For those not yet laughed out from the U.S. presidential debates (helped along by those late-night talk show hosts), Barrie residents can come out this week to tickle their funny bones at the Barrie International Comedy Festival, at various spots around town.
The festival opens Tuesday with a performance at Georgian College by husband-and-wife team Colin Mochrie and Debra McGrath.
The two have boasted a rich mine of comedy from having been wed 27 years, and combined for a total of 60 years of performing: Colin, probably best known for “Whose Line Is it Anyway?” and Debra for “Little Mosque on the Prairie”.
The festival is the pride and joy of Talk Is Free Theatre in Barrie, whose head honcho Arkady Spivak calls it evidence of the “all-generation, family appeal” he wants the festival to have.
From Newfoundland, guaranteed to “rock” your world, are Buddy Wassisname and the Other Fellers, taking the Georgian stage this Friday. Buddy, along with mates Wayne Chaulk and Ray Johnson, will mix genuine Atlantic folk music along with side-splitting humour, promising to take the crowd on an emotional roller-coaster.
And if folks are looking for more cracks at the politicos, Spivak urges them to look again.
“Comedy always finds its subjects more quickly than the general world does. I don’t like super-topical targets, because there is an air of sensationalism about them. I like more lasting, deeper observations.”
Nor is Spivak looking for Barrie simply to become the home of ba-dump-BUMP jokes; quite the opposite.
“Good comedy isn’t all about stand-up. I would like to turn comedy into a legitimate form of theatre. There are things like sketches, improvisation, clowning, mime, which are all part of the comedic landscape.”
Comedy, at its core, is an act of aggression (“I died up there,” or “I killed them”). The best comics seem to be the ones that make their audiences come away from the performance looking at life from a different perspective, wiser and sharper and more observant than before. It’s this aggressive attitude that may have kept women away from the stage for many years.
But Spivak says that is changing, with more female comics entering the scene.
“Much more, yes. We have commitments for next year from two killer (!) female comedians – a distinctly female perspective has been lacking in Canadian or worldwide comedy.”
To learn more about this year’s festival, click here.
