A group of Toronto comedians made their way to the National Arts Centre (NAC) for a sold out show Jan. 10 to see how hard they could make Ottawa laugh, just after they’d enjoyed a few joints and, in at least one case, a pot brownie.
Each of the Toronto Comedy All-Stars performers came to the stage with their own flavour of national jokes, sex jokes, and race jokes. The spacious stage was surrounded by small tables set up for four that quickly filled with bar drinks for the 167 occupants.
Three of the five performers owned up to smoking weed before the show. The thought of the group of jokesters smoking up together while they waited for the Fourth Stage to fill had a kumbaya appeal, and the bold “come and get me” remarks about Parliament being just across the street were well received.
All was well until headliner Danish Anwar forgot the punchline of a joke he’d been building up to for upwards of five minutes, and had to reference the weed to say “never mind” and move on to his next joke.
Nitish Sakhuja compared driving through Saskatchewan to watching eight hours of Corner Gas. The refreshing quality of jokes local to Canada, Ontario, and Ottawa reminded me how much American media we’re exposed to, and why it’s important to seek out entertainment avenues that represent our own culture.
Michelle Shaughnessy established herself as the host, but threw in her own routine on the way to introducing her co-stars. She got lots of laughs for her anecdote of being called “Michellephant” in high school, but pitying her past bullies if she ran into them again, because elephants never forget.
But judging by the groups’ indignant responses to the lack of laughter for some of their risqué material, Ottawa doesn’t laugh quite so liberally at jokes that might hurt someone’s feelings. The fat jokes didn’t go down as smoothly when they took a step away from self-deprecating and became anti-America.
In another routine, Sakhuja talked about “a guy he hates” who’s confined to a wheelchair, but hits on the comedian’s girlfriend every time he sees her.
He received a few hesitant laughs when Sakhuja mentioned the man’s Facebook update about buying new shoes, and asked why he would ever need to replace footwear if he’s never walked a day in his life.
“It’s okay to laugh,” Sakhuja insisted, obviously bewildered by the silent crowd. “You don’t know the guy.”
In a few cases, the performers lifted up their hands to question why no one was laughing.
There were cringey silences probed by racist and ableist jokes that went too far, but also self-deprecating and relatable—but hopefully not too relatable—sex jokes made by Dave Burke and Bobby Knauff.
The comedians approached the subject from entirely different angles. Burke began by describing himself as a “sex cactus,” insisting he had had sex three and a half weeks ago but he’s still feeling pretty good and he’ll likely make it until March.
Knauff pitched a theory that “I fucked your mother” should never be insulting, he said, because why wouldn’t you want your mother to be orgasming? The only way that sentence would be offensive, Knauff said, would be if it included the adverb “poorly.”
Despite the hiccups of silence, Anwar ended the show with his compliments to the audience.
The Toronto Comedy All-Stars will be returning to the NAC in March.
