Posted on April 2, 2012
By Albert Smith
Comedy, Front Slider
There aren’t a lot of stand-up comedians who can play the hockey arenas. Russell Peters has to be doing something right. Performing June 21 at Rexall Place as part of the Notorious World Tour – tickets going on sale April 14 – the Indo-Canadian comic is known the world over for his good-natured “racial” humour. […]
Posted on March 23, 2012
By Mike Ross
Comedy, Front Slider, Theatre
What do you say if you’re such a convincing drag queen that a guy asks for your number? “911.” What do you call a drag queen’s girlfriend? A fruit fly. What do you call a group of drag queens? An embarrassment of bitches. Darrin Hagen has a million of them. Edmonton’s Transvestite Laureate and founder […]
Posted on March 19, 2012
By Albert Smith
Comedy, Front Slider
New rule: If you’re going to be a “political” comedian, you’d better be funny. If not, run for office – or get a job on Fox News. That’s not one of Bill Maher’s official “New Rules,” the title of two of his best-selling books, but maybe it ought to be. Fans of the acerbic liberal […]
Posted on March 13, 2012
By Albert Smith
Comedy, The Latest, TV and Radio
Before Brent Butt went on to star in the modern version of The Beachcombers, he was a happening stand-up comic – and like most happening stand-up comics who make it big, he always seems to come back to his roots. The star of Corner Gas and CTV’s Hiccups will hit this road this spring for […]
Posted on March 9, 2012
By Albert Smith
Comedy, The Latest
For all this talk about stand-up comedy being such a male-dominated art form, there sure are a lot of powerful female comics – many from a time when women weren’t even allowed to vote. Not really. But Lily Tomlin can use that line in her act if she wants, and she’s probably got better old […]
Posted on March 6, 2012
By Mike Ross
Comedy, Front Slider
For all the complaining that stand-up comics do about being stand-up comics, it can be a road to the big-time. Just ask the Wayans Brothers – this amazing show-biz family from Brooklyn that used comedy to escape poverty. Scary Movie, Scary Movie 2, White Chicks and the TV series In Living Color are just some […]
Posted on February 29, 2012
By Mike Ross
Comedy, The Latest
Here’s a question: Is Nikki Payne’s obvious speech impediment in any way funny on its own? Depends who you ask. All should agree that no professional comedian could reach her level with just one lisp joke. The Nova Scotia comic has been on TV, radio, moved beyond the comedy clubs into the theatre circuit – […]
Posted on February 28, 2012
By Mike Ross
Comedy, Front Slider, Theatre, TV and Radio
Everyone’s a comedian – that’s one cliche come true in the age of the internet. What will NEVER become a famous saying, according to Canadian comic actor Kevin McDonald, is this: “Everyone’s a GOOD comedian.” But he’s here to help. The Kids in the Hall member perhaps best known as the “Slipped My Mind” Guy […]
Posted on February 13, 2012
By Mike Ross
Comedy, The Latest
“Insult” comedy is nothing new. What’s new is the trend of celebrity roasting where big and not-so-big stars alike fall all over themselves for the privilege of being the victim of one hilarious insult after another at the hands of people like Jeff Ross – the “Roastmaster General of the United States.” Well, of the […]
Posted on December 23, 2011
By Mike Ross
Comedy, Culture, The Latest
In almost a year of deep explorations of stand-up comedians and their comedy, two themes emerge: 1. Geez, what a dirty job. 2. But somebody’s got to do it. Yes, somebody has to tell the truth out there. We get lied to on a daily basis by the government, by corporations, by the media, by […]
Posted on September 14, 2011
By Mike Ross
Comedy, Culture, The Latest
It’s not often we interview comedians in their 20s – “slacker stand-ups” – because, quite frankly, young people these days aren’t very funny. It takes years of hard knocks, bitter experience, finely-honed cynicism, endless long nights, lonely laughs, working the trenches, paying your dues and performing in places like Fairview, Alberta to attain the overnight […]
Posted on August 30, 2011
By Mike Ross
Comedy, Culture
Comedians teeing off on themselves is a time honoured tradition. Black guys talk about being black, fat guys talk about being fat, women talk about being women – know yourself, write what you know, right? Debra DiGiovanni has especially made a career of self-deprecation, sometimes to the point, she says, that audience members feel sorry […]
