At the top of things that aren't funny in the world is the way that half the planet suffers while others stuff their faces at all-you-can-swine buffets, ruin the planet with gas-guzzling mopeds, and take 45-minute showers while singing along to "Paradise to the Dashboard Light", "Bohemian Rhapsody", and CHOAD's quite frankly disturbing "Peter North Is My Friend". 

While we can't really do anything about all of that until The Purge becomes a reality TV show instead of a Hollywood movie franchise, sometimes it's possible to make things better on a small scale

Enter LOL-apalooza this Saturday (February 23) at the Fox Cabaret. Mixing local top-drawer standups Yumi Nagashima and Steev Letts with a musical set by local legends Fake Shark, the event is a fundraiser for WE Villages, which is working to set up a clean-water delivery system for the Ecuadorian village of Kanambu.

The program is one of the many under the umbrella of the highly regarded, Toronto-spawned international children's-aid charity WE. You might know the organization for its high-profile WE Day events across Canada.

While we're talking behind-the-scenes fine print, overseeing LOL-apalooza is an organization called International Conference Services (ICS), which has committed to raising $50,000 for the clean water project. The company will match that $50,000, with all money used to train locals in Ecuador on how to use the system after it's been set up. 

Back to LOL-apalooza. In addition to making the finals in the 2016 and 2017 editions of the Yuk Off comedy competition, Nagashima has toured the world, as well as finding work in film (Dark Harvest) and on TV (The Man in the High Castle). She's also the proud birth-mother of a new 604 Records album titled My Name is Yumi. Expect her set's targets to include everything from sushi and sex to the disturbing number of creepy white men one finds on the streets of Vancouver.

Taking home top honours in Vancouver's 2018's Yuk Off,  Letts has demonstrated an ongoing complete and utter lack of respect for all things sacred during the course of his career. Need proof? Considering the following admission from his Twitter bio: "I like a little too much milk in my kraft dinner." Seriously man, like Jesus Christ man, everyone knows you go all-in with the butter and cheese powder, and then round things off with no more than a tablespoon of 2%. By the end of Letts's set, you'll never look at snow the same way.

Former Georgia Straight cover boys Fake Shark have built a reputation as one of Vancouver's most consistently interesting--and occasionally out-of-control--bands. Starting out as noise-punk agitators, the group's morphed into a group as comfortable with panty-removing soul as it is broken-glass pop. In addition to supporting its latest album Walking Through a Fantasy, Fake Shark has also been working on a quite frankly perverse cover of "Peter North Is My Friend". 

For tickets to LOL-apalooza, go here. And remember, if you're interested in making the world better, you can also make a donation here to WE Villages, with all amounts over $10 getting a tax-deductible receipt.