I get asked this a lot, well lately I do.

Why make a whole one-man sketch-show about horses?

What’s your favourite horse?

Are you okay?

It’s a silly indirect answer. I think people are looking for me to have some long-standing horse obsession. Or maybe people think my dad was a horse farmer and I lost him in a horse stampede. And that my uncle Scar took over the pride and that I had an adventure with a warthog and a meerkat.

But no, I just thought it would be fun. I didn’t grow up around horses. I did grow up in a rural setting, near horses. And my dad was sort of a farmer but, he just grew weed.

After my last show “The Midshipman’s Handbook: Just a man Doing sea-captain impersonations for 40 minutes”

I wanted to find my next source of inspiration to whittle together some sketches. I figured modes of transportation was a good start.

I thought about trains. As I always do. As everyone does. But I don’t want to be a train guy. Horse Guy though, yeah that’s cool. Right?

Answer me!

We built a whole society. Together. Us and the horses. But as soon as we could invent something to replace them, we did. I didn’t know it when I came up with the idea. But that’s basically what we do with all labour. Exploit it. We try to replace it in the name of efficiency. But is it efficient if we are all still poor? If people go hungry? If it cuts jobs and purpose.

I digress. He pointed out trying to sound smart.

The name “Men Love Horsies” just kinda popped in my head. Whimsical and to the point and it stuck, rattling around for awhile. Then my friend/writing partner’s (who I did the hit Fringe show with “Nook & Cranny Twin Detectives”) Justin Shaw’s wife Diana said “The Musical?” And I was like? What?… Ugh yeah. That’s now the name. So it became a musical. I of course know little of musicals.

So, as I do with most of my projects, I just rolled with it. Working backwards.

I had already started work on a song at that point. Just a melodic piano riff with a nice little beat. I started fumbling around with words and something about horses came out. Over the next two months I wrote the lyrics. (Yeah! two months!) Looking up different horse facts that I could rhyme with. And with that, the show began.

So I did more horse research.

I started at the library. Just looking for some fun horse related books. And I found this one.

It’s about this woman who rode a horse across America. It was fun. Slow at times. But such an enjoyable tale of determination. And also someone with a silly old timey idea.

There are two things I can point to in my life that make me think about horses with fondness.

The first is, I rode a horse a few times when I was a child. My parents’ friends’ had some horses and we got to ride them, I remember being scared. But also, It was kind of like the first time I got to drive a thing. And that thing was living. Me and this horse working together to not kill me. What a rush.

The other big thing that made me think about and appreciate horses so fondly was… well this is kind of stupid. But it was a two part episode of the Nature of Things with David Suzuki, all about horses. I love the Nature of Things and David Suzuki. And this show really put in perspective how we as humans would be nothing without horses.

With all these jumbled up thoughts in my noggin. I began to sketch out ideas. What would make me laugh and what would work together. And so, the show was born.

So to answer your questions:

Why make a whole one man show about horses?

Because I can.

What’s your favourite horse?

Clydesdale.

Are you okay?

Sometimes.

Please come check out the show!

Grab your tickets!

See you there! or else.

If you got this e-mail and you are like “How the hell did he get my e-mail?” It’s because you were kind enough to attend Nook And Cranny": Twin Detectives or maybe you saw my first solo-sketch show, The Midshipman’s Handbook or you downloaded something from my Bandcamp.

Unsubscribe at anytime. I’ll only be hurt emotionally.

I won’t spam you. I only intend to shoot out e-mails very rarely.

Thanks.

Love, Devin