...with Acting, Gaming and Creativity (Ep. 92)

What on Earth is Going on?

Aurora Browne is one of Canada's national treasures. Best known as one of the cast members of the Baroness von Sketch Show and as co-host of the Great Canadian Baking Show, Aurora has been creating daring, funny and original work for theatre, television and film for many years.

Ben catches up with Aurora in Toronto to discuss her career as an actor and comedian, as well as her fascinating with the oceans, video games, clowning, and Dungeons & Dragons. Don't miss this wide-ranging conversation!

About the Guest

Aurora Browne is proud to be one of the co-creators, writers, executive producers and stars of CBC’s sketch comedy series, Baroness von Sketch Show. Browne graduated from York University's theatre program with a BFA in Acting, and has been honing her sketch chops since 2000 when she was hired by Toronto’s Second City Troupe. Since then she has appeared on Comedy Inc, The Gavin Crawford Show, Comedy Now, The Ron James Show, InSecurity, Corner Gas and many others. She recently co-created and starred in Newborn Moms, a web series about new motherhood on ABC Digital. She is also currently in development for season 2 of The Writer’s Block with Frantic Films.

Browne has been nominated for numerous Canadian Comedy Awards for her work in Toronto’s red hot live sketch and improv scene, and in 2008 won the CCA for Best Female Improviser. She was also a nominee for the Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award. Her son thinks she is hilarious.

Learn more about Aurora or follow her on Twitter (@aurorabrowne).

Mentioned in this Episode

• Dungeons & Dragons, a tabletop roleplaying game that was first created in the 1970s and is seeing a resurgence in popular culture as well as among casual gamers.
• The Manitoulin Conservatory for Creation and Performance, sometimes called the "clown farm", a performance training centre founded and run by John Turner (one half of the famous Canadian clown duo, Mump & Smoot).
• Newborn Moms, a CBC TV series.
• Succession, an HBO TV series.
• Chernobyl, an HBO miniseries.
• Zootopia, a 2016 animated film.
• Come on Eileen, a 1982 song by the Dexys Midnight Runners.
• The Long Dark, a survival video game developed by Hinterland Games in Vancouver.
• "How Sid Meier Almost Made Civilization a Real-Time Strategy Game", a YouTube video by Ars Technica featuring Sid Meier discussing his breakthrough original strategy game, Civilization.
• Starcraft, a real-time strategy game series.
• Fallout 3, a post-apocalyptic role-playing game.
• The Lord of the Rings, a classic three-part fantasy series by JRR Tolkien.
• They Shall Not Grow Old, a 2018 documentary about the First World War produced and directed by Peter Jackson, in which historical footage is drastically enhanced.
• Tolkien, a 2019 film about fantasy author JRR Tolkien.
• Sapiens and Homo Deus, two books by historian Yuval Noah Harari.

The Quote of the Week

Creativity is intelligence having fun.

- Albert Einstein