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I caught Cape Breton...and a Funeral last Friday, on its ninth and final night at the Louisbourg Playhouse. This two-man production laid out a heaping helping of music and comedy that had the packed house tapping their feet and holding their sides from laughing.
The two stars of the show are certainly no strangers to the playhouse. Jason Kempt has appeared there many times, perhaps most often as a member of 88 Squared (a piano and vocal show...) and Colin Grant was part of Lyrics and Laughter.
Both are wonderfully multi-talented performers but they stayed with their most familiar instruments throughout the show: Jason on keyboards and Colin on fiddle (except for a brief fling with accordion and spoons). Jason also possesses a fine singing voice, something that I have not heard him share with an audience nearly enough.
Jason and Colin are also very funny people, particularly in the quick skits that were featured in this show. For the most part, costume changes were minimal as they slipped into a jacket and hat to revert from reality to lunacy. And lunacy is a fitting word, as both Colin and Jason are masters of the well-timed adlib comment that reduced their stage partner to laughter and put the audience into stitches.
Cape Breton...and a Funeral may have had its last performance, (at least for this year), but Jason and Colin will contiue their antics during Celtic Colours.
Thursday, September 25, 2008 - Dan MacDonald, Cape Breton Post
Monday night, I was back at the Playhouse for Cape Breton and a (Christmas) Funeral, the two-man production with Jason Kempt and Colin Grant. Again, the theme was Christmas with comed and fiddle tunes thrown in for good measure. The show was well attended with everyone going away feeling a bit more into the spirit of the season.
Colin played marvellously and Jason - best known as a pianist - sang wonderfully in addition to keeping the audience involved. The comedy was good, helped by some ad libs that were as surprising to the castas to the audience.
The highlights included the return of Rip and the appearance of an overly-dressed and thoroughly disillusioned person from away, whose laments about snow sparked a response from everyone...The show made me laugh when saw it in the fall and I enjoyed the Christmas version equally.
December 2008 - Dan MacDonald, Cape Breton Post
Discography
Debut cd available NOW at:
Cape Breton Curiosity Shop
Louisbourg Playhouse
Telegraph House
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Bio
Biography
From concert halls in Germany and Switzerland to Shakespearean theatres to piano bars and coffee houses, Jason Kempt has had a diverse career as a performer, a musical journey that started behind the piano at the age of three years.
Primarily a piano player, Jason has done it all from touring the bar circuit with Third of a Dozen, to producing and directing school productions of Grease, Footloose, Phantom of the Opera, to writing, singing, and acting in shows like The Savoy Theatre’s house productions – Island Mania and Christmas Mania.
He has traveled extensively throughout North America and Europe with ECMA-nominated fiddler, Jennifer Roland, performing at festivals and events like Festival du Voyageur in Winnipeg, MB, Summerfest in New Bedford, MA, Trout Forest Music Festival in Ear Falls, ON as well as numerous theatres throughout New England and in Texas. Fall 2009 took Jason to Germany, Switzerland and Holland for 23 performances as part of the Irish Folk Festival Tour.
Jason released his first solo cd, “Live at Telegraph House” in August 2009. A combination of classics and original material, it’s a good representation of his live shows. The cd is currently receiving regular airplay on CBC and Coastal Radio in Cape Breton. In September ’09, he returned to the stage of the Louisbourg Playhouse to reprise his role as co-writer and half of the two-man show, Cape Breton…and (another) Funeral, which is the follow up to 2008's debut show that played to packed houses for several weeks.
In 2010 - 11, he continued to keep a busy calendar of solo appearances, in addition to writing and performing in two dinner theatre shows for Casino Nova Scotia, Sydney, as well as "One Night in a Cape Breton Kitchen's" both season at the Louisbourg Playhouse.
April 15-18, 2012, Jason will be directing and playing keyboards for "Titanic, the Musical" at Baddeck Academy. He recently wrapped up a third season of "One Night in a Cape Breton Kitchen at Louisbourg Playhouse from July 2 - August 3 along with castmates Troy Young, Lyndon MacKenzie, Maura Lea Morykot, and Beverly MacLean.
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