Preview
CRAIG CAMPBELL
Yuk Yuk’s Komedy Kabaret
Appearing February 20 and 21
Blackfoot Inn
Stand-up comedian Craig Campbell has found great contentment living and performing in the United Kingdom. This would be a "so what" thing if he was from, oh, let’s say London. But by being a Canadian and a former Calgarian as well, it sets the expectation that he has an unusual personal tale to tell.
The story starts with a guy living in our city and realizing he has a formidable knack for cracking up his buddies. Upon learning one can make a living out of being funny, he decides to take to the stage.
"My first-ever show was at the Blackfoot Inn and my first-ever paid show was at Olds College," recalls Campbell. "That was quite a jump, to go from a barely funny five minutes to having to do 30 minutes for money."
Early on, he began developing a storytelling style. "I knew that was where the majority of my humour came from," he says. "I learned the best way to work up material was to try and relate stories and things that had really happened."
After toiling on the local comedy scene and working a day job guiding rafts on the Bow and Red Deer rivers in the late ’80s, Campbell determined to move west. "The big shove for success when you are a young Calgary (comedian) is to get out to Vancouver," he says.
So he headed out to the B.C. coast to hone his comedy craft. Later, with some professional momentum building, he took a stab at a major entertainment market. "I popped down to Los Angeles for a couple of years," he says, but the fit was not a good one. "The comedy clubs all wanted me to do just five or seven minutes. That was what I had been doing five years before and what I was hoping to graduate out of."
Campbell’s desire to improve his fortunes prompted him to venture even further from home – to Edinburgh’s comedy festival. Campbell’s narrative style was well received at his Scottish shows and he soon found that the performance philosophy of many U.K. comics was in tune with his own. "The art of storytelling will never be usurped by any other fad in comedy," he says.
In 1998, Campbell made a home for himself in England and has enjoyed the personal and professional rewards of his choice ever since. What he has found on the U.K comedy scene is not only better money, but also much shorter travelling distances to many gigs.
"The frustration I always had with Canada was how far apart the comedy shows were," he says. "The lifestyle sort of suffers. You are on a plane for four hours trying to get to Toronto to find another 200 people in a dark, smoky room somewhere. Then you might find out you have got a Winnipeg show a month later or a couple of gigs in Newfoundland."
Yet, despite his misgivings about Canada’s comedy environment, he’s come back to tour the country this month, playing many of the same venues he frequented long ago. And he still has a lot of affection for his native land.
"The nicest thing is, now I can come back to Canada and I can enjoy all the things I love about it," he says. "I don’t have to pine about not being able to get up to the mountains. Now I can get up to the mountains and afford to get on a ski hill."
No matter where he is in the world, the maple leaf still remains dear to Campbell’s heart. It’s evident in the number of fond observations and reminiscences that continually creep into his act. "I feel a real sense of attachment even when I’m not here," he says.
Seems you can take the boy out of the true north strong and free, but you can’t take all that patriotic yada yada yada out of the boy. |
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