Great Outdoors Comedy Festival brings Tom Segura, Bill Burr and Nate Bargatze and friends to Assiniboine Park

Local standup enthusiasts will venture beyond the city’s basement rooms and dimly lit lounges into a verdant outdoor venue this weekend for the Winnipeg debut of a popular Canadian comedy festival.

The Great Outdoors Comedy Festival got its start in Edmonton in 2021 and has since attracted some of the biggest names in the business while expanding to eight North American cities — including a three-day stint at Assiniboine Park featuring headliners Tom Segura (Friday), Bill Burr (Saturday) and Nate Bargatze (Sunday).

Pre-pandemic, event founder Mike Anderson was in the midst of organizing an ill-fated outdoor comedy show at an Alberta amphitheatre.

“When the world had other plans for us, we sat down and re-invented the whole experience,” says the president of Trixstar Entertainment.

Reviews of this week’s album releases: Son of Dave, Megan Moroney, Miles Okazaki, Schubert

BLUES

Son of Dave

A Flat City (Goddamn Records)

If your musical taste is all-embracing, there’s definitely room in your broad church for the gritty, bluesy one-man-band grooves of Son of Dave, who’s best-known in these parts as Benjamin Darvill, the mandolinist, guitarist and harmonica-player with the Crash Test Dummies from the late 1980s through the band’s ’90s heyday.

What’s up: Alan Jackson Experience, Manitoba Night Market, Super-Spike, Garden and Art Tour, Monarch Butterfly Festival

The Alan Jackson Experience: Too Much of a Good ThingBurton Cummings TheatreSaturday, 7:30 p.m.Tickets $55 plus fees at TicketmasterAfter four decades and 35 No. 1 hits, Alan Jackson will hang up his trademark white Stetson next year following his farewell Last Call: One More for the Road tour.

Luckily, Aaron Halliday is here to fill that big hat.

Halliday, a Canadian country singer-songwriter who bears a striking resemblance to the American country icon, has been paying tribute to Jackson for 30 years. He brings his Alan Jackson Experience to the Burton Cummings Theatre this weekend, where country fans will be able to hear live Jackson hits such as Chattahoochee, Remember When and Too Much of a Good Thing.

— Jen Zoratti

Pharrell Williams, Bruce Springsteen among stars set to attend Toronto film festival

TORONTO - Movie stars Amy Adams, Cate Blanchett and Will Ferrell, as well as music superstars Pharrell Williams, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John are among the celebrities expected to walk the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival, a year after Hollywood strikes muted last year's event.

Festival organizers promised star power at this September's edition while outlining program additions that include the world premieres of Angelina Jolie's war drama "Without Blood," Ron Howard's survival thriller "Eden" and Gia Coppola's Pamela Anderson-fronted drama "The Last Showgirl."

Springsteen will be in town for the international debut of Thom Zimny's "Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band," chronicling the behind-the-scenes preparation for the singer-songwriter's latest tour, while the international premiere of Morgan Neville's biopic "Piece by Piece," tells Williams' life story through Lego animation.

John is expected to support the previously announced film "Elton John: Never Too Late," which promises to "pull back the curtain" on the superstar's life.

‘Back to Saskatch’: Taylor Swift fans woo pop star to come back to province

REGINA - Megan Weiland has made a friendship bracelet for every Taylor Swift album.

The Regina woman has also crafted one in Saskatchewan Roughriders green and white -- an homage to the mega-pop star's football-playing boyfriend Travis Kelce. There is also one in pink and green to give the effect of watermelon, something Rider fans are known to wear on their heads at games.

Weiland's bracelets, and hundreds more, have been strung together around a spool, reaching 100 metres in length -- or about the size of a football field.

It's like a long love letter: Please, Taylor, you belong with us.

Rapper Sean Kingston and his mother indicted on federal charges in $1M fraud scheme

MIAMI (AP) — Rapper and singer Sean Kingston and his mother have been indicted in South Florida on federal charges of committing more than $1 million worth of fraud. Kingston, 34, and his mother, 61-year-old Janice Turner, made their first appearances Friday in federal court, according to court records. A Miami grand jury returned an indictment earlier this month accusing Kingston and his mother of participating in a scheme to defraud victims of high-end specialty vehicles, jewelry and other goods through the use of fraudulent documents. Kingston was booked into the Broward County jail on similar state charges last month […]

New judge sets ground rules for long-running gang and racketeering case against rapper Young Thug

ATLANTA (AP) — The new judge presiding over the racketeering and gang prosecution of rapper Young Thug and several other defendants said Friday she plans to move forward expeditiously with the trial, which has already dragged on for more than a year. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker held a hearing with prosecutors and defense attorneys to understand any pending issues she needed to address and lay down some ground rules. Whitaker received the case after the first judge overseeing it, Chief Judge Ural Glanville, was removed. Two defendants had sought his recusal, citing a meeting the judge […]

Weird Al on new music, Sabrina Carpenter, a decade of ‘Mandatory Fun’ and 40 years of ‘Eat It’

Ten years ago, “Weird Al” Yankovic made history, as he is wont to do. “Mandatory Fun,” his 14th and final studio album, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It was not only unprecedented for Yankovic, but unprecedented for his genre as a whole: Never before had a comedy album debuted at the top spot. “I know it feels ironic to decide to stop making albums after having had a number one album,” Yankovic told The Associated Press over Zoom. “But I just like the freedom of being able to really use whatever I want, whenever I want, and […]

What to stream this weekend: Childish Gambino, ‘Love Lies Bleeding,’ ‘Cobra Kai’ and ‘Skywalkers’

Natalie Portman starring in her first TV series in “Lady in the Lake” for Apple TV+ and Roland Emmerich’s gladiator series “Those About to Die” are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Kerry Washington’s comedy “UnPrisoned” returns for a second season, Daisy Ridley stars as the trailblazing deep sea swimmer Trudy Ederle in ”Young Woman and the Sea” and Donald Glover releases his last album under his Childish Gambino moniker.

NEW MOVIES TO STREAM

— If you loved the adrenaline rush of watching Alex Honnold scale El Capitan in “Free Solo,” Netflix has a treat for you. This time the heights are manmade but no less harrowing. In “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” filmmaker Jeff Zimbalist takes viewers into the dangerous world of rooftoppers – the daredevils who scale the world’s tallest buildings. The subjects in “Skywalkers,” streaming on Netflix starting Friday, are Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus who are not only talented rooftoppers but also in a relationship (hence the “love story” in the title) with own ups and downs. Part heist movie, part dazzling spectacle thanks to incredible Go-Pro footage, part relationship drama, it is a no-brainer of a click.

Music Review: Jimin’s ‘Muse’ is charming, not necessarily innovative

Flying solo from the nest of a mega successful band is difficult, but BTS member Jimin did it with last year’s “FACE,” his first studio album under his own name. Finding that magic with a sophomore outing is always a much harder proposition. And doing so while serving South Korea’s mandatory military service for men of a certain age? That’s nigh impossible. While most likely recorded and produced before Jimin’s December 2023 enlistment, the K-pop superstar’s second album, titled “MUSE,” feels a bit subdued and almost melancholy in its beats. It’s not a record in search of an audience — […]

Jade Eagleson, MacKenzie Porter, the Reklaws among leading CCMA nominees

Jade Eagleson and MacKenzie Porter are the leading nominees at this year’s Canadian Country Music Association Awards. The singer-songwriters each received six CCMA nods, including for entertainer of the year and album of the year.

Open-ended Toronto production of ‘The Lion King’ gets its cast

TORONTO – Mirvish Productions has crowned its Lion King(s). The Toronto-based theatre company announced the cast for its sit-down production of “The Lion King” on Thursday morning. South African actor Aphiwe Nyezi will portray adult Simba, while three young Canadian actors will share the role of Simba as a lion cub: Lucien Duncan-Reid, Ira Nabong and Oliver Woon. Aphiwe Nyezi poses in this undated handout photo. The Toronto-based theatre company announced the cast for its sit-down production of "The Lion King" on Thursday morning. South African actor Aphiwe Nyezi will portray adult Simba. Salvatore Antonio, who was nominated for a […]

American who made social media threats against Taylor Swift detained ahead of German concert

BERLIN (AP) — An American man who made threats against Taylor Swift on social media was detained ahead of her first concert in the German city of Gelsenkirchen and will be kept in custody until her shows there are over, police said Thursday. The suspected stalker, a 34-year-old whose name wasn’t released, had a ticket to Swift’s concert at Gelsenkirchen’s Veltins-Arena on Wednesday, police said in a statement. They said that, because an initial investigation couldn’t entirely rule out a risk, he was detained during entry checks to the event. Police said the man had made threats against Swift and […]

Selena Gomez gets her due, Netflix and FX top HBO and 2 Queen Elizabeths get nominated for Emmys

With less overall entries due to the shortened TV season, this year’s Emmy nominations probably won’t spark any protest campaigns. The folks at FX should be popping bottles though for a stand-out year, with 93 nominations — including 25 nods for “Shogun” and 23 for “The Bear.” The nominations bring overdue acknowledgement for critical favorites like FX’s “Reservation Dogs” and “What We Do in the Shadows” and fresh competition, including “Shogun” actors Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada. Lily Gladstone and Kali Reis became the first female Indigenous actors to be nominated for Emmys — Gladstone for “Under the Bridge” and […]