BY
BILL BRADLEY
Canadians make the best comedians, says Timmins comic Derek
Edwards.
"We're tops in laughter because unlike the Americans we can't
take ourselves seriously. How could we? Do we rule the world?"
he laughed.
Edwards spoke to Northern Life while getting ready for his
upcoming show, Sleepless in Gogama, next Friday at the Fraser
Auditorium at 8 pm. He is touring Ontario this month.
Edwards is considered one of Canada's best comics. He is a
nine-year veteran of Montreal's Just For Laughs Festival and a
regular on CBC Radio One's Madly Off in All Directions and
CTV's Comedy Now programs.
"Being Canadian is being not full of yourself like the
Americans. I think that gives our comics the edge especially
when you look at the success of comics like John Candy, Eugene
Levy, Jim Carrey and Mike MacDonald," said Edwards.
However, Edwards says he was mesmerized and profoundly
influenced by one great American funny man, George Carlin.
"I saw him in London in the 1980s. There I was in my seat,
looking at a huge empty stage before me - just a mike, a stool,
and a glass of water. When George Carlin came on, he
immediately just lifted that audience up and had 2,000 of them
laughing so hard I myself was never the same again. I can't say
I copied his style but the man was so great he did move me," he
said.
Other famous Canadian comics have praised Edwards for doing
just that to his audiences.
"Derek Edwards is hysterical," raves Rick Mercer in the
Winnepeg Free Press.
"He is about my favourite comic in the world," says Lorne
Elliott in a review.
What's the secret? How does he work a crowd and make a
science out of comedy?
"You know it's all about being yourself but pumping yourself
up to be larger than life by ten-fold and if you have a natural
humour, all the better," Edwards says. "But as for stage
techniques here's mine. I look out at the audience at the start
of the show and pick the most miserable, most dour, most
skeptical person I can spot and I work on that person
mercilessly until they crack. If they laugh the whole room
roars. It works every time. I think that's how politicians work
a crowd too!"
Edwards has an advantage playing to a Sudbury crowd because
he knows the community well.
"Remember the Penalty Box located at the old Senator Hotel
downtown in Sudbury? When I was a late teenager in Timmins, my
buddies and I would jump in a car and regularly head down to
what we figured was Las Vegas. For us rubes it was," he says.
After getting a late start in comedy at age 28, Edwards came
back to Sudbury as an entertainer.
"I used to work the crowds at the Ramada in the City Centre
at the Yuk Yuks comedy nights. The Sudbury audience is great.
But I find that as long you are north of Barrie, the people are
similar. People are hard working, they appreciate the chance to
laugh and they love to party. In the major cities it's
different. There's more expectations to fill. That's why
although I live in Toronto these days, I love coming back home
to Northern Ontario - they're my kind of people."
Why is his show called Sleepless in Gogama?
"Hey I like to give back to places that made me, to pay back
my roots. I remember a time I played to a largely unilingual
francophone audience in the highway restaurant near Gogama.
They didn't expect the show not to be bilingual. Well it did
get tense but I survived that night and only a few asked for
their money back!"
For aspiring comedians, Edwards recommends practice and more
practice.
"You need to be on stage a hundred times before you even begin to get the feel for it. I think that local clubs and pubs should offer open mike comedy sessions in the afternoon where amateurs can get experience. Moncton, N.B. opened just such a scene, even expanding to nightly comedy gigs four nights a week. We have it in Toronto. Hey it works.
Everybody is pleased - the owners, the young comics and the
crowds. I know you have talent. Let's do it Greater Sudbury!
Lighten up!"
Tickets for Derek Edwards are $32.50. Phone the STC box office at 674-8381.
