Maximilian Paterson
<Arts & Culture Editor>
For those of you fortunate enough to score a ticket to Mock Trial (and the even more fortunate of you who scored a ticket to the proceeding pub night), you were treated to an entertaining romp of musical numbers, videos, comedy, dance, and mance. Taking its theme from Saturday Night Live, this year’s Mock Trial Live is one of the few Osgoode traditions that allow Ozzies to stop and reflect on the occasionally bizarre environment that is our law school.
As business manager Jon O’Kane informed me, Mock Trial 2013 found its beginnings as individually rehearsed acts that were eventually corralled into a larger production by the show’s producers, Spencer Bailey, Hilary Fender, and Quinn Harris. After adding a pinch of lighting and audio cues, a dash of video production, and gluing the whole thing together with a show-stopping house band, the result was a 29 scene four-hour theatrical bonanza.
The only issue with assembling a show of this length and magnitude is trying to determine how the crowd will react to what is happening on stage. In the case of Mock Trial Live, the audience on Thursday night consisted of a theatre full of law students who spent the majority of their time before the show and at the intermission in the JCR. Often with a crowd this bevvied, rowdiness can ensue, and it did. However, besides the catcalls from the pickled crowd, and the terrible flatulence from the girl in front of me, the majority of the evening’s amusement emanated from the stage.
It would be excessive for me to go through each of the 29 scenes and applaud or critique each moment of Mock Trial Live, however it would be irresponsible of me not to touch upon some of the highlights that caught my attention and had the whole crowd roaring.
Mock Trial Live kicked off with a Jimmy Kimmel-esque video of “The Handsome Professors Club” featuring several ‘handsome’ professors such as Prof. Trevor Farrow, Prof. Benjamin Berger, and Prof. Allan Hutchinson to name a few. This video was a great opener for the 15 other scenes that made up Act 1. Highlights of Act 1 include the wonderfully deadpan pantsless delivery of “MidWeek Update”, the funny-but-true skit depicting “The Serious Law Students Association”, and the outstandingly gut wrenching “Bad Idea Bears” skit. In fact, Stephen Partridge’s performance as the easily misguided student in the “Bad Idea Bears” skit appealed to the inner procrastinator in all of us, reminding us to study where there is no Internet; lock the liquor cabinet a month before exams; and to always use a condom if you must commit section-incest.
Act 2 brought about more comedy skits, digital shorts, and rousing song and dance numbers. One of the most ambitious skits focused on the invasion of Osgoode students to the U of T law library. Spencer Bailey brought the wonderful writing of this scene to life through a great Woody Allen impersonation, and the crowd erupted when Bailey perfectly timed his climactic realization that he had been “living a lie, in a library”. Despite these fantastic Mock Trial moments, the crowd seemed to get restless around the time the graphic “Sex Contract” skit warped unexpectedly into “The Devil Went Down to Osgoode”. It was clear that around this time the gin-soaked crowd were starting to cheer more for the possibility of pub night rather than more Mock Trial skits. When one extremely rude and obnoxious audience member loudly told a student at “Career Disservices” to fellate his penis, it was clear that things should wrap up soon.
Other than the terrible outburst, the crowd was generally very enthusiastic about the entire production. Often many skits would open with encouraging shouts of support from the audience for specific actors on stage, however the most well-humoured audience member was easily the man in the front row, Dean Sossin. The Dean was one of the main targets of satirical mimicry in several scenes, however Dean Sossin seemed to be genuinely tickled by his likenesses and chuckled to himself as he calmly sipped on a can of ginger ale.
Last but not least, the Mance happened. Truth be told, I had never heard, nor been warned of the Mance before attending Mock Trial Live. Apparently the Mance finds its roots deep in the annals of Osgoode history, when a group of men decided to turn the tables and perform a scantily clad routine that had been critically objected to when done by women who had also been sparingly dressed. To put it directly, the Mance is a raw writhing of library dwelling bodies expressing their inner most masculinity through tightly choreographed sequences of bravado. It is an expression of bare-chested macho decorum steeped in testosterone. It was oddly graceful, in a SportsCenter highlights sort of way.
The most consistent source of entertainment throughout Mock Trial Live, was the live band. The Mock Trial Band could best be described as a group of extremely talented musicians who happened to know a few things about the law. Every member brought something to the table, and the biggest feat the group accomplished was to successfully showcase both their diversity and stamina throughout the evening. Between each act the band held the audience’s wavering attention with renditions of classic rock tunes, pop hits, Motown jams, and rap instrumentals. In my opinion, any band that can easily pull off Chicago’s “25 or 6 to 4”, then transition into Sisqo’s “Thong Song”, and then jump into the theme from Ducktales should quit this whole law thing and focus on ticket sales rather than hourly billing. A particular note should be made about Michael Sheps’ lead guitar magnificence. Sheps’ face-melting solos shone through on several songs, allowing members of the audience who had skipped dinner to feast on his tasty licks. In addition, an honorable mention must be given to Kalen Lumsden who blew his sax with great gusto as a backing track to the pub night themed parody of Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop”.
It is safe to say that the target audience for Mock Trial Live was the people that are within the Osgoode community, and if the ‘ordinary person’ was to stumble upon this production they would have a very skewed perception of what we do in law school. Based on the ideals presented in Mock Trial Live, the gist of life at Osgoode is that we study hard, enjoy a drink from time to time, follow our Dean/professors religiously on Twitter, and have an odd fascination with utensils. Overall I’d say that’s not too far off.
Photos by Ron Montes.