I have always believed that comedy, like music, is a great way to get a feel for a city. A number of new independent comedy clubs and rooms have popped up recently in Calgary, so I endeavoured to check out as many as I could in the space of a week to take the comedic pulse of our fair city — a comedy club crawl, if you will. Four clubs, nine hours and 47 marijuana jokes later (yes, I counted them), I think I got a pretty good idea of what tickles Calgary’s funny bone.
Monday
Comedy Monday Night, The Nelson Inn
www.myspace.com/comedymondaynight
Comedy Monday Night is what’s called a “workout room” where comedians gather in large numbers to hang out and try new material or even just try standup for the first time. This kind of room is notoriously hard to keep open, but through an act of sheer will, local comic James Moore has kept this one going for three years. The room features a charming fireplace in the corner that seems more at home at a key party from the ’70s than in a comedy club. Scattered around the back of the room, comedians sip beer and pour over their notebooks. Even pros like Daryl Makk and Brian Stollery are checking everything twice before debuting new materiel.
Moore, the club’s host, effectively combines a laid-back delivery with biting material. His joke about audiences in the small Alberta town of Daysland registers with many of the comics in the room. “I’m not used to that much indifference from someone I’m not married to,” he dryly observes. It’s a long night that includes a few train wrecks, a healthy dose of schadenfreude, a round of “Happy Birthday” for CMN regular Katryna Chan and, of course, a few laughs.
Highlights: Scott Dumas’s story about trying not to say “Tiger Balm” at airport security, and headliner Trent McClellen advising the unresponsive audience to let a joke “sink in like a good marinade.”
Wednesday
Daryl Makk’s Comedy Detour, Kit’s on 16th
Of all the clubs I went to this week, Daryl Makk’s Comedy Detour was the most, well, clubby. The room is located downstairs at Kits on 16th Avenue N.W. The basement location gives it a real New York comedy club feeling. A few pictures of smiling comedians on the wall and you’d swear you were at the real thing. Emcee Dawn Dumont is a little shaky at first but soon finds her footing. Makk himself does a guest spot and tries out some of the new material that didn’t go so well at Comedy Monday Night but works better here. Next up is Stephanie Foley, whose high energy destroys the room. Unfortunately, headliner Bob Keele goes on while half the room is getting up to go for a smoke. He’s an old pro, however, and it doesn’t take him long to get the room on track once everybody returns.
Highlights: Foley’s testicle-signing story, which I can in no way do justice in summarizing.
Thursday
The Comedy Cave
The Comedy Cave is not a cave at all, it’s a rather nice, intimate room located in the Travelodge just across from Ranchman’s. My wife compared one of the opening acts to Saskatchewan — “Flat, and you could see stuff coming from a mile away.” However, when Cris Nannarone hits the stage, the energy of the room turns up at least three notches. He has a lot of funny material, but engaging with the crowd (spritzing) is where he really shines. “I use it as a centring tool,” Nannarone explains after his performance. “As soon as I hit the stage, I just centre myself by talking about anything that pops into my head…. My act starts the same and it usually ends the same, in the middle I have no idea what I’m going to do.” By the end of his set, I not only know the audience had a great time, I also know all of their names and what they do for a living.
Highlights: Emcee Donavan Deschner’s new twist on the old “pick a card” trick and Nannarone’s riffing with audience member Paolo, a fellow Italian. The Italian jokes fly fast and furious and Paolo, seated at a table down in front, is loving every second of it.
Friday
The Laugh Shop, Blackfoot Inn
“Ah Canada… where the money is coloured, and the people aren’t.”
Headliner Sean Kent is on tour from the U.S. and playing to a smallish crowd. The fine weather and recent change of brand name have hurt The Laugh Shop a little, but the quality of comedy certainly hasn’t diminished. Kent opens with a blazingly dark joke which poses the question “Why don’t pedophiles just agree to a compromise and fuck midgets.” He gets a good sense of the room off of it, and he keeps the crowd with him, even through a few obscure Noam Chomsky references. Emcee Lori Gibbs has only been at this two years, but what she lacks in experience she more than makes up for in stage presence. Chris Gordon, who will be representing Calgary at Just for Laughs this summer, both delights and frightens the audience with his manic, unconventional style. However, it is Kent’s combination of black humour and socio-political insight that intrigues me the most. “It seems to me (in Canada) they appreciate thought,” he says, taking a break between performances. “In America, sometimes people get pre-offended, ‘I’m shutting down, whatever comes next, fuck him.’”
Highlights: Gordon places a sign onstage with his cell number on it, so the audience can text him with comments, some of which he reads aloud halfway through his act.
What have I learned? Well, that Calgarians love jokes about camping, weed and Tim Hortons. Also, that with all of these clubs, as well as an alternative comedy night at Broken City and a brand new Yuk Yuks doing a grand opening in town soon, we actually have a full-blown comedy “scene.” Eat that Toronto and Vancouver!
Post the first comment: (Login or Register)