“Pretend like the next comic I am introducing is One Direction and you are all 13-year-old girls. Hmmm, not a big laugh on that one. Let’s try: pretend they are the Backstreet Boys, and you are all 13-year-old girls.”
That got some screams, and that’s how comedian Craig Fay warmed up the crowd at the National Arts Centre (NAC) on Sept. 26.
Toronto Comedy All Stars had their third annual show at the NAC with a diverse lineup headlined by Martha Chaves.
Other comedians included Carleton alumni Rebecca Reeds and the producer himself, Danish Anwar.
“Spelled like the dessert, I know, I’ve heard all the jokes,” Anwar laughed.
There was complete agreement from all the comics, after the show, that the audience was amazing.
“The ladies that were laughing the hardest were . . . the oldest women in the place, and they were laughing their asses off,” Anwar said. “The dirtier the better!”
“The very first time I came here, a lot of people warned us that it’s the NAC, it’s going to be stuffy, don’t be too dirty, don’t be too this, they are old, blah blah blah,” Anwar said.
Despite these worries, the group performed sold-out show to a diverse audience.
Reeds, whose act focused on her sex life, said “older doesn’t necessarily mean [squeamish]. Someone told me this, that every generation wants to pretend they invented the blowjob. They fucking know.”
Anwar explained “that was the kind of thing that we were told not to do here: ‘Don’t say pussy, don’t say or do sexual things . . . this is an opera place.’ But these are human beings who want to be entertained.”
Anwar said he loved the mixed audience of Ottawa and the NAC and called the city “one of [his] favourite places to do comedy.”
Fourth-year Carleton students Zoe Chong and Erica Howes said they liked the show. “It had a really good variety of people, who got to know the crowd. . . and the headliner, she was really good,” Howes said.
“My face kind of hurts from smiling,” Howes said.
Martha Chaves, who is from Nicaragua and headlined the show, explained her method of stand-up in her second language.
“The secret is, whenever it looks spontaneous [it] is because you are doing it well,” she said. “We have done the jokes many other times, and . . . It’s a lot of work!”
Anwar said it is the commitment and reactions of the audience that makes him want to do his job.
“People have made time out of their evening for this. They found a babysitter, parking, paid for tickets, had dinner, fought with each other, and then they sat down,” Anwar said. “You have to entertain them.”
