THE UNLIKELY COMIC: Craig Martell is his own punchline
Craig Martell doesn’t claim to be a real stand-up comedian – so does that make him a better stand-up comedian? It’s all so terribly confusing. He doesn’t fit the usual stand-up comedian profile. First of all, as co-owner and party captain of the Wunderbar Hofbrauhaus, he’s a pretty upbeat guy. “It seems like most comedians […]
COMEDY: Kathleen McGee’s act is a life examined
Oprah’s truck balls, tweets of people’s genitals, Al Roker telling everyone he pooped his pants in the White House, Facebook status updates of breakfasts that look like poop – these are a few of our favourite things! We live in a world where the phrase “whoa, too much information!” is uttered by no one ever. […]
Mark Meer elected Edmontonian of 2012 in landslide victory
We should’ve known what would happen if we put Mark Meer on the list. Of course he was voted GigCity’s Edmontonian of the Year – in a landslide, with 68% of the vote. He’s such a tireless self-promoter and wields such a formidable clout in social media that winning our little contest/social experiment was a […]
Vote now for Edmontonian of the Year!
If Time magazine can choose a “Person of the Year” from eight billion prospects, we can certainly do it from among the mere one million citizens of Edmonton. It’s kind of like Vue magazine’s “best of Edmonton,” but there can only be one. We just don’t have the budget. The only criteria was “made waves […]
TV: Tiny Plastic Men a kids’ show for grown-ups
Tiny Plastic Men isn’t just another little TV comedy – it’s an important signpost to a modern world where grown-ups have refused to grow up. The Edmonton-produced sitcom-sketch comedy series – premiering Monday at 8 p.m. on Superchannel – stars the local writer-creators Mark Meer, Chris Craddock and Matt Alden as a trio of numbskulls […]
It’s funny because we all do it – the magic of relationship comedy
If we’ve learned anything about comedy, it’s that the more universal the topic, the better. As an astute observer of comedy once said, “Everybody knows what a vagina is.” You sniggered there, didn’t you? Of course you did. “Vagina” is a funny word. So is “penis,” for that matter. There’s a lot of material there. […]
Is Jeff Dunham racist? No, but his puppets might be
Name any movie that doesn’t depict puppeteers as insane or evil. Think about it: They talk to themselves, they play with dolls, they say terribly offensive things they wouldn’t have the courage to say in real life if they weren’t pretending to talk through their creepy puppets. But isn’t that what good comedians are supposed […]
Nice guys finish first at Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo
First, let’s get something out of the way about the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo this weekend: Steve Austin could kick Batman’s ass. OK, maybe not the Christian Bale or Michael Keaton Batmen, given that they seemed to know a whole lot of Jeet Kune Do or something. But with the same certainty that Lee […]
EDMONTON COMEDY FESTIVAL: Stand-up harder than it looks
I have a new found respect for stand-up comedians after walking a mile in their shoes for the first time. It’s not as easy as it looks – and it looks hard enough to begin with. My three minutes of terror was part of the Edmonton Comedy Festival’s “Funniest Media Person” contest at the River […]
EDMONTON COMEDY FESTIVAL: How funny is Jim Cuddy?
Jim Cuddy says he honestly has no idea why he was asked to be the host of the opening night at the Edmonton Comedy Festival, “Jim Cuddy’s Comedy Rodeo,” Wednesday at the Citadel Theatre (with Louis Ramey, Kevin McGrath, Trent McClelland, Atomic Improv, Lars Callieou and Sean Lecomber). Damn it, Jim, he’s a musician, not […]
WHAT’S SO FUNNY: Even one club down, lots of comedy ahead
Make that What’s Not So Funny – it looks like the Laugh Shop is out of business. There was talk the Sherwood Park comedy club would be moving to a new 124th Street location for an opening on Oct. 1, but that never came to pass. The owner-operators reportedly sold the building and that is […]
WHAT’S SO FUNNY: More swords and sex than usual in Die-Nasty Soap-a-Thon
The annual Die-Nasty Soap-a-Thon – running continuously this Friday through Sunday at the Varscona Theatre – has chosen “Game of Thrones” as its theme this year. But don’t worry, it shouldn’t be any harder to follow than any other 50 hour marathon of improvised comedy. The inexhaustible Mark Meer – who once again is expected […]
