Shortweird Radio relaunches acclaimed out-of-print sketch comedy classics with brand new album "Less Is More"

ITUNES PRESALE MAY 31st – WORLDWIDE LAUNCH JUNE 14th

These days Marcel St. Pierre is an established improvisor and writer, an alum of The Second City and former artistic director of The Bad Dog Theatre Company. But one of his first loves is sketch comedy, and back in 2003, St. Pierre put together a dream team of some of the Toronto's best comedians and for a series of weekend writing and recording sessions in a north end studio. Among them were a dozen Canadian Comedy Award winners and nominees, people like Jessica Holmes (Air Farce), Scott Yaphe (YTV) Nile Seguin (JFL) Kerry Griffin (Second City) and Tabetha Wells (Second City). The result of those sessions was a sketch comedy double album entitled "Got A Dime?"

It was immediately hailed as "filled with treasures" by NOW Magazine's Glenn Sumi, featuring a "who's who" of the Toronto comedy scene". The original 26-track CD has long been out of print, and was only made available as a physical copy to the audience members of the epic and unprecedented 3-night opening release shows held at The Second City's Tim Sim's Playhouse.

Now, producer and cast-member Marcel St. Pierre has restored, resequenced and rereleased 12 of the best of those original sketches a new Shortweird Radio collection entitled "LESS IS MORE".

"Less tracks equals more," says producer and frontman Marcel St. Pierre. "This album features 12 of the best tracks from the original album. The original album was 26 tracks, and wasn't really meant to be a wide release. It was put together more as a proof of concept, something I was using to pitch us as a syndicated radio show, very much based on things like The National Lampoon Radio Hour and Royal Canadian Air Farce."

And they did generate quite a lot of interest, says St. Pierre. "I had meetings with The Second City and Air Farce and the CBC about how we could come together and make a go of this, but ultimately, it never quite came together. People went on to have great careers. But I think the material on this is fantastic, and for years only the cast and a few other people have had the chance to hear it. I want it out there for people to enjoy."

"There's so much interest right now in Canadian comedy albums," continues St. Pierre, who went on after the original Shortweird project to help found Toronto's Bad Dog Theatre Company. "A lot of great work is being recorded and released, and so much of it is so good. I think our material still stands after this many years, so the idea is to introduce a new generation to the original ensemble cast of Shortweird Radio."

St. Pierre hopes to release more of the group's back catalogue in another new release next year, with an eye towards new projects (with some old and new contributors) somewhere down the road.

"LESS IS MORE" will be available as digital downloads. It goes on iTunes presale on May 14th, and available internationally everywhere else(iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Amazon, Deezer, Tidal, and many more) on the official launch date of June 14th.