Here’s your dose of funny stuff for this week. Which item is your favourite in Comedy Roundup 20190530 – car songs, big bang song, the 7 day forecast, or something else?
Gerry Dee
Canadian comedian Gerry Dee, “Mr. D”, is celebrating 20 years of comedy, and has a few tour dates lined up. He’ll be in Toronto’s Sony Centre on May 24th, so catch his act if you can.
Gerry recently appeared on City TV’s Breakfast Television show, and you can see the clip on their website.
Here’s a routine that Gerry did at Just for Laughs in 2007, when he was introduced by William Shatner.
Canadian Comedy Awards
The Canadian Comedy Awards will be presented next month. The awards were originally to be presented on June 2nd, at Yuk Yuk’s Toronto Comedy Club.
However, Generally Hospital, one of the nominees for “Best Live Ensemble”, could not attend at that location, due to accessibility issues. Their performance includes themes of disability, and one of their members uses a wheelchair.
The Canadian Comedy Awards will now take place at Second City, and will probably take place on a different date and time.
Rick Mercer
Canadian comedian, Rick Mercer, spent 25 years on comedy shows, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and The Rick Mercer Show, which ended last year.
Mercer misses Canadian politics sometimes, and wishes that he could do another one of his famous “rants” about current political issues, such as the SNC-Lavelin affair.
He has been busy since his show ended though, and his new book, Rick Mercer Final Report, has a collection of those rants, and a few essays.
Mercer also does live shows occasionally, Canada: From Coast to Coast to Coast, so watch for that in a city near you.
Here’s one of my favourite Rick Mercer videos – the Seven Day Forecast. “What are you going to do when it’s +1?”
And here’s the rant for the last episode of the Rick Mercer Show – “promise yourself that you will stand above the tree line before you die – you will not regret it”.
Stand Up Toronto
Stand Up Toronto is a 51-minute documentary on the TVO channel, that takes a look at stand up comedy in Toronto, through the experience of three comics from diverse cultural backgrounds. The video isn’t available to embed here, so go to the TVO site to watch it.
One of the three comedians is Hoodo Hersi, who teaches during the day. She has done standup for six years, but nobody from her family has every seen her perform.
The second comedian is Danish Anwar, who was born in Pakistan, and came to Canada from Moscow, with his parents. He has also done standup for six years, and produces his own shows on social media.
The third comedian is Aisha Brown, who won the Toronto Breakout Comic of the Year award in 2017, and performs across the country.
Here’s a short clip of Aisha Brown, reciting her poem, Anxiety Hawk.
Car Names
Instead of “Comedians in Cars”, how about “Comedians ON Cars”? Even if you don’t know any French, sing along with these Montreal comedians’ parody song about car names.
Étienne Dano is a well-known Quebec comedian, and Arnaud Soly is a newer talent, and they filmed this video at a used car dealership in Montreal’s South Shore.
You can watch the video on Dano’s Facebook page. Do you recognize some of the tunes that they use in the clip?
Big Bang Theory
And finally, the last episode of Big Bang Theory airs this Thursday. According to the Toronto Sun, the show made 60% of Canadian viewers more interested in science.
Did it have that effect on your? There were some funny moments in the hit show, that started way back in 2007, but most of the time, it made me more interested in changing the channel!
Here’s the official video of the Big Bang Theory theme song, by the Canadian band, Barenaked Ladies.
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Comedy Roundup 20180513
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