After a super performance at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, I was just chosen as a semifinalist in the Great Canadian Laugh Off!The significance of this event cannot be overstated. This is really big for me. Another guy (who is amazing and very polished) and I are moving on from tonight's round to the semifinal night on Saturday.
This competition is made up of 64 comedians from all over the world. Tonight, eight comedians performed for eight minutes each. The field was strong--I was found all of the performances entertaining, and some of them were absolutely brilliant.
In the drawing before the show, I landed the coveted last spot. After seeing so many strong performances, I didn't think I had much of a shot. My attitude was that I would just try to entertain the packed house and enjoy my international debut.
The owner and founder of the entire Canadian Yuk Yuk's chain, Mark Breslin, was at the show, and he took the time to tell me he thought my set was great. Are you getting this? The owner of a chain of 12 comedy clubs all over Canada thinks I'm hilarious. This is huge for me.
Before the show, we were told that only one non-Canadian has been chosen for the semi-finals so far. The implication was that it's not too likely that a non-Canadian has a chance, so we should just have a good time. That did take off some of the pressure, but as often happens, my nerves made me pee every 20 minutes and my junk shrunk into my body, and I looked like I was 7-year old who just jumped into Lake Ontario.
In working on my set, I was stressing about whether I should go with a squeaky TV-clean set, or to do more risque material. Did I mention that this competition will air on Canada's Comedy Channel? So, I had concluded that I should curtail some of my more raunchy material. But then, in our pre-show orientation, the producer said we should just go for it. This is Canada--the audience is used to edgy material, and they'd be disappointed if they weren't seeing an adult show.
So, I quickly reworked my set list, and it obviously paid off. My closer, an act-out of my version of the first sex scene in Brokeback Mountain, was, shall we say, well received. In comedic vernacular, it fucking killed.
I get to do some sightseeing tomorrow--I'd like to head to Niagara Falls. Then, on Saturday, I'm doing an interview that they'll use for the Comedy Channel show. The Saturday show will have the same format as tonight's, with each comedian getting eight minutes.
Interestingly, the sponsor hotel just happens to be right in Toronto's large gay district. It's like magic. Actually, this encouraged me to go for broke on my gay-themed material because Toronto is clearly a very hip and progressive city. Queer as Folk was filmed here, you know.
Oh, I just remembered I have hardly eaten all day long. I was strongly encouraged after the show to go celebrate in a bar tonight. I think finding a late-night snack joint is probably more my speed.
I love Canada.
