or his new-found appetite for modern dance, Jim is an insatiable glutton for expanding his horizons.

On the difficult path now of seating himself with the top touring circuses of the world, Jim has moved on from his degree in literature to instruct and train constantly at more than a handful of gymnastics and fitness centres around Calgary, including, of course, No Limits AFC.

He (and his compatriots in the Bonus section that ends this Simple Fun video) are all sporting red t-shirts that say, “Breathe” on them–you may have noticed. Multi-dimensional, “Breathe” is taken as both a motto and a constant reminder to remain centred and calm while exploring the limits of human ability. It is also the name of a Calgary-based parkour magazine: Breathe Parkour. Though constantly expanding its international footprint, Breathe has its roots in Calgary, and features many of the traceurs/traceuses you saw in the video and may catch a glimpse of bounding about the streets of YYC. Much in the ground-breaking vein of parkour, Breathe is a maverick in its own right, being one of only two distributed parkour publications in the world.

Words to Learn

For Kids:

altruism: wanting more than anything to take care of other people and to know that they are safe and happy.

compete: trying to win at something or to show that you are better at something than somebody else (maybe you are stronger or faster). Parkour athletes do not ‘compete’ with each other. They use their skills to help other people get better at using their own skills.

continent: there are seven huge stretches of land that make up most of the land in the world, they are called ‘continents’. The Calgary International Children’s Festival takes place on the ‘continent’ of North America. The other continents are called Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, and South America. Can you point out all of them on the Map? Can you find Saint-Pierre in Martinique? (We’ll give you a hint: Martinique is an island in the Caribbean. That means it’s in between North and South America.)

Can you name and find all seven continents?

culture: different groups of people go about their daily lives in slightly different ways. Depending on where and how they grew up, they speak different languages, eat different food, play different games, and tell / believe different types of stories about where their people came from and what is most important to them. ‘Culture’ is a word we use to talk about all of the things that one group does and believes. There are lots of different ‘cultures’ in the world and so many things to learn from every one of them.

diagonal: a straight line that joins two opposite corners of a square or a rectacle.

erupt: to explode with fire and noise in a very violent and scary way. When volcanos ’erupt’ they shoot lava and fire and gas and ash into the air.

‘extreme’ sport: a sport that takes place in a dangerous environment or one that involves a lot of risk of injury. Parachuting and bungee-jumping are often considered extreme sports. Though some people would say it is, parkour is not actually ‘extreme’ because it is based on moving to the most of your natural ability, not using technology to push past your natural limits.

freerunning: a form of parkour that is less concerned with moving from one place to another as quickly as possible and more with style. ‘Free Running’ uses skills from every type of movement possible, including dance, martial arts, gymnastics, and acrobatics.

fundamental: something that is so important to a thing that without that aspect the thing would not exist.

generation: sometimes it means to make something. But when we use it in this blog post it means all of the people who were born and began living at the same general period of time. You and your brothers and sisters are part of one ‘generation’, your parents are part of another, and your grandparents are part of yet another.

individual: one person. A person by themselves is an ‘individual’.

lava: really really hot melted (or, ‘molten’) rock that comes out of a volcano. When a volcano erupts it shoots out rocks that come from way down deep within the Earth. The centre of the Earth is so hot and under so much pressure that it melts rocks, and, when a big opening is made in the Earth’s surface (like the one made by an erupting volcano), the molten rock from the Earth’s core shoots out.

military: countries, like Canada and France, have soldiers that fight to keep the people of the country and other countries safe. When we talk of all of the soldiers of a country together, we call the group, the ‘military’.

motto: a short saying that shares the fundamental beliefs of a group of people.

obstacle: things that block a person from going to one place to another. There can be physical ‘obstacles’ like fallen trees or walls, and there can be mental ‘obstacles’ like being scared to do something. Either way, parkour athletes train to get better at overcoming all types of ‘obstacles’.

parkour: a movement-based practice that uses natural human movements (running, jumping, climbing, balancing, etc.) as its basis. The main idea of parkour is to move from one place to another as quickly as possible by going over, around, under, or through as many obstacles as is needed.

pose: a particular way of standing or keeping your body still. When you smile for a photo you are ‘posing’.

style: the way in which you do something–if you do it differently than everybody else, you do that thing with your own ‘style’. Jim Sinclair’s ‘style’ of parkour shows off things he has learned from dance and circus performance. Other parkour athletes have styles that show a lot more things from martial arts or cheerleading.

traceur / traceuse: a male person (boy or man) who practices parkour is called a ‘traceur’. A female (girl or woman) who does is called a ‘traceuse’. These are French words that come from another French word, “tracer”, which means to “trace”. You know when you want to draw a picture just like something you’ve seen so you put a piece of thin paper over the original paper and “trace” the lines? Well, when a parkour athlete runs from one place to another the way they chose to take is called their “line”, and because they chose to run over that “line” it is like they are “tracing” it. So, we call parkour athletes ‘traceurs’ and ‘traceuses’.

volcano: a mountain or a hill that is connected through a big hole in its centre by something like a tube that stretches all the way down under the surface of the Earth. Many big mountains in the world were created because they were once volcanos and the molten rock that erupted out of them from the Earth’s core eventually cooled and added to the size of the rock that was already there.

For Grown-ups:

Breathe Parkour Magazine: one of two formal parkour publications in the world, Breathe Parkour Magazine was started in 2010 by a Calgary traceur-traceuse pair, Matt Talbot-Turner and Frankie Skripal. The magazine reports on worldwide trends in parkour. You may read the digital version of the latest issue here. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.

No Limits AFC: parkour is a discipline that is designed to help you move efficiently and safely through obstacles in your everyday (often urban) environment. But sometimes it is nice to build up your confidence with knowledgeable instructors and a soft floor. No Limits Alternate Fitness Concepts Gym provides a vestige in Calgary for introducing yourself to parkour and pushing the limits of collaboration on your skills. They also often work with Breathe Parkour Magazine to host open, public parkour ‘jams’ in and around Calgary. Come to the gym and a jam! For anyone interested in parkour and the traceur community, No Limits is definitely the source to follow on Facebook and Twitter.

parkour: a movement-based practice that uses natural human movements (running, jumping, climbing, balancing, etc.) as its basis. The main idea of parkour is to move from one place to another as quickly as possible by going over, around, under, or through as many obstacles as is needed. There are various forms of parkour that have developed out of showcasing specific skills which are less concerned with efficiency of movement. This other type of parkour is often referred to as “freerunning“.

traceur / traceuse: a male person who practices parkour is called a ‘traceur’. A female who does is called a ‘traceuse’. These are French words that come from another French word, “tracer”, which means to “trace”. The derivation occurs because when a parkour athlete runs from one place to another the route they chose to take is called their “line”, and because they chose to run over that “line” it is like they are “tracing” it. So, we call parkour athletes ‘traceurs’ and ‘traceuses’.

check out our other blog posts for many more “Words to Learn” and lots of hints for having simple fun.

Reading Guide: ‘Kids’ — this section is for kids; ‘Grown-ups’–this section is for grown-ups; Blue–words for kids to learn; Orange–words for Grown-ups to learn (definitions are at the bottom of the blog post).

Our new Site Manager, Gavin, loves to hike with his wife, Rikki!

Hi everyone, I’m Gavin. I am so pleased to be part of this fantastic festival again…this time, as the Site Manager!

Being the Site Manager means that I get to work with all of our great volunteers and amazing performers to set up things like the huge maze, and organize the shows in Olympic Plaza so that there’s always something fun to do. It also means that this May you can come and show me how cool you look with your face painted (a tip: I really like to stand by the giant whale and pretend I’m a fisherman).

Very few people know this, but I started at Kids’ Fest over ten years ago as a Site Performer walking on stilts! Since then, I’ve had a long, fun journey through theatres in the EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts (where the Festival happens). After stilts I worked as a house technician with One Yellow Rabbit hosting a few seasons, then as the Downstairs Hall venue tech for several years …then I took the job of Kids’ Fest Site Manager for several years……THEN I passed the job to my good friend, Marcie, and took on the role of Site Crew for the week of the festival (that was 3 years ago)….AND NOW, here I am again as Site Manager and pleased I haven’t had to miss a Festival in a very long time!

I also love to hike and travel so I decided to show you a picture of me and my lovely wife, Rikki, doing a 100km hike through the Athabasca Pass last summer.

Enjoy the Festival!

Click “Continue Reading” to play games with a map, explore where Gavin has traveled and teach your parents new words with our “Words to Learn” section.

Kids, Gavin and his wife, Rikki, like to do two things a lot: create theatre and travel. We know that Gavin is back creating theatre with us at the Kids’ Fest, but did you know that Rikki works at Theatre Calgary and the Jack Singer Concert Hall? (Those are two of the theatres at which you can see the big shows during the Children’s Festival–the big shows can go in there because the stages are so big they can even hold our whale.) Gavin and Rikki have also been to a growing list of places around the world. Collectively, they have been to:

• India
• Mexico
• Vietnam
• Thailand

Kids, can you find all of those countries on this map? (click it to make it a lot bigger)

Big Kids & Grown-ups, here’s a challenge: Can you find all of those countries on this map? (Little Kids, race your parents. They’ll use this map, you use the map above. Who can find all of the countries first?)

Grown-ups, it is a distinct joy to have Gavin working with us, once again, as our Site Manager. We know that fun and safety are your top priorities when you and your family are downtown enjoying the Children’s Festival, so Gavin is your man too. His decade of experience working in and out of every venue at the EPCOR Centre and Olympic Plaza makes him the veritable man-about-town at the Fest. He is geared to handle any safety concern with veteran poise and a wealth of in-depth experience. And with a background performing amongst our good friends, the Green Fools, and numerous theatre and event companies throughout Calgary, Gavin has an eye for setting up fun. The myriad acrobatic, musical and artistic performances that we host (which attract over 25,000 people every year to the Children’s Festival) run smoothly and create an endless parade of possibilities for learning and excitement because as our Site Manager, Gavin keeps the Festival in tip-top shape.

Gavin, we are ever so glad to have you along again!

Now, Words to Learn!

For Kids:

organize: to put a lot of different things into a group together in such a way that they work well together or make sense. You can try organizing rocks in the park by lining them up from smallest to biggest!

stilts: using a pair of long poles or pieces of wood that you attach to your feet (and sometimes also hold onto with your hands) that lets you walk around with your feet far off the ground. Watch one of our favourite Green Fools, Gustavo the Impossibilist walk on stilts (you’ll know when he’s on the stilts because they are on fire): video.

create: to make something. Usually ‘create’ means that you have made something that has never been made before. What have you ‘created’?

collectively: for a group to have done something all together. Rikki and Gavin travel together which means they have traveled as a ‘collection’, or ‘collectively’.

For Grown-Ups:

Green Fools: a Calgary-based theatre group that resides in the avant-garde front of puppetry, mask and physical theatre. Their aim is to educate audiences and participants of all ages to engage in their world by using these ever-evolving, yet traditionally adept, theatrical mediums. The Fools have been friends of the Festival since their inception in 1991 and remain one of the most striking and profoundly colourful sets of characters lighting up Olympic Plaza and the EPCOR Centre each May.

Please, keep reading. Our other blog posts have lots of great words to learn for kids and grown-ups, like, “performer” and “Facebook“.

]]> http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/we-have-a-new-site-manager-hes-great/feed/ 0 calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival Gavin and Rikki in Athabasca Pass World Map World Map (no labels) http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/simple-fun-guitar-with-pat-maceachern/ http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/simple-fun-guitar-with-pat-maceachern/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:20:55 +0000 Calgary International Children's Festival http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/?p=906 Continue reading →]]> Reading Guide: ‘Kids’ — this section is for kids; ‘Grown-ups’–this section is for grown-ups. “Words to Learn”: Blue–words for kids to learn; Orange–words for Grown-ups to learn (definitions are at the bottom of the blog post). We include words from the video too!

Kids, do you ever jump around in your living room, dancing to your favourite song, pretending that you and your friends are playing instruments in the band? We do it all the time in the Children’s Festival Office. IT’S SO MUCH FUN!

Then one day our good friend and award-winning actor, Pat MacEachern, taught us that we could do more than pretend; we could make our very own instruments!

Click “Continue Reading” to find lots of instrument-building tricks, Grown-Up sections and “Words to Learn”!

Pat shared with us a whole bunch of nifty tricks on how to make great instruments. We turned old tissue boxes into guitars (just like he shows you in the video), empty yogurt containers into drums, and even an old toilet paper roll into a kazoo (we cut a single hole about an inch from one end of the tube then covered that end and the hole with wax paper and held the wax paper in place with an elastic above the hole–you can then blow into the uncovered side of the tube and a really cool sound comes out!). We now have a whole band of homemade instruments. Thanks, Pat!

After teaching us we asked Pat how he learned to make all of these different instruments. He told us that for some of them people had taught him, but for others he had to experiment and discover the techniques himself. He really likes when he has to make it all up. In fact, making it all up is one of the big reasons Pat became an actor. In theatre, actors, writers, technicians, and directors all work together to tell a story about something that they find interesting in the real world. The big challenge is to make up fun and sometimes really weird ways to tell the story. People in theatre do this so that the audience will listen and think about the meaning of the story long after they leave the theatre. (Good theatre makes you think a lot about the story it is telling; and great theatre makes you think so much about it that you start to try whole new things in the real world.)

In the first play Pat was ever in, called, “Little Shop of Horrors”, he and his friends were telling the story of two people trying to fall in love. That’s the type of normal story about everyday life (LOVE) that a lot of plays tell, but “Little Shop” tells it in a very interesting and weird way that makes audiences love to listen: the two characters try to fall in love while working in a flower shop that has in it a big, talking flower from outer space! In order to tell this story in such an interesting way, Pat and his team had to experiment and discover whole new techniques for how to make a giant flower that would talk and sing on stage.

Theatre is filled with all types of really cool and fun challenges like that. In every single play that Pat does he has to invent new ways to tell stories that will make people think about them in the real world. Actors always have to discover and make up the way their own character acts. That’s why Pat has so much fun being an actor, because he always gets to discover and invent! Do you like to act?

Grown-Ups, Pat MacEachern has a long history in Calgary performance. If you are an avid theatre-goer in YYC there is a fair chance you have already experienced Pat Mac’s compelling presence on stage. Considering his long list of credits, including Ground Zero and Hit & Myth‘s mounts of “The Full Monty” and  ”The Lieutenant of Inishmore”, you may already be well versed in Pat’s acting prowess. To that end, in 2011, Pat was the recipient of Calgary theatre’s professional performance honour, the Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Drama. He received this for his portrayal of ‘Greg’ in Ground Zero and Hit & Myth’s co-production of “reasons to be pretty”.

Though it would seem his accomplishments are primarily centred in adult dramas, Pat has spent a fair amount of immersed in Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). He recently completed runs with the Edmonton Philharmonic Orchestra performing “Jack and the Beanstalk”, and readings of “Peter and the Wolf” at Calgary’s Lougheed House, accompanied by pianists from the Honen’s International Piano Competition.

Always on the go with his next project, Pat is presently wrapping filming a TV series pilot written by AJ Demers and Jason Long called “The Troupe”. Also in the barrel is a film project with reputed Calgary-area artist, Mandy Stobo (one of our upcoming Simple Fun Video hosts), and a series of performances in Northwestern Germany with One Yellow Rabbit‘s “Gilgamesh”. Busy boy. Though you may not be able to hop over to Germany for the show, make sure you catch Pat soon either on your TV or in one of Calgary’s many local theatres. He’s actually so ubiquitous in Calgary performance  that you can even find him at every Flames and Hitmen game. Let us know when you spot him there–believe us, his performance there is a special treat!

Words to Learn

In order of appearance in the blog post and Simple Fun video.

For Kids:

poet: a person who writes poems. A poem is a special way to tell a story in a way that sounds like somebody should read it out loud. Poems can sound a lot like songs that are being spoken instead of sung.

cavern: a big hollowed-out place in a mountain or in the ground, like a cave. Pat talks about clearing the plastic away from the hole in the tissue box in order to make a ‘cavern’ because sound bounces around in ‘caverns’ and can get louder. That’s why the body of a guitar has a big hole in it: so the sound gets louder like it’s bouncing around in a ‘cavern’.

instrument: a type of tool that a person has to use to do something specific. ‘Instruments’ like drums and guitars are the types of tools that musicians use to make music. Engineers (defined in previous blog post) use different types of ‘instruments’ to measure things like how long a bridge has to be in order to be built across a river.

roommate: when two or more people live in a room together, they are called ‘roommates’. Sometimes people also use the word ‘roommates’ to talk about two or more people who live in an apartment or a house together. In a way, you and your brothers and sisters and parents are all roommates.

rocky: just like it sounds, ‘rocky’ means that something is made of rocks or seems like it is made of rocks. ‘Rocky’ things would be rough and sometimes pointy and definitely not smooth. But calling something ‘rocky’ doesn’t always mean that the thing has to be made out of rocks–just that it seems like if the thing were made out of rocks it would be kind of the same. So, when Pat says his first guitar is ‘rocky’ what he means is that it seems unfinished because it is still a rough version of a guitar.

award: a prize for doing something really well. At school you might be ‘awarded’ for doing a really great job on a project. Pat did a really good job acting in a play, and he was given an ‘award’ because of it.

actor: a person who performs on stage in a theatre or in movies or on television or radio. Pat is called an ‘actor’ because in order to tell a story on stage he has to ‘act’ like a totally different person than he is in real life.

nifty: a word that means really good or cool in a neat way.

kazoo: a small musical instrument that is made from a tube that has a hole in it. Over top of the hole there is a thin covering that moves really really quickly (vibrates) when air is blown into the tube. This makes a neat buzz sound.

experiment: trying different things in a thought-out way in order to make something or to get something to happen in a certain type of way. Scientists and artists experiment all the time in order to discover new ways of doing things.

discover: when you do something that helps you to learn something new that you didn’t know how to do before. Pat and his friends had to ‘discover’ how to make the giant plant talk and sing in “Little Shop of Horrors”.

technique: sometimes, when you are trying to finish a project you have to do things in one type of way or else you won’t be able to do everything needed for the project. This way of doing things is called a ‘technique’. There are all different types of ‘techniques’ for all different types of projects. Dancers have to learn certain dancing ‘techniques’ in order to dance. Actors, like Pat, have to learn acting ‘techniques’. People who learn some types of ‘techniques’ are called technicians. There are lots of ‘technicians’ that work in theatre. Some ‘technicians’ have learned the ‘techniques’ of making the sounds that you hear at a play while others know the ‘techniques’ of lighting the stage and making it bright enough that you can watch the story the actors are telling.

invent: to make something that has never been made before. It’s lots of fun to invent things. Have you ever invented anything?

weird: when a thing is strange or doesn’t seem like it could happen for real, it is ‘weird’.

character: you have a certain type of ‘character’. Your parents have a different type of ‘character’. Your friends have an even different type of ‘character’. You all have different ‘characters’ because you are all different people. Even though some of the things you do and say and like and don’t like might be the same, you each have a different list of those things than each other, and it’s that list of things that you do/say/feel that make up your type of ‘character’. We say that actors play different ‘characters’ because each time they are in a new play they have to help tell a different story. In order to tell that different story the actor has to ‘act’ like a totally different person than he or she is in real life; this means ‘acting’ as if they have a whole different set of things that they say, do, like, and dislike. They have to have a different ‘character’.

For Grown-Ups:

Ground Zero: Formed in the late 1990s, Ground Zero Theatre is a not-for-profit company devoted to immersing Calgary’s established theatre professionals and rising amateurs into a mixing pot of often daring and challenging works. GZT commonly pushes the edges of the YYCTheatre landscape by developing shows that could find their place only within the audience-exciting niche that GZT has carved out. They may be best known for their 2010 production of “Evil Dead: The Musical”.

Hit & Myth: Often partnered with GZT, Hit & Myth are a Calgary-based theatre company dedicated to providing their ever-growing audiences with dark, avant-garde and provocative productions.

Betty Mitchell Awards: The namesake of one of Calgary theatre’s most prominent trailblazers, Dr. Betty Mitchell, these annual awards make note of the outstanding achievements of individuals within Calgary’s professional theatre community.

For more Kids and Grown-up-friendly reading practice, including other “Words to Learn”, keep clicking through our blog posts. We guarantee you’ll learn a word or two, and you might even be inspired to get out and see some of the great performances that are going on around Calgary right now!

]]> http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/simple-fun-guitar-with-pat-maceachern/feed/ 0 calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/introducing-our-new-festival-programmer/ http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/introducing-our-new-festival-programmer/#comments Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:17:14 +0000 Calgary International Children's Festival http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/?p=885 Continue reading →]]> Reading Guide: ‘Kids’ — this section is for kids; ‘Grown-ups’–this section is for grown-ups; Blue–words for kids to learn; Orange–words for Grown-ups to learn (definitions are at the bottom of the blog post).

Kids AND Grown-ups, this is a very special announcement because the person we are introducing to you is responsible for searching the entire world to bring you the best grown-up-friendly kids’ entertainment. Please cheer as loud as you can for our new Festival Programmer, Brian Dorscht!

Hi, I’m Brian Dorscht (sounds like ‘borscht’). I’ve been involved in the showbiz world since I was 9 years old. Even though I was a performer as a young kid, I would always find a way to sneak backstage when big touring shows came to our city arena–I hoped someone would come up to me and ask me to go on tour with them. I loved to be at that perfect place where I could watch what was happening backstage and onstage at the same time. I have brought my own daughters to the Festival over the years, and now, I’m a lucky guy to be working with the great team at Kids’ Fest; and in May, I’ll be surrounded by great talent from around the world. One of my favourite things was working with the University’s Keystone Kops. They were entertaining just off the plaza on the first day; it was chilly. We decided to offer passersby, as well as kids, “pretend” hot chocolate or coffee. To my surprise, people took the pretend cup, filled with pretend hot coffee, and drank “nothing”! AND THEN they put their pretend cup in the real recycling bin. Everyone became part of the act. It was beautiful, and a great way to start the festival.

Kids, how old are you? Are you older than nine? Younger than nine? Can you imagine being in theatre when you are nine years old? Brian did! And so can you! Brian has been a singer, an actor and a director of lots of performances. He really likes being a part of big musical shows and theatre that is meant for young audiences, just like you! He keeps telling us that this is his dream job because he gets to have fun every day bringing together artists from all over the world that are going to get you excited and inspired.

Grown-ups, working as the Festival Programmer for the YYCKidsFest truly is Brian’s dream job–he won’t stop telling us. It is also our dream to have him creating the programming for 2013. Few within the international theatre community have the breadth of experience with TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences) that Brian does. As the co-founder of Calgary’s Young People’s Theatre and a fixture of direction and program development with the University of Calgary’s Wagonstage Theatre, Brian has been responsible for sparking the imaginations and evolving the creative education of young audiences for over twenty years. We are ecstatic to have his eye deciphering the myriad performances that are mounted every year in Fringe Festivals, make-shift theatres and storied institutions throughout the world in order to bring the highest level of multi-age entertainment to the Calgary International Children’s Festival; or, what he calls, “the WOW! factor that will rock YYC.”

So very happy to have you on the team, Brian!

Click “Continue Reading” to see the “Words to Learn” Section.

Words to Learn

Shown in the order in which they appear.

For Kids

announcement: something very important that you tell to a lot of people all at one time.

festival: a type of big celebration (like a party with lots of performances, dancing, music and fun) that usually happens once per year. The Children’s Festival is like a huge birthday party for all of the kids and grown-ups in and around Calgary.

programmer: a person who puts a lot of different things into a plan so that the things happen one after another in the best way possible–this plan is called a ‘program’. The Children’s Festival has a lot of different musicians, jugglers, actors, balloon artists, acrobats, singers and even a giant whale. This means there are a lot of different performances. Brian is the person who puts all of these performances into a plan because he is the Festival Programmer.

borscht: a very tasty soup that was first made in the countries of Russia and Poland. It is made with beets and often comes served with sour cream. Grown-ups, here’s a great borscht recipe you can make with your kids. click here

showbiz: a made-up type of word that means ‘show business’. When people talk about ‘showbiz’ they mean the work that is needed to make movies, plays, TV shows, or dance and musical performances.

backstage: the part of a theatre that the audience cannot see. Usually it is behind curtains or walls. This is often where the performers get ready to do their show.

tour / touring: a ‘tour’ is when a person or a group of people visit a number of different places all on one trip. Many of the performers you will get to see at the Kids’ Festival this May will be ‘touring’ from Calgary to places like Vancouver, Canada; London, England; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Sydney, Australia. Many of them tour all around the world. Kids, can you find all those cities on a map?

arena: a type of building that has lots of seats for the audience because lots of people come to see the performances that take place there. Big musical concerts, large plays, and even the Calgary Flames hockey games take place in arenas.

onstage: just like it sounds, ‘onstage’ means the part of the theatre called the ‘stage’. All of the performances in a theatre take place ‘on the stage’. Because audiences come to see and listen to the performance, the audience can see ‘onstage’ but they still can’t see ‘backstage’.

passerby: a person who happens to be going past something. It means this because the person passes by. Learning Bonus: ‘Passerby’ is a special type of word that is different from most words. When you talk about having more than one ‘baseball’ you say you have lots of ‘baseballs‘ and you put the ‘s’ on the end of the word. But when you talk about lots of people ‘passing by’ you don’t call them ‘passerbys‘ — that would mean that the person who goes past ‘bys’ a lot, and that doesn’t make any sense. Instead, we know that there are lots of ‘passers’ who go ‘by’. So the word becomes ‘passersby’.

pretend: when you play a game or act like something is real but you and your audience know that it is not real. When Brian and the Keystone Kops gave ‘passersby’ cups of coffee it was just a game of ‘pretend’ because there was no real coffee in the cups–there weren’t even cups! You probably pretend all the time. What’s your favourite game of ‘pretend’?

recycling: when you are finished with something it doesn’t always need to go into the garbage. Actually, most of the time, parts of that thing can be ‘recycled’, or, used again to make part of a new thing. Things are recycled all the time. Old pop bottles become warm jackets when the ‘recycled’ bottles are made into something  soft and fuzzy called ‘fleece’. You can even ‘recycle’ pieces of old clothes by sewing the pieces together into something new and fun. Try it at home with your parents and some pieces of old, ripped clothing!

director: the person who is in charge of something, like a play or musical performance. The ‘director’ works with the actors and theatre ‘engineers’ (‘engineer’ is defined in the previous blog post) to create the look and feel of a performance. Brian has been the director for many performances.

inspire: to fill somebody with the strong feeling that makes them want to do something, especially something creative.

For Grown-Ups:

Keystone Kops: The Keystone Kops have been volunteering with us for years at the Children’s Festival. They are an ever-changing lively bunch of University of Calgary students who mime, jostle and clown their way around the outskirts of Olympic Plaza during the Festival. The Kops are the first performers your kids will see when they rush off the bus during their school field trip and the last ones they’ll see on their way back to school in the afternoon. The Keystone Kops do a great job of keeping your children safe, accounted for and having lots and lots of fun. Brian Borscht was instrumental in the development of the U of C’s Keystone Kops program.

YYCKidsFest: Typically used as digital short-form for ‘The Calgary International Children’s Festival’. It is most often seen on Twitter where it is associated with a hash-tag symbol (#) and therefore can be linked and searched for across multiple tweets. When a person says that something is “trending”, what they often mean is that multiple Twitter or social media users are posting blogs, status updates, or tweets with a particular hash-tag phrase in them. You will see #YYCKidsFest trend during the Festival in May.

TYA: Theatre for Young Audiences.

CYPT: Calgary Young People’s Theatre.

For more “Words to Learn” for both Kids and Grown-Ups, practice reading more of our blog posts. There are great words to learn like performance, RSS, and puppeteer.

]]> http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/introducing-our-new-festival-programmer/feed/ 0 calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival Brian Dorscht Fun with Keyston Kops http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/simple-fun-magic-with-donovan-deschner/ http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/simple-fun-magic-with-donovan-deschner/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:23:57 +0000 Calgary International Children's Festival http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/?p=873 Continue reading →]]> Reading & Viewing Guide: ‘Kids’ — this section is for kids; ‘Grown-ups’–this section is for grown-ups; Blue–words for kids to learn; Orange–words for Grown-ups to learn (definitions are at the bottom of the blog post).

Kids, have you ever wanted to learn a great magic trick that will baffle your friends and even your parents? In this “Simple Fun” video, magician and comedian, Donovan Deschner shows you how!

The elastic illusion that Donovan shows you how to do is one of the first magic tricks he ever learned. He was only eight years old when he started practicing it, and it got him hooked on magic! By age ten he had performed many times for his family and friends, and with the Calgary Magic Circle’s Junior Magic Club!

It just goes to show, you can become a magician at any age! (Even as old as your parents.) Start practicing!

Grown-ups, Donovan Deschner has a storied history as a Calgary-based actor, comedian and magician. Expanding from magic into comedy seven years ago, he has brought his brand of savvy wit and mind-boggling illusions to theatres, clubs and corporate audiences throughout North America. As one of the most deeply vested comics in the Calgary performance scene, if you are searching for comedic entertainment any night of the week, Donovan is your conduit. Alongside CalgaryComedy.ca (your source for all information regarding YYC stand-up) and his personal site, DonovanDeschner.com, he runs a monthly room in Inglewood called Red Carpet Comedy. Incidentally, the Red Carpet is live tonight (it takes place the last Wednesday of every month). Go! His room hosts a cavalcade of ever-changing professional comedians who are only allowed to try completely new material. High risk and seasoned professionals teetering on the edge of failure is always funny. Enjoy the laughter!

Click “Continue Reading” to see the “Words to Learn” Section (including words from the Video).

Words to Learn

For Kids:

engineer: one type of an engineer is a train driver. The other type of an engineer is a person who plans and builds many of the different things we use every day. Some engineers help to plan and build bridges or roads or buildings or even computers and medicine. Lots of engineers help us at the Children’s Festival  by planning the sounds, machines and musical instruments that the artists use. Engineers even work with magicians to help make new magic tricks!

puppeteer: a person who works and plays with puppets. We have lots of puppets and puppeteers at the Children’s Festival every May.

bonus: to get more of something than you thought you would. In this case, you may have thought Donovan’s “Simple Fun” video was over, but then he did some more magic tricks for you. That was ‘bonus’ magic.

perform: when a person completes a set of actions, they ‘perform’. So, when you have finished making your bed and putting away your toys, you have ‘performed’ all your chores. Also, when you show your friends the new magic trick you just learned, you will have ‘performed’ a magic trick.

comedy: a type of performance meant to make people laugh by telling jokes or doing funny things. A comedian is a person who performs comedy for work. Donovan Deschner and Cory Wilson (from Simple Fun: JOKES!) are both comedians. And, Grown-Ups, both of them will be at Red Carpet Comedy tonight!

audience: the group of people who watch or listen to music or a play, a magic show or even a speech. When you watch other people perform, you are in the audience. When they watch you perform, they are in the audience.

practice: to do something over and over again, often to try and get better at doing that thing.

routine: the set of actions that a person practices over and over again. Magic tricks take a lot of practice, but over time you will build them into a routine.

illusion: a thing that is actually different than you think it is. Magic tricks are ‘illusions’ because they make the audience think they are seeing something different than they actually are. In the trick Donovan teaches you, it looks like the elastic jumps from your first two fingers to your last two fingers. But you now know that is an ‘illusion’ because you have wrapped the elastic around all of your fingers  behind your fist where the audience can’t see. The audience is tricked by the ‘illusion’ but you aren’t.

baffle: to totally confuse a person or audience. When they don’t know how you’ve done a magic trick, your audience is ‘baffled’.

hooked: think of a hook, like the pointy, sharp metal hook that is on the end of a fishing line. Fish get caught on it. So, when you say that you are ‘hooked’ on something it is like saying you are caught by it. If you really like doing magic tricks  you are ‘hooked on magic’.

For Grown-Ups:

 RSS: An abbreviation for “Really Simple Syndication”, often noted by variations of the icon shown above and in the video. ‘RSS’ regards an alternative and simplified way of viewing media content from a website that is regularly updated. This blog has an RSS feed to which you may subscribe. Depending on the program with which you browse the internet, and on your email system, you can have an RSS feed populate to alert you about updates to its associated blog. Try ours out so that you never miss a post! Just click the “Follow” button that is on our blog (either at the top of the page or in the bottom righthand corner, depending on your web browser).

For more “Words to Learn” for both Kids and Grown-Ups, practice reading all of our blog posts. There are great words to learn like acrobat, YYC, and Twitter.

]]> http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/simple-fun-magic-with-donovan-deschner/feed/ 1 calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival feed-icon-28x28 http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/simple-fun-bonus-jokes/ http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/simple-fun-bonus-jokes/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:00:13 +0000 Calgary International Children's Festival http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/?p=862 Our new team member, Steve Nagy, tells you some funny jokes you can tell all of your friends!

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As a bonus “Simple Fun” video, our new team member, Steve Nagy, tells his favourite funny jokes. They’re great ones to share with all of your friends!

]]> http://calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/simple-fun-bonus-jokes/feed/ 0 calgaryinternationalchildrensfestival