<\/p>\n \n Sam Adams <\/a><\/p>\n In Nirvanna the Band the Show, the name for The Movie\u2019s predecessors, Johnson and McCarrol play Matt and Jay, respectively, two struggling musicians with their hearts set on booking a gig at Toronto\u2019s Rivoli, a small rock club located, like many of the movie\u2019s settings, within a 10-minute walk from the premiere. (They bear, of course, no relation to the grunge-rock trio from the Pacific Northwest, whose existence they seem unaware of.) It\u2019s been nearly two decades since they first appeared on the internet, but that goal hasn\u2019t changed, nor has their proximity to achieving it. Matt, the fedora-sporting schemer of the pair, hatches a new plan that involves climbing to the top of the CN Tower and skydiving into the SkyDome, landing on home plate and announcing to the crowd that they are playing at the Rivoli that night, thus forcing the venue to finally put them on the bill. (It\u2019s an unspoken running gag that it never seems to occur to them to simply call and ask, or even practice playing so much as a single song.)<\/p>\n They appear, through a combination of apparently-for-real public stunts and (presumably) clever editing, to pull off at least the first part of their convoluted plan. But it doesn\u2019t work, and for the first time, Matt and Jay are facing a genuine rift in their friendship: Nirvanna the band the breakup. That leads, in turn, through a series of events too ridiculous to relate here, to a Back to the Future\u2013inspired caper that finds them coming face-to-face with their younger, more hopeful selves, then having to undo a rift in the timeline that somehow makes matters even worse.<\/p>\n Think Borat<\/a> meets Flight of the Conchords<\/a> and you won\u2019t be far wrong, but there is something particularly, well, Canadian about the whole thing. Perhaps it\u2019s the modesty of Matt and Jay\u2019s dreams\u2014it comes as no surprise that the Rivoli\u2019s capacity is a mere 200 people, or that when a frustrated Jay decides to go out on his own, the most ambitious solo debut he can think of is playing an open mic night in Ottawa. (When the bar tells him over the phone that all he has to do is be there before 8\u00a0p.m., he excitedly replies, \u201cSo would you say I booked a show?\u201d) Or maybe it\u2019s the politeness: Even when they\u2019re making a mad dash through a crowd to do their own small-scale version of saving the world, the pair keep yelling out \u201cSorry!\u201d<\/p>\n Jeopardy!\u2019s Most Infamous Moment Haunted the Show\u2019s Fans, Its Stars, and Even Alex Trebek. It\u2019s Clear Why Now. HBO\u2019s Next Big Sunday Night Show Is Here. It\u2019s Going to Make a New Star. A Raucous New Sport Has Become Strangely Popular. A Group of Thirsty Women Is to Blame. After One of the Greatest Humiliations in Tennis History, I Watched a Miracle Unfold Inside the U.S. Open As proudly provincial as Nirvanna the Movie is\u2014there\u2019s a blink-and-you\u2019ll-miss-it sight gag about the disgraced CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi<\/a>\u2014I think it\u2019ll play like gangbusters south of the 49th parallel. (Several people told me it killed in Austin.) You don\u2019t need to be familiar with the intersection of Queen and Spadina to crack up at the idea of two middle-aged men talking as if making it there is the equivalent of summiting Everest. (It helps that Spadina, which rhymes with a part of the body, is an objectively excellent comedy word.) And you also don\u2019t have to have familiarized yourself with the duo\u2019s previous work, some of which is, and will likely remain, legally unavailable. By way of explaining why the web series is offline, McCarrol recalled, \u201cWe paid absolutely no attention to copyright law\u2014there are Beatles songs in there!\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ef5a7d37-5b37-4dda-8130-dfd19df8a567.jpeg\")
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\n There\u2019s a Problem With the New Follow-Up to The Office. It Has to Do With How Everyone Looks.
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