INTERVIEW: Fun Facts About Steve Patterson, Master Debaters Moderator
Be it resolved! (Whatever that’s supposed to mean.) Steve Patterson is a gifted comedian who brings the perfect Canadian affable sensibility to CBC’s long-running radio show The Debaters. It’s their best comedy show. He is the best man for the job. (At least as good as the original host Shaun Majumder.)
Arguing for this case is … Steve Patterson.
Arguing against is … I dunno, some guy who thinks that puns are the lowest form of humour. Steve uses a lot of puns.
“Puns are the lowest form of humour!”
Patterson retorts, “I think the lowest form of humour is not having a sense of humour.” He notes that he is just one part of a “team” of pun-smiths on The Debaters. “I’ve learned over the years that the puns have to be bad in order to become good again. You can’t half do a pun. By the time the whole room is groaning we know we’ve done something right.”
So beware of puns. The live holiday version of The Debaters comes to the Winspear Centre on Monday, Nov. 25, featuring the guest comics DeAnne Smith and Graham Chittenden. Each will do their own stand-up set, along with Patterson, and participate in two debates for the main event. The topics for the debates are a closely guarded secret, as is Patterson’s new Christmas song.
“I wish I could tell you,” he says, and doesn’t say, “But then I’d have to kill you.”
FUN FACT: While The Debaters feels loose and unscripted, comics usually have up to two months to prepare their arguments. The result, says Patterson, is an event unique to live comedy.
“It’s the only format I know that where the first time you’re trying new material is in front of a theatre-ful of people,” he says. “No matter how long they’ve been doing comedy, they’re always a bit nervous, wondering whether it’s going to work or not.” Moreover, he adds, “They’re debating another comic in the Bare Knuckle section – where they’ve got a professional heckler on stage against them.”
This is where inspired improv collides with the carefully scripted routines. It usually works like magic.
“I try to stay neutral,” Patterson says.
There have been highlights, pearls of wisdom. One memorable episode pitted John Wing vs. Kelly Taylor on which is easier to parent: Toddlers or teens?
Taylor, taking toddlers, was the winner: “My kid can make a complete mess of the bathroom in about five minutes, and never listens to a word I say – but she can’t get pregnant.” Words to this effect.
The weirdest segment Patterson can recall was between an Irish comic and a German comedian who didn’t quite grasp the concept.
“I think the only English he knew was his act. So during the Firing Line, where you answer questions, he didn’t know what we were talking about, and he’d just go into his act again. I thought it was endlessly hilarious. What was supposed to take 30 minutes took over an hour. At one point I just laid down on the couch and let them have at it. I don’t envy the editor.”
Another fun fact: Before Patterson got into comedy in the 1990s, he was an ad copywriter. He got “fired” over a conflict on an ad campaign, probably for a good joke he wouldn’t let go of.
So he tried out material too edgy for advertising in a comedy club, discovered that it killed – and the rest is history.
Patterson observes, “There’s advertising funny and there’s funny funny – it’s two different levels.”
