GIGGLE CITY: Felicia Michaels battles back from mom-onymity

Besides sexual bias, there is another reason you don’t see as many female comics as male ones: Female comics tend to have babies, from time to time, which is not conductive to being on the road performing nasty jokes for drunks. Performing July 6-10 at the Comic Strip, Felicia Michaels says she has had two […]

GIGGLE CITY: Jon Charles protected by magic

News scoop! Neil Hamburger was fake! He’s actually some former punk rock musician named Gregg Turkington, who was only pretending to be an old school Catskills-style comedian, using the form to explore the concept of the “anti-joke.” Of course the problem with making a joke about jokes that aren’t funny is that the joke can […]

GIGGLE CITY: Neil Hamburger, hold the cheese

Once in a great while Edmonton is privileged to host one of the old-time stand-up comedians, a stubborn hold-out from the days of yore where men were men, women stayed in the kitchen where they belonged and show business was an honourable profession – not the cesspool of fart jokes it’s become today. Neil Hamburger […]

GIGGLE CITY: Matt Lisac ‘leaves them laughing’ – and thinking

Matt Lisac has attacked Edmonton’s comedy scene by stealth. He did a one-man show at the 2010 Fringe, innocuously called “A New Canadian Century,” for which he appeared on stage as a kindly, bearded Christian with guitar and a story to tell. About one minute into his opening number, it became obvious that this performer […]

Live to improvise, improvise to live at Improvaganza

To be willing to “fail happily” is one of the foundations of comedy improv – and also a happy life. When you truly shed your ego in the manner of the Buddhists, even death becomes OK. Cue the sound of one hand clapping. This may all seem too deep for Rapidfire Theatre’s Improvaganza festival, running […]

Edmonton dominates Canadian Comedy Awards

We’ve crunched the numbers and come to a startling conclusion that most people knew already – Edmonton is a funny city. The nominations for the Canadian Comedy Awards that came out June 8 revealed a disproportionate weight of local comic talent, largely thanks to a core group of improvisers and the locally-produced television show CAUTION: […]

GIGGLE CITY: Gilson Lubin don’t want no trouble

Let’s play the race card again. As long as there is racism in the world, comedians of race will play the race card. Stand-up comics are expected to be honest, right? Gilson Lubin is no exception. While the Caribbean-Canadian comic fits right in with shows like the Def Comedy Jam, where the audience is mostly […]

GIGGLE CITY: Lars Callieou and the battle of the sexes

As Edmonton’s own Lars Callieou awaits his first Comedy Network special, Friday, June 10 at 10:30 p.m., there’s only one thing he’s nervous about: “I haven’t see it yet. When you guys see it, it’ll be the first time I see it. I’m not nervous. Maybe I should be.” He’s too busy to worry. Having […]

CONCERTS: Tegan and Sara get intimate July 6, Daniel Tosh adds show

Here’s a show that’s going to sell out in the blink of an eye – Tegan and Sara at the Myer Horowitz Theatre on Wednesday, July 6. Well, maybe: the big discussion online yesterday was whether the $75 the pair are commanding for tickets was highway robbery. The twin sister goddesses of alternative rock from […]

Kathy Griffin to give Edmonton a piece of her mind Oct. 12

“I saw Tommy Lee at an awards show, and I got crabs just from looking at him!” “I may have said in an interview in People magazine that I thought Renee Zellweger was so thin that she looked like the lost Olsen triplet. And I may have said that she hasn’t eaten since Chicago … […]

GIGGLE CITY: Jen Grant’s female perspective

Funny, we don’t get many comediennes for Giggle City – mainly just comedians. In fact, Jen Grant – at Yuk Yuk’s this weekend – is the first female comic we’ve interviewed for this series, not counting the fabulous Stephanie Wolfe from the Die-Nasty soap opera. Stand-up is a male-dominated industry, with only a few notable […]

The DAILY FUNNY: A really premature look at Green Lantern

Looking forward to the summer blockbusters? Imaginative critic Mike Parker checks in with this animated review of what’s probably happening in the movie Green Lantern, based on the trailer. U.S. Political commentator and thoughtful journalist Andy Borowitz continues to be on a roll, with this good-as-gold exclusive on the ramifications to congress of Osama bin […]