all the way

to the bank

Jim Carrey, Martin Short, Mike Myers, Dan Aykroyd, Catherine O’Hara, Howie Mandel, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, Phil Hartman, John Candy, Mike MacDonald, Tommy ChongÉthe list of Canadian comedy stars goes on. Could this be a Canadian conspiracy?

The number of Canuck comedians who’ve made it big south of the border over the last decade is impressive indeed. While our dramatic actors struggle each year to develop star status, our comedians appear to be laughing it up all the way to the bank.

So what’s so funny about Canadians?

Pam Thomas, an l.a.-based comedy television producer and consultant on Lorne Michaels Productions’ Saturday Night Live (and ex-wife of comedian Dave Thomas), says it could be our climate.

‘Canadian humor does extremely well south of the border because it’s so dark,’ she says. ‘I don’t know if that comes from our long, bleak wintry nights where we’re sitting talking around the fire, but I think Canadians are brilliant – comic geniuses. It’s ironic though, Canadians are often viewed as being bland yet we produce some of the best comedians.’

Louise Parent, a Toronto-based agent and manager of Parent Management specializing in comedy, thinks part of our success lies in the unique mix of Canadian humor.

‘It’s a cross between intellectual deadpan humor, the slapstick of British comedy and the aggressive, broad humor of the States. We get subtleness from Britain and bigness from the u.s. Canadians like to play with words more and rely on intellectual humor, yet we have the energy like the Americans. The Brits can come across a bit cold, and their humor is often too sophisticated for most American audiences.’

She says Canadians also have this image of being insecure about themselves and their identity. ‘Insecure people always tend to laugh at themselves and brush it off as humor,’ she says.

‘I think the reason Canadian humor does so well all over the world is that in Canada there’s not enough money to develop (comedic talent). Comedians and comedy writers do better when they go to the States because the Americans are willing to put time and money into developing their talent. It takes a long time to teach them how to write for a comedy show correctly, how to act well. I hear that comment a lot from producers.’

Canadian audiences, while small in number, also help foster comedic talent, says Parent. ‘Our audiences are smart, they appreciate great humor, but they tend not to be too mean. A lot of the audiences are very supportive, and the talent themselves are very supportive of each other. Kids In the Hall started that. They were so successful and they were amazingly supportive of their friends, and out of that a lot more people got experience and were able to break through.’

Michael French of Vancouver-based Associated Films, which specializes in comedy productions, just completed a series of six half-hour comedy adventures starring over 90 comedians for broadcast on CanWest Global.

‘Our market is so small here, Canadian comedians have an enormous struggle just to practice their craft at all,’ says French.

By the time a Canadian comedian makes it to the u.s., he says, ‘they have often smelled more of the audience because they’ve had to sweep the floor during performances. They’ve gone down on a hope and a prayer, lied to Canada Customs to get across the border, borrowed money from their mom, and left their girlfriends waiting at home. So naturally they’re hungry and aggressive to make it.’

He says in order to make it, an up-and-coming Canadian comedian, like Brent Butt from Saskatchewan, has to be his own road manager, promoter and writer as well as perform. ‘Look at all the things he has to do just to pay the rent.’

Karen Evans manages the careers of comedian Eric Tunney, who was the only Canadian chosen this year for Garry Shandling’s annual young comedians special on hbo, and The Vacant Lot comedy troupe, who have a comedy series, produced by Lorne Michaels, on u.s. cable channel Comedy Central.

Evans agrees with French. She says Canadian comedians’ careers take off when they go to the u.s. because they’re ready. They’ve been practicing their standup routine or doing their sketch comedy for years before they are ‘discovered.’

‘If you’re good in New York or Chicago,’ she says, ‘you’re discovered very fast, but you might not be ready or have honed your craft sufficiently to be able to handle the pressures of that quick recognition.’

Andy Nulman, ceo of the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, was passing a giant billboard of Carrey when he spoke to Playback on his cell phone en route to a development meeting at New World Entertainment in l.a.

What’s different about Canadian humor, he says, is that it’s been given a ‘petri dish’ to grow in.

‘We have the culture of the United States thrown upon us but we don’t have to live it. So we’re able to look at their culture and understand it, but with different eyes.’

In the dramatic field, Nulman says an actor really has to stand out to make a name for him/herself because there’s so much competition and so many people doing the same thing. Comedy is different, he says, because the Canadian sensibility is different, and in the area of sitcoms, the networks are always looking for the quirky, unique and undiscovered.

Also, says Nulman, Canadians view comedy as a legitimate art form. ‘People always ask me why are there so many Jews in humor? It’s because they’ve never been ashamed of making people laugh or viewed it as a cheap way of making a living. Maybe it’s the same for Canada. Even as far back as Stephen Leacock, humor has always been an important part of Canadian culture.

‘We also have to be grateful to the Canadian government, which funds the arts and which takes humor seriously.’

Much like film festivals, comedy festivals serve as career launching pads. In the 12 years since it began, Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival has become the Cannes of the comedy world.

Nulman says the festival serves as an incubator for Canadian talent. Last year, Just For Laughs attracted half a million people to watch 225 performers in 500 different shows.

‘Where else can they see so much concentrated in so little time? That’s why agents, casting directors and network reps flock to us year after year. We have people coming from all throughout Europe scouting for new talent.’

‘A festival creates frenzy,’ adds Parent. ‘You get everyone in the industry into the same venue for four days, it’s bound to produce excitement.’ Last year, she says, comedian John Rogers from Montreal got the blitz.

According to Parent, abc offered him a development deal for a substantial figure, which he turned down. By the end of the festival, following a feeding frenzy by the networks, that figure was rumored to have quadrupled.

Nulman says besides wading through the thousands of tapes the festival receives and agents around the world who scout for the festival, the Internet is also linking organizers up with new talent. But Nulman confirms what many producers and casting directors say: the best way to find new comedians is through other comedians. ‘Friends are their best agents.’

Getting started in the comedy business is a challenge in itself. Sure your friends think you’re hilarious, but standing in front of an audience trying to make people laugh, that takes real guts.

French says most aspiring comedians try open-mike nights at the clubs or they do something zany on cable tv and send their tapes around. Others try improv or just hang out with other comedians. ‘In my experience, these people have tried almost anything.’

Thomas says most comedy writers start as comedians writing monologues, then they get their foot in the door to television by doing ‘punch ups,’ adding jokes to other people’s material.

She says Canada has scores of writers working in l.a., including new talent like writer Valerie Bromfield, who also performed in the series Grace Under Fire and is now writing screenplays, and her sister Lois Bromfield, who worked as a standup comedian for years and currently is developing a new series with Roseanne Barr. Two other Canadians, Brian Hart and Jeremy Hotz, are writing for the Jon Stewart show. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for Canadian comedy writers.

Thomas says Canadian comedy troupes have developed a wealth of great talent. Groups like Skippy’s Rangers, The Blockheads, Big City Improv, The Chumps and The Vacant Lot provide a synergistic environment in which comedians can learn their craft. ‘I don’t know how they find each other, but there’s an organic chemistry there, Canada is like a gold mine for comedy.’

Adds Parent: ‘It used to be that Second City in Toronto was the brass ring. Most people there started out at Theatresports which began in Calgary. It was a good way of learning improv and the art of sketch comedy. However, with the huge success of Kids In The Hall, there’s also been an increase in troupes producing their own projects rather than relying on Second City or clubs like Yuk Yuk’s to get them to the next level.’

Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Cabarets, founded by Mark Breslin in 1976, have been the birthplace of most Canadian standup comedians. Breslin uses amateur nights at his 14 clubs across Canada to scout for new talent.

‘When we spot someone good, we start to nurture them by putting them on other nights and letting them work their way up to putting them on the road and eventually getting them to headline,’ says Breslin. ‘It takes the average comic at least a year to progress beyond amateur night at Yuk Yuk’s. They have to do it 50 or 60 times just to find their voice and work on the basics.’

Breslin says unlike clubs in the u.s., where representatives from all the talent agencies and networks show up nightly desperately looking to find the next Jerry Seinfeld, you could go a year without spotting one Canadian talent agent or network representative in a local club because they have no money to develop talent.

Our comedians must go to the u.s. to get the opportunities, says Breslin. And that’s why he’s setting up a new company headquartered in l.a. to manage Canadian comics and develop comedy programming.

Breslin has made a personal commitment to develop Canadian talent in his clubs rather than importing well-known American comics.

‘What’s so sad is that our stars have to go to the States to become stars,’ he says. ‘What we can offer in Canada is a good holding pattern until they can make it there. I can never say to any of the comedians we work with, `I can make you a star,’ but I can say, `I can make you a living.’ ‘

He says it’s ironic and frustrating that so many Canadian comics do make it big, yet there are so few comedy shows being developed here in comparison to the number of dramatic series and mows developed, produced and cast in Canada.

So who will be the next breakthrough act to follow in the steps of the late John Candy, Jim Carrey or Kids In The Hall? The consensus is Harland Williams from Toronto, who just had a series order from Warner Bros. and has a record album in the works, and Tunney, another Toronto comedian who has signed a deal with Michaels’ company to develop a late-night talk show.

Another best bet is Tim Steeves, nominated for a Gemini this year for best performance in a comedy series, cbc’s Comics!. abc is talking to him about a development deal and auditioning him for almost every lead role in its sitcom pilots.

Others on the best-bet list are Rogers – everyone’s waiting to see whether cbs picks up his new pilotÊ- gifted writer and standup Hotz, and The Vacant Lot.