GIGGLE CITY: Dummies take the heat for Damien James
It’s not the comic crossing the line – it’s his puppets! The peculiar art of ventriloquism may seem like a crutch, a prop, a gimmick that can hold you back from the true pursuit of comedy, but it’s actually very freeing. You can get away with murder up there – as long as you blame […]
GIGGLE CITY: Harland Williams comes from a happy place
Like many Hollywood stars whose stand-up comedy made them into a Hollywood star, Harland Williams still goes out on the road to do stand-up comedy, from time to time. He does it to pay the bills, to maintain the lifestyle to which he has become accustomed, but that’s not all. “I love it,” he says. […]
GIGGLE CITY: Brian Stollery has a short attention span
In the old days, Henny Youngman could fire off one-liners – “take my wife … please!” – and no one would wonder if the poor guy was having marriage troubles, or expect him to get into some deep comi-philosophical routine about the battle of the sexes. It was a joke and that was that. It […]
GIGGLE CITY: Debra DiGiovanni laughs at herself
Comedians teeing off on themselves is a time honoured tradition. Black guys talk about being black, fat guys talk about being fat, women talk about being women – know yourself, write what you know, right? Debra DiGiovanni has especially made a career of self-deprecation, sometimes to the point, she says, that audience members feel sorry […]
GIGGLE CITY: It’s awesome being Howie Miller, says Howie Miller
Is it wrong for a white guy to laugh at a native stand-up comedian telling jokes that riff on native stereotypes? That’s a difficult question … so we won’t get into it here. Just say that Howie Miller’s career on stage, screen and film has come far beyond playing the race card, thanks to a […]
GIGGLE CITY: Martin Dockery’s Fringe hit The Surprise gets held over
If you talk to kindergarten kids in a museum, you’re a storyteller. If you’re recounting your latest Peruvian safari at the Explorer’s Club, you’re a raconteur. If you tell penis jokes to drunks in a bar, you’re a stand-up comedian. If you do this same thing in a theatre with no jokes, you’re a one-man […]
GIGGLE CITY: J. Chris Newberg comes out from behind his guitar
Unlike rock musicians, stand-up comedians don’t have anything to protect them from the audience, no instrument or prop to hide behind. Well, unless they’re a prop comic or something. A guitar may be a prop, too, or a crutch. Either way, comedian J. Chris Newberg has been relying on his six-string less and less over […]
REVIEW: Jerry Seinfeld’s best bits
Mankind is Jerry Seinfeld’s business. His mission is to explore tiny human stupidities, leaving the larger idiocies to other comedians. His tool is a microscope. His result is universal humour. EVERYBODY’S done the dumb little things he talks about, we’re all guilty of the trivial human mistakes he’s built a career on – even Jerry […]
