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34 - The Oakville Beaver, Friday September 14, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com Artscene Oakville Beaver · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 34 This Hour has Oakville's Geri Hall By Krissie Rutherford OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Geri Hall has been in an elevator with Richard Gere. She's nominated for a Gemini Award. She has been on Canadian TV shows including The Mercer Report and Little Mosque on the Prairie. Now, the Oakville native is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, shooting 10 episodes of the Canadian news parody and sketch comedy show, This Hour Has 22 Minutes. "It's definitely very exciting," the 35year-old Hall told The Oakville Beaver, days before leaving for Halifax. "I think that's what makes people deal with the rejection in this business so well. When you get work, it's so lovely to be able to do this for a living." Season 15 of This Hour airs Tuesday, Oct. 2 on CBC, with Hall anchoring the news desk along with regulars Gavin Crawford, Cathy Jones and Mark Critch. The White Oaks grad is replacing Shaun Majumder, who for the first half of the season is tied up "They do advertising parodies, which I'm very excited about because I've done a lot of commercials and I've got a few I want to take a stab at." Actress Geri Hall with another acting endeavour. Hall is no stranger to This Hour, having appeared in five episodes over the last three seasons. "They do advertising parodies, which I'm very excited about because I've done a lot of commercials and I've got a few I want to take a stab at," she said. Her success as an actor began 10 years ago, when the self-professed "chicken" decided to sign up for acting classes at Second City, an improv and sketch comedy house. "I knew since I was 10 that I wanted to act. I watched The Carol Burnett Show and said, this is my life," said Hall, who has an equally distinctive voice. "My husband and I got married, and right after we got back from our honeymoon, I said, if I don't do what I've always wanted to do, I'll never know what would have happened. This is it, I'll give it a shot." A waitress at the time, Hall landed a spot with Second City's Traveling Company. That got the ball rolling ­ slowly. "It took two and a half years of auditioning to get my first commercial," she said. "But the longer you stick with it, the more auditions you go to. Slowly, you learn the tricks of the trade." Hall likens the process of getting work as an actor to "a painfully slow snowball in summer rolling down a hill" ­ it takes a while. But it does eventually happen. "People think this can only happen for actors in Hollywood, that it doesn't happen in Canada, but it does. "You just have to fight like a jungle cat to get it," said Hall, smiling. A familiar face from various com LIESA KORTMANN / OAKVILLE BEAVER See Hall page 35 BUSY ACTRESS: Actress Geri hall relaxes at a local coffee shop before heading out to Halifax to shoot 10 episodes of CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Celebrate with Friends for an Unforgettable Evening! Commitee Members: Kathy Mueller, Chair Barb Armstrong Marie Cumming Carol Fahey Nadine Hughes Joan Manwaring Aleta Mayer Sandra McAughey Ellen Pearce Lynn Pike Chantal Potvin Frank Rea Diane Rosart Shannon Smith Don Stewart The Oakville Hospital Foundation invites you to... THE 16TH ANNUAL OTMH CANDLELIGHT BALL co-presented by & SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD, 2007 at the Burlington Convention Centre 1120 Burloak Drive 6:30 p.m. To order your ticket today contact Aleta Mayer at 905-845-2571 ext. 4351 Each ticket includes... Table of 10 with Corporate Recognition...$5,000 Table of 10...$4,000 Individual Tickets...$400 Payments accepted by cash, cheque, MasterCard, VISA & AMEX All proceeds direct towards equipment for Oakville - Trafalgar Memorial Hospital Tickets Now Available Online: www.otmhcandlelightball.com COCKTAIL RECEPTION 7:30 p.m. Auctioneer: Don Stewart, Sr. Development Officer, Appleby College GOURMET DINNER Black Tie R.S.V.P. before October 26, 2007 special features for the evening Heads or Tails Auctions Dance Performance Dancing to the Manhattan Band