“A ‘Broad’ View,” an evening with Dini Petty, is scheduled for this Friday (Jan. 26) at the Townshend Theatre here and the Canadian TV personality said in an interview yesterday that she’s looking forward coming back to Fort Frances.
“[The tour has] been going well,” said Petty, who is on the road doing a five-show tour of the region. “It’s well-received. People seem to thoroughly enjoy the show.”
While area residents probably recognize Petty from City TV, City Pulse, and her CTV talk show “Dini,” they may not know what to expect from the evening.
Petty described her show as “truth mixed with humour.”
“Which is different than saying I’m a stand-up comic,” she quipped. “There are moments when people laugh, moments that will touch your heart, moments that might bring a tear to your eye, and moments when the audience collectively gasps.”
Petty said she’ll be sharing stories from her professional life. For instance, she’s logged more than 5,000 hours as a helicopter pilot, and was the first woman pilot in aviation history to fly and broadcast from a helicopter.
“[The helicopter] was pink,” she recalled. “Screaming, Pepto-Bismol pink.”
Petty added the problem is trying to figure out which of the million stories she has to tell—from the helicopter, from City TV, from the national talk show, from Third World Aid.
“So, I’ve woven together a collection of stories, of monologues,” she remarked.
Petty said her show is appropriate for everyone, and that she’s spoken before people of all ages. Families are welcome.
She’s been to Fort Frances before and looks forward to coming back here.
“I’ve promised myself, and it’s a promise I intend to keep this summer, that I’m going back to Rainy Lake this summer,” she said.
“I’m travelling with [local resident and two-time federal NDP candidate] John Rafferty, and I’ve heard more about Northern Ontario, what it should be and how it should be—I’d vote for this guy and I’m not an NDP’er,” she laughed.
“But I’m coming back to Rainy Lake. Get me a houseboat and set me free.”
The Fort Frances Museum is hosting this show as a fundraiser in partnership with “tour de Fort.”
Programming director Kim Cornell said yesterday that he had the chance to see Petty last year during a talent showcase in Toronto, where groups like “tour de Fort” go to sign acts for the year ahead, and he was bowled over by her compelling storytelling.
“Everybody from the northwest that saw her wanted that show after seeing her,” enthused Cornell. “She was really good. I’d describe her as really engaging.
“I like to tell people she’s like Stuart McLean, but she tells the truth,” he added. “She’s engaging, but she’s telling her life story. She just captures you.”
At that same showcase, noted Cornell, one of the bigger agents in Canada had Petty sign a contract immediately after she got off the stage.
“He could see she was the show he needed,” Cornell remarked. “When one of the bigger agents in Canada grabs her that fast, that’s saying something. He was like me: awestruck.”
In fact, Cornell said he felt Petty was so good that he’d considered booking her as part of the “tour de Fort” season. But since she wasn’t a musical act, he decided instead to book her as a special concert.
For the past few years, “tour de Fort” has brought in the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra to perform a fundraiser concert for a local non-profit group.
But for a change this year, Cornell decided to book Petty instead, with the Fort Frances Museum renovation campaign as the chosen cause (a portion of the proceeds from Friday night’s show will go towards the museum renovation project).
Tickets cost $20, and are available at the museum, Betty’s, the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce, and Fine Line Art Gallery.
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and runs for about 90 minutes, with an intermission.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
