GREG MORTON

(Screening of Night of the Living Dead in Dundas SQ.)

I love zombies.

I mean, I hate zombies!

And yet, I’m drawn to them.  I guess I love to hate zombies.

If you moan around me like a zombie, it irritates me.  Please,  don’t do that!

That’s why, this past Saturday, Sept. 12th, I had to attend the  7th annual Toronto Zombie Walk.

Highlights included a zombie walk through downtown Toronto, a screening of the 1968 zombie hit, Night of the Living Dead, and the presentation of an honorary Canadian citizenship to director George A. Romero.

There were several people dressed as zombies.  One woman was dressed as Uma Thurman from Kill Bill Volume 1 ??? WTF?  What does Kill Bill have to do with zombies?  Can someone explain this to me?

Next time you watch Night of the Living Dead, listen to the music score.  Doesn’t it sound a lot like the theatrical score of the Werewolf movie in the music video, Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

URRRRRRRRRRGH!

Top 5 favorite Zombie Movies!

1) Night of the Living Dead (My first. I Saw this with my Dad at a late night screening in my hometown)

2) Dawn of the Dead (I love both the original and the remake shot in Toronto)

3) Shaun of the Dead (Hilarious!  Although I would never throw my records at zombies.)

4) Return of the Living Dead (Brrrrrrrrraaaaaaaains!  Hilarious!)

5) Resident Evil (Sorry Roger Ebert, but I love this Trilogy)  (The second one was shot in Toronto!)

Top 5 Zombie Video Games!

1) Resident Evil (All Games on Multiple Platforms)

2) Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360)

3) The House of the Dead OVERKILL (Wii)

4)  House of the Dead 2 / Typing of the Dead (Sega Dreamcast)

5)Dead Rising (XBOX 360)

They say you can never go home but on March 7th of this year, I returned to my hometown of Woodstock, Ontario to perform at a special fundraiser for the Woodstock Big Sisters and College Avenue Secondary School.

I will always remember the great teachers and staff at my former high school. (C.A.S.S.) Some of whom were a great inspiration to me.

I would like to extend a special thanks to my dear friend, Sandra Brown who made the whole thing possible.

In what seems like a previous life, Sandra and I first met at one of my teen dances. I was a mobile disc jockey back in the 80’s. I called myself, Greg Morton, that crazy DJ, and I used to put on costumes. (Kind of like now.) Sandra and a mutual friend of ours, Jeff Patterson, won first prize in a dance contest!

Here’s a copy of the online article I found from the local paper…

COMEDY NIGHT 2009

Comedy night brings cause $19,000
Posted By Hugo Rodrigues, STAFF WRITER – Sentinel Review – March 9 2009
The March 7 Comedy Night in support of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Woodstock and District and the College Avenue gym floor raised almost $20,000.
Big Brothers Big Sisters board member, CASS grad and comedy night organizer Sandra Brown said the event held at the Oxford Auditorium and featuring Greg Morton and Deb DiGiovanni raised approximately $19,000. The amount will be evenly split between the service agency and the high school’s gym floor fundraising campaign.

“We had close to 1,000 people there, which is more than the 750 we had out the last time,” Brown said Thursday. “Having two groups behind it helped us a lot– it was a bigger volunteer base to draw from and use to spread the word.”

Brown said e-mail and social networks also played a huge part in promoting the event.

DiGiovanni opened the night with an approximately 40-minute set, touching on her Tillsonburg roots and her experiences living and working in Toronto.

Morton followed, opening his set asking who’d moved the Springbank Snow Countess. He performed for over an hour, peppering his routine with local references and memories of his days living in the FriendlyCity. He capped off the routine with a string of impersonations, including Mick Jagger, James Brown, Prince and Tina Turner

Special shout out to my favorite comedian, Debra DiGiovanni

If anyone has any special photos of the event or memories they’d like to share, please send them to me at mrmorton2u@aol.com.