Open Letter to Yuk Yuk’s

Note: This is the second time an entertainment establishment in Vancouver has made dramatic alterations without any acknowledgment to their customers of the changes. Last time, my wife and I went to see Spinal Tap, only to discover TicketMaster had decided to move us from the orchestra to the last row of the balcony section. It appears that entertainment groups in Vancouver simply don’t understand how to communicate changes to their customers.

Dear Yuk Yuk’s:

My wife and I attended Yuk Yuk’s last night to see the 8pm ‘Garfunkel and Oates‘ show, who were previously advertised as your headline act for the night. It was the only reason I went. Not only did Garfunkel and Oates not play the gig, there was no notice to this effect at the box office or anywhere prior to the show. It wasn’t even acknowledged by the MC that the advertised headliners weren’t going to be playing.

I am aware that you state that “Acts are subject to change without notice.”; however, this as a legal term is only defensible in cases where a player or act is physically unable to make the gig (illness, accident, detention while crossing the border due to house arrest – I’m thinking of Andy Dick here, of course). To simply gloss over the fact that the very act people came to see won’t be playing the gig and attempt to hand-wave it away under this overly-broad disclaimer is poor form and, quite frankly, insulting to your customers. In other businesses, it’s called a bait-and-switch, and it’s illegal (for a reason).

In the future, it would be useful to at least acknowledge that the acts have changed. You’ll find that customers are a lot more forgiving if you communicate the change, than if they get to the end of the show and wonder why they didn’t end up seeing the very act they paid good money to see. It’s just good business.

Kids In The Hall

We went to see The Kids In The Hall at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. The original quintet was there to parade old sketches and favourite characters, such as Simon Milligan and the Pit of Ultimate Darkness. All in all, a good show by a bunch of funny guys.

It’s strange. For a bunch of guys with an original comedy act, they disappeared into obscurity after the series ended in 1995. With the possible exception of Dave Foley, who went on to lead “News Radio” and land a number of roles doing voice work for animated movies, none of the others really seemed to do that much. I suppose in a lot of ways they were probably victims of their own success. After being such well known faces on the CBC, making the transition into the gigantic wading pool of American television might have required a whole new set of skills that perhaps they didn’t possess. Or maybe they just didn’t want to play that game.

That aside, the Kids are still a force to be reckoned with, judging by the welcome they received at the hand of the capacity crowd. Given the legions of fans, you’d think they’d reunite for good and replace some of the mindless drivel polluting the TV these days.