Anna Danova & the Rescuers

A Western comedy star has come back to London to perform. Ann Denny, a Western alumna is back in her hometown of London to perform her musical comedy act, Anna Danova to the rescue!
Her act addresses topics of life, love, snacking, stalking and casual sex, and showcases her voice and talents on the piano.
Following her graduation from Western, Denny — who performs under the stage name Anna Danova — pursued a master’s degree at the University of Toronto. She studied classical singing outside of university and has also embraced jazz, pop and rock.

NOW THAT’S CRAZY FUNNY. Ann Denny takes a light-hearted approach to dishing out advice. The Western grad will be at the London Music Club tonight to perform Anna Danova to the rescue!

Two years ago, Denny moved to Halifax where she took advantage of performing opportunities. Her leap into comedy came when a typical heartbreak song ended on a comical note. Influenced by the local Maritime comedy scene and her own sense of humor, her serious heartbreak song became a “jokey song about love.”
“Many great songs come out of something hurtful like heartbreak,” Denny says.
This was the beginning of a new direction for Denny’s musical talent, and Anna Danova emerged.
An avid fan of Flight of the Conchords, she began writing comedic material with an indie-rock direction. Songs of this genre such as “My Stalker and Me,” “Snack Attack,” “Conditions of Love” and “Emotional Condom” are featured in her act.
Drawing on past experiences, Denny’s act claims to have the solution to all your problems. The show plays off the social norm of giving advice to people, whether it is invited or not.
“Everyone has an opinion of what you should do,” she says. “You’re in danger, something bad is going to happen to you and you don’t know what to do, but I do.”
Denny started bringing her quirky take on life to Halifax crowds, and at an open mic her talent was recognized by London native Doug Taylor, who owns the Halifax-based Codapop Recording Studios. This led to the first full Anna Danova show in August.
“Codapop and Doug Taylor have really helped the show move forward,” Denny says.
She has now brought her act to Ontario, with a show in Toronto last week, one in London at the East Village Arts Co-op on Sept. 23 and a show tonight at the London Music Club. Denny is on her way to completing her goal, which she says is “to reach everyone in the world one person at a time.”
To fulfill that goal, Denny has taken advantage of the Internet by way of Myspace, YouTube and her own webpage — anndenny.com — where you can preview some of her songs and videos of her performances.
“It has all happened really quickly,” Denny says. She hopes to move onto other venues and is working on a show at New York City’s Gotham City Comedy Club. Although Denny’s show may bring her to bigger and more exciting cities, she hasn’t forgotten about London or Western.
“Years of studying anthropology [at Western] were helpful. It was then that I started giving advice to people over different things, like what they were eating,” Denny says.
Denny hopes her show will bring out a lot of the London community. The first song she ever wrote, “Be My London,” was inspired by the Forest City and features references to many familiar areas such as Victoria Park and the Thames River. Her wish is that she will also receive support from the university community as she experienced positive reception from the Halifax university scene.
With songs like, “Emotional Condom,” which addresses the all too common university experience of wanting to make love to somebody and not regret it in the morning, it is easy to see the appeal to a young student crowd.
Always pushing to expand her appeal and show, Denny’s next project is to add a third dimension to her act by writing webisodes.
Denny will be the headliner at the London Music Club tonight in the main room from 7-9 p.m. Tickets are $10 or $7 with a student card. - UWO Gazette

COLLABORATION Club Land

Hump day is usually the day that gets you closer to the
weekend, but the last Wednesday of 2009 began a new mid-
week tradition-Halifax Music Club at the Paragon. The Club
brings musicians and artists from different genres together
to coltabomte, with local blues musician Ganett Mason,
Cape Breton darling Carmen Townsend and actor/dancer/
jack-of-al1-trades Cory Bowles stepping up as regulars this
month, along with guests like Adam Baldwin.

Not composed of random collaboration, organizer Kelly
Mccuire says the Music Club will have artists practicing
before the shows to perform new matedal.

"All the musicians are re-
ally interested in it because
it's not like an open mic, or an
open jam, where you don't re-
ally know who's gonna show
up or whether you're going
to enjoy playing with them,"
says Mccuire. She adds that
she'tl be acting as matchmaker
for new-each-other artists to
keep things rolling.

ANNA DANOVA, the comedic alter ego of ANN DENNY, is on the list of
Music Club regulars. Denny's been in Halifax for two-and-a-half years,
and says it's tough to find artists for collaboration--specially across
dilJerent genres of art and music. "It can be a litfle awkward-'Oh hey, hi'
umm wanna collab?'" DENNY asks in a mock Yoice, extending an arm out as
if meeting someone for the first time. "But here, there's a space that we
all come to together". Denny's particularly excited to work with Three Sheet beat-boxer Eric Mclntire, while co-host Townsend has set her sights on a bigger fish. "lf Jack White ever shows up..." says Townsend, trailing off with
thoughts of The White Stripes frontman.

Mason brings the dreaming back to Halifax. 'l think it'd tle cool t0 do
some things with synth keyboards," he says. "My roommate is in the
band ]enocide, and I really like what they're doing, even though it's the
total opposite of what I'm doing." Mcguire nods her head in agreeme t to Mason's suggestion, and says there's no limit to what the artists can mix up. Welt, there may be one. don't know about Jack White for Carmen, but I'lltry," she says, laughing. -Holly Gordon
- The Coast