"22 minutes" ... er ... I mean, "44 Minutes"

Last night we went to the season's final taping of "This Hour has 22 Minutes",  for next Tuesday's one hour Christmas special -- hence 44 rather than 22 minutes.

The tapings are free.  You just call and leave a message.  And then cross your fingers and wait for them to call you back.  When I spoke to the person at CBC I learned she had over 700 voice mail messages, so I consider myself very lucky to have seen three shows this season.

The joy of attending a taping is seeing the performers spontaneous humour and  how they interact with each other.  The live taping is interspersed with pre-recorded segments. While we watched those, the cast watched with us or talked quietly and comfortably with each other.

Left to right (below) they are: Geri Hall, Mark Critch, Cathy Jones and Gavin Crawford.

    

I noticed that Cathy Jones occassionally wiped her nose and her eyes were tearing up.  At one point (between takes) she quietly left the set, followed shortly by Gavin.  I thought she had a bad cold and was just having a tough go of it.  Turns out it was Gavin's last day with the show.

There were monitors everywhere.   In the scene depicted below, Gavin was on one side of the set in front of a green screen and Geri was on the opposite side of the set, facing the opposite direction and interviewing Gavin via a huge monitor where he appeared to be in a large opera house.

I was very surprised when in saying their final good byes at the end of the show, they said they'd see us in the fall.  Fall ?  What happened to spring ? 

Apparently the show's contract has been shortened. 

(insert your own biting, snippy comment about Conservative government here)

Hey, wait.

If Gavin is going, that means they need a new cast member.

I think I know just the right person for the job ...