Music and a touch of laughter will take over Spirit Square when award-winning singer, songwriter, storyteller and actor Rick Scott performs on July 2.
Over his 35-year career, Scott has accumulated more than a thousand live shows in schools, festivals, and concert halls across Canada, the U.S., Australia and Southeast Asia.
Scott’s concerts typically combine his wacky sense of humour with a sharp human commentary. Adding elements of humour has always been important for the Juno winner.
“(Humour) is a way to make people feel relaxed,” he said. “When I perform, if I can get people to laugh at me first, then I can laugh at them, and then we can laugh at each other.”
In 2012, Scott released The Great Gazzoon, a 4 CD musical/audio novel that tells the story of one boy’s love of music and how it changes his community. His work on that album received numerous awards and accolades as one of the best children’s recordings of 2012.
It was originally supposed to be a children’s story but the idea for it to be an audio novel grew over time.
“As I wrote the story all this music started coming into my head and I started writing songs…that changed the course for us and we ended up with 25 singers, musicians and voice actors,” Scott said.
Lately, Scott has had a unique opportunity to work with the Vancouver Island Orchestra.
He performed alongside the orchestra playing his own music in an effort to introduce children to the orchestra while having them participate and learn about the ensemble’s different sections.
“There’s nothing like having your simple little tunes played by a 50-piece orchestra,” Scott said. “The first rehearsal I just about fell off the podium.”
The shows were such a success that the collaboration was recently extended for three more years.
Scott’s show will begin at 7 p.m. and he will be accompanied by local ensemble The Parson Jazz Cooperative.
