| A fresh face from Oakville, Ontario, Katie Crown has been tabbed for potential stardom by those in the Canadian comedy scene. In late November she picked up the Tim Sims Encouragement Award, named after a much-admired comic entertainer who passed away in 1995. For close to a decade this award has gone annually to the Canadian comic deemed most promising by its judges.
Crown was additionally up for the award as part of the Knock, Knock. Whose There? Comedy! troupe, proving that the versatile, spectacled performer can get laughs on her own or as part of an ensemble. Crown and fellow Tim Sims nominees were featured in the Comedy Network’s recently-broadcast 2004 Cream of Comedy special.
"I think the best part of it is the confidence it brings," Crown says of taking home the night’s top prize. "I really don’t know what I’m doing sometimes and getting something like this makes you feel like you’re headed in the right direction." The award also gives Crown greater national name recognition, a big plus in a crowded comedy landscape.
"It’s a lot harder to get into," says headliner and 25-year Canadian comedy veteran Glen Foster of today’s comedy business. "When I started there was only about 10 of us doing it and we were on all the time."
"Now," says Foster, "I run a little amateur night at a club in Toronto and for it I am getting 20 to 30 e-mails a week. Everybody’s looking for stage time. They’ve got comedy courses now, so the number of performers has really exploded, which is good in a way, but with so many people trying to get into it, it’s really hard for new comics. I talk to guys and they are lucky to get on stage every couple of weeks."
"I can see how it’s a big problem," says 23-year-old Crown of finding places to perform in Canada’s largest city. "There are a lot of aspiring comics in the city now – its supersaturated. There are also a lot of sketch troupes that are starting to surface and there’s a limited amount of spaces for everybody to perform in."
According to Crown, one Toronto comedy club, The Rivoli, has taken the unprecedented step of actually pre-qualifying people for its open-mic nights. "There’s a preliminary stand-up night, so young comics who want to try out have to do this thing before they can go on to the actual show. It’s weird. They never used to do that before."
On the flip side of things, Crown is encouraged by the trend of veteran performers giving back to the new generation of stand-ups. "There are comics who have started up rooms on their own that give new people a chance."
If the growing buzz and acclaim coming Crown’s way continues, she could soon be in a position to extend her own helping hand to would-be comics. For now, she is content to live with a promising-newcomer label while riding an award-fuelled wave of self-empowerment. The Tim Sims encouragement prize has, she says, "really made me feel different about myself as a performer and allows me to think maybe I really could do this on a more professional level." |
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