P.E.I. theatres welcome strippers; The Comic Strippers, that is

Some people have perfectly chiseled bodies, toned and tanned and ready to show off. Other people, well, not so much.

Now, there's even a new distinction out there: the comedy body.

That's the way a group coming to P.E.I. describe their bodies, veteran comedians who make up the cast of The ComicStrippers.

It's a show that promises lots of laughs, no shirts and a night of improv based around the idea of male strippers.

Canadian stand-up comedian Roman Danylo, from shows such as The Debaters and Comedy Inc., came up with the idea, and explained how to CBC Mainstreet's Angela Walker.

"I was actually sitting in the bath one day, and my wife had come home from seeing a real male stripper show, and she was saying, 'Hey it was packed in there, and everybody was going crazy.' And I said, 'Well we have torsos, we can do that.' It struck me that was a very specific genre of entertainment that nobody's really parodied in a full-length form," he said.

Good for parody

Improv shows are always looking for good themes to parody, and this has explodedwith big crowds wherever they play, and now a national tour,saidDanylo.

"The concept is we play fictitious male stripper characters that have perhaps been stripping for far too long, and now are trying a different form of entertainment to get more respect in their lives," he said.

Unfortunately, they don't quite have all the qualities that command respect in the stripping world.

It's not going to have the same effect as those real male stripper shows like his wife saw.

"Don't worry, you're not going to see any horrible thongs or anything like that," Danylo advised. "Guys should definitely feel welcome to come to our show because, let's face it, our comedy bodies are going to make them look good. We're definitely not intimidating to other gentlemen."

There will be dancing

But, they do try, and have even practised some moves.

"We're all attempting to dance. We're untrained in that regard, so it's very difficult for us," said Danylo. "We've choreographed some things. We do some physical bits that I can only describe to my chiropractor as untrained circus acts. It's the most physically demanding show that we've ever done, and all of us are in our mid-40s and later."

They think they are the superstars of sexiness, he said, but ... they're not.

You can judge for yourself at two shows in P.E.I. featuring The Comic Strippers: Friday, Oct. 21 at the Harbourfront Theatre in Summerside, and the following Saturday at the Confederation Centre for the Arts.

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