by AMY BARRATT

You've seen him perform life-saving operations on fruits and vegetables at Kiss My Cabaret, but this week, Dr. Avocado (aka Derick Lengwenus) goes carnivore as he slices into a Christmas bird as Ebenezer Scrooge. Lengwenus, Mike Paterson and six other local stand-up comics have put together an interpretation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which opened last Tuesday, Dec. 14, at the Theatre Ste-Catherine.

It's a reflection of how bad things are for comics in this town that this group felt they could raise their profile by getting into theatre. Paterson already has a certain visibility with theatregoers as one-third of Never Surrender, the self-proclaimed "world's greatest lip-sync band." Lengwenus and Paterson have both performed at Just for Laughs. To direct, the comics got their good friend Eric Amber, who also happens to be the owner of the spanking new Theatre-Ste-Catherine.

The idea to "incorporate a comedic perspective" into a straight play, says Lengwenus, initially came from single-name comic Massimo, who had to back out because of another commitment. "He may have been drunk at the time," Lengwenus muses.

Anyway, somehow this group of comics sat down together to watch the 1951 movie version of the Dickens classic (starring Alastair Sim) and by the time it was over, they knew they wanted to try out their particular talents on the material. "We laughed through half of it - the writing is very good," Lengwenus says. "We immediately got up on stage and started improvising." Through improvising, with Amber keeping the story on track, they came up with a workable script. This has all happened in the space of three weeks.

Lengwenus stresses that their interpretation is respectful of the original material, which is, after all, a holiday classic. It was a learning experience for the comics not to always go for the laugh. "There were times when Eric would be like, ‘Cut! What are you doing?' because somebody had thrown a funny line into a serious moment."

Is it possible that Mike Paterson is resisting the urge to be a complete goofball? Lengwenus laughs at my question. "He doesn't manage to be a goofball every single moment, but there are aspects of his performance that are goofball-ish." (Paterson plays three different ghosts).

"So, Derick," I ask, "are you saying that even though it stars eight stand-up comics, this show is, like, heart-warming?" "Yes," he answers. "I hope it's heartwarming. We're all firm believers in the holiday season."

Lengwenus is currently starring in a heartwarming real-life adventure. Last spring he was all set to move to England: He'd given up his lease, sold all his stuff, Kiss My Cabaret had held a fundraiser for him - and then he met this girl. "All the forces were aligned to send me off," he says. "I felt this pressure to go, because I'd said I was going." But he no longer wanted to. Once he decided to stay, he says, "My life was in turmoil for about a month, but I'm really happy to be in Montreal right now."

A Christmas Carol to Dec. 22 at Theatre Ste-Catherine (264 Ste-Catherine E.) Tickets are $5 Sun–Thurs and $10 Fri–Sat, 284-3939

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