Canadian Comedy Awards

Inside Television 502

Publication Date: 5-14-10

By: Hubert O'Hearn

If you're not so sparkly-eyed by the derring-do and swagger of the Montreal Canadiens that the thought of watching anything that doesn't have prominent puck placement puts you into an ugly emotional mood of hate and whispered vengeance unseen since the days of Ivan Denisovitch, there's a little comedy show I'd like to recommend to you. Tomorrow night at 10PM the full CTV network (Thunder Bay not included) presents the 10th Annual Canadian Comedy Awards Anniversary Special. Hosted by Daily Show veterans Samantha Bee and Jason Jones the show will feature the best routines and interviews with past winners of the, er, Beaver Award. I have to say this. Forgive me. I wonder how past winners like to have their Beavers mounted? There are other punchlines. If you give it some thought you'll think of them all. 

But - of all things on television, why do I think you should watch this program? First, you've already seen the Star Wars Trilogy (which must be playing somewhere on Saturday night) sixteen times and people are starting to talk. I heard the word intervention used. Second, Canada is to comedy what Ireland is to literature - we punch way above our weight. For a relatively small population, I'd say we dominate sketch comedy, are equal to the Brits in Improvisation, do excellent movie comedy (although rarely in Canada) and have some unique and successful stand-ups. Plus we have William Shatner, the only man in history who turned his own life into an extended comedy improvisation and had it work. He's the Jaroslav Halak of our comedy team. 

So it is right to celebrate our best, and I'd say that the laffs are guaranteed. And it's good to laugh. "It feels good to make your Mom laugh." What? Who said that?

It was said by Nathan Macintosh, last year's winner as Best New Stand-Up and one of the featured performers on Saturday night's show. In an interview kindly set up for me by Mary Costa at CTV, Nathan chatted on the phone about his career and the Comedy Awards. And not one Beaver joke was killed in the process. 

Macintosh is 23 and has been touring as a stand-up since he was 19. I could tell he was young because of the stand-ups I've interviewed over the years, he was the first one who wasn't at best cynical and at worst bitter and snapping turtle mad. Macintosh was completely courteous and was equally interested in talking about Thunder Bay as he was in discussing himself. So that was refreshing and I resist the urge to say, 'He'll learn.' 

The framework of the Comedy Awards is an equal balance between industry professionals who vote on-line and a judging panel composed of the Canadian Gods of Thunderous Laughter, including the hoary thunderer himself, Yuk-Yuk's owner and president Mark Breslin. To put Breslin in proper perspective (and this didn't come from Nathan Macintosh, by the way), Johnny Carson made everyone's comedy career in the U.S. for thirty years of his run as host of the Tonight Show. Breslin has similar weight today in terms of Canadian stand-up. So these Beaver Awards truly mean something. 

I asked Macintosh how he got into this racket. "I always wanted to, right from when I was a kid and I'd watch stand-ups on TV with my Mom. I thought that looked like a really cool thing to do. You get to be like the geek in high school who all of a sudden comes back really cool." So who was his first favourite? "Sam Kinison, who maybe I shouldn't have been watching at that age, but Mom let me." 

Ah, Kinison. For those who don't remember, Kinison was a huge, shrieking man in a beret who took stand-up to a different place of sheer anger and force. It was like Mort Sahl on crystal meth with a shotgun in one hand and a megaphone in the other. Sam Kinison died way too soon. 

Macintosh continues to tour and is touring the hard way, as an independent comic, not part of the travelling collectives we see come through our hometowns. That tells me that he really does love stand-up as much as he says. I wished him well and we equally expressed hope that he'd be  booked here soon.

Go Habs go. Be seeing you.