A Homerun for Canadian Comedy... by Scott Belford

In Canadian Comedy it’s easy to be negative, to be bitter, to always point out the problems. I’m not writing this to do any of that.

There’s a scene from one of my favourite movies ‘Moneyball’ that sums up the Canadian Comedy scene pretty accurately. Yes, I’m going to shoe horn some baseball into this article if it kills me, so deal with it! Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane is devastated after losing in the playoffs. His assistant GM Peter Brand tries to give some perspective on what they just accomplished and takes him to the video room where he shows Billy some game footage of a power-hitting catcher in the minors. This is a guy who hits homeruns and is known as a slow runner who if he hits a single never tries to take two bases. The guy gets a hit and does what he never does- he digs in to go for a double. As he rounds first base he slips and falls on his face. He then has to scramble on his hands and knees back to first. He gets up humiliated at his mishap, only to find out he had hit it out of the park.

We as comics spend so much time scrambling back to first base on our hands and knees that the home runs don’t get celebrated. I’m writing this to celebrate a win that seems to be ignored in this country. A home run no one is talking about and that is the growth of comedy across Canada.

I started doing stand-up comedy in 2008. I quit my radio job in Grande Prairie, Alberta and moved to Edmonton to pursue it. When I moved to Edmonton it was a small scene that had a stable of 10-20 comics who were out doing it weekly. Using the term stable there is for Alberta cred. There was one comedy open mic every Sunday, every comic in town was there. To get more stage time back then, the more diligent comedians would crash music open mics until “No Comedy” signs went up, which happened eventually at every single one of them. Turns out learning how to do comedy at places where everyone is there to hear Bob Seger covers is a real mood killer. And having “Play Night Moves” yelled during your set was not all that conducive to comedy either.

That has changed drastically. Edmonton now has a booming scene with mics every night of the week and probably a hundred-plus comics performing weekly around town. Some may argue that number and maybe I am exaggerating to make a point but I said “probably”, so get over the inaccuracy. What I’m saying is Edmonton Comedy is super legit now. Edmonton is just one example; comedy is popping up and flourishing in places you would never expect.

I’ve really made the rounds through the Canadian comedy scene’s over the years (there’s a slut joke I could make here if I wasn’t so damn progressive, you’re welcome) I was in Edmonton for five years before moving to Toronto for another five years. I then moved to Halifax for a year and then back West to Calgary. I’ve been involved in more scenes then most. I also make my living touring and have watched comedy grow in this country like a comics ego that just got put on a list of comedians to “watch for” in the upcoming year.

I have witnessed comedy scenes pop up and develop in places around this country that legitimately make no sense. These are places that the amount of work it takes from the comics and producers just to make a go of it borders on insane. That’s the Canadian way. Like it or not, were doing it. This is a shout out to all the comics being funny in places that aren’t Toronto or Vancouver.

Comics are like a virus- we multiply and grow even in the most hostile of environments. Where there is a microphone and bar that will tolerate comedy, comics are there. I say tolerate because most of us chuckle chasers will do a show even if we are not “that” welcome. Did you know Bathurst, New Brunswick has a weekly comedy mic? No, you didn’t, of course you didn’t because that seems insane. Bathurst is only 10,000 people and is located way up in Northern New Brunswick. How does that even make sense? Well comics routinely drive the two to three hours from Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton to go do it. Wait you say, there’s comics in Moncton? Saint John? Fredericton? Yup! We’re everywhere. That’s crazy to drive 2-3 hours you say? Don’t worry about New Brunswick comics, they’re used to it. They all drive between the three cities to hit as many mics in a month as possible- and that doesn’t even touch the km’s put on by Prairie comics in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

When I first toured New Brunswick nine years ago, there was nothing. No mics, no comics, just the odd one nighter. Now it’s a burgeoning scene with dozens and dozens of hard-working comedians- this has all been built in the last five years. P.E.I has a weekly comedy open mic. Halifax has a mic almost every day of the week. Comedy in the Maritimes is alive and well and don’t even get me started on Newfoundland, whose comedians may have the best Do-It-Yourself attitude in the country when it comes to self-produced comedy. The St John’s comics’ closest comedy club is a three-hour plane ride away and that doesn’t hold them back from performing almost daily.

Comedy is everywhere in this country. Talented, funny comics are developing in places all over the great white north. To quote the Canadian classic kid show The Friendly Giant “Look up … look waaaay up”-- there is even a healthy little comedy scene in Whitehorse Yukon. Sometimes the perception is that Toronto is the only place in Canada that matters when it comes to comedy and developing top-end comedic talent, even amongst the comics and industry. That perception is terribly outdated and full of shit.

Independent comedy clubs with comedy scenes following quickly afterwards are popping up everywhere across the country, places like Medicine Hat and Lethbridge, Alberta; Prince George, British Columbia; Thunder Bay, Ontario; Moncton and Saint John, New Brunswick just to name a few. Canadian comedy is spreading like wildfire to places that if you had told me ten years ago there would be a “comedy scene”, I would have scoffed at you. Comics are starting mics and growing comedy in places like Fort McMurray and Red Deer Alberta; Saskatoon Saskatchewan; Kelowna, BC and London Ontario.

There are still plenty of things about Canadian comedy that just plain suck. However, before we all scurry back to first base on our hands and knees, let’s get up and realize that we as a country have hit a home run in producing comedy and comics in every nook and cranny of Canada. We don’t have much as comics in this country, but we can all laugh about that anywhere we are… even in Winnipeg. Hats off to all the comics slinging jokes no matter where in this huge country you’re doing it.

“The road goes on forever and the party never ends”. – The Highwaymen

Scott Belford - @TheBelf7