Finesse your way through comedy; Team of Just For Laughs packs theatres across Canada (The Province)

When Saturday Night Live alumnus Finesse Mitchell agreed to host the cross-Canada Just For Laughs comedy tour, he had no idea Barack Obama would be the Democratic nominee for president. So he jumped at the chance to perform standup in packed theatres from Hamilton to Victoria (the tour makes its Vancouver stop tomorrow at the Centre).

"Had I known he was going to win, I would have probably not done the tour because I wanted to be in the States," he says on the phone from a stop in sunny Saskatoon. "I thought Hillary was going to win. I'm like, 'I'm outta here. I'm going to Canada!' "

Obama's victory was an emotional time for the 36-year-old former University of Miami football player. "I cried and I cried watching other people cry," he says. "Every time I stopped crying, they showed somebody who was crying and then I started crying."

And then there were the missed social events. Mitchell was a frat guy in college and obviously still likes a good party. "Just the other day in Miami they had a Barack Obama bikini contest. It was like 80 degrees. So they gave me a call. They were like, 'Hey, Finesse, we want you to come down and be a judge. You in town?' I'm like, 'I'm in Saskatoon!' They're like, 'Where is that?' 'Somewhere very cold.'"

But Mitchell is having a blast criss-crossing his northern neighbour with a coterie of international comics featuring Canada's Pete Zedlacher, Ireland's David O'Doherty, Britain's Hal Cruttenden, with special guest Danny Bhoy from Scotland.

"We've become a small little family now," says Mitchell. "It's so funny because they're always talking about their history and who invaded who and who owes who what, who's in debt to who and all that type of stuff. Everywhere we go we're cracking jokes."

His three seasons on Saturday Night Live were two-thirds a joy. His last year was, he says, "a bit of a struggle and challenge. The cast was huge and it was hard getting my sketches on. I started losing confidence in what I thought my funny was."

After being let go, he suffered the usual actor's insecurities. "I thought the phone wasn't going to ring," he says. "You get terrified when you leave a show like SNL: 'Man, what's going to happen next?'"

Luckily, the phone kept ringing and he booked two movies, Who's Your Caddy? and The Comebacks, as well as signing a book deal, which became Your Girlfriends Only Know So Much, a dating advice book for African-American women. "I just basically took all my experiences and the experiences from my boys, who were thugs, professional athletes, doctors, lawyers, teachers and unemployed PlayStation dudes and put them out in one book and made a hit, man," he says.

On stage, Mitchell covers relationships, politics, pop culture and enjoys playing with the crowd.

"I'm always messing with the front row," he says. "So Vancouver, if you don't want to get messed with, don't sit in the front row. Especially with the wrong type of shirt on."

The show runs like clockwork, with Mitchell doing 10 minutes off the top and 10 more in the middle, but he freely admits he likes to talk.

"Sometimes I run long. It's hard for me to stick to my time. I've got a lot to say," he laughs.

Because, hey, sometimes you need a little Finesse; sometimes you need a lot.

Just letting the funny out; No parody of Match Game, more like the real thing (The Province)

Forget The French Connection, Farrah Fawcett-Majors or the Fonz, the real cultural icon of the 1970s was ________.

If you said, Match Game, ding-ding-ding! You win.

The game show featuring the blankety-blank questions has had several incarnations over the years, but the version hosted by Gene Rayburn from 1973 to 1982 was the perfect fusion of comedy and competition, becoming, for several of those years anyway, the highest-rated program in all of daytime TV.

Marcia Wallace, best known for her role as Bob's receptionist Carol in The Bob Newhart Show, was a regular panelist on many a game show back in the day. But her favourite remains Match Game, where fun was the order of the day.

"Are you kidding me?," she says on the phone from her home in L.A. "It was as close as you get for being paid for going to a party as you'll ever find. It was wonderful."

Party indeed. "People drank in those days," she says. As is the schedule with all game shows, numerous episodes are taped on a given day. The first two or three were fine. "Then we had some lunch where there was definitely a couple of drinks. Nobody was ever falling down but certainly things got looser. They absolutely got looser."

The camaraderie and looseness was a big part of its success. And it couldn't have worked without the right emcee to bring those personalities together.

"There was no better host in the world ever than Gene Rayburn," says Wallace. "He was funny, he was sassy, he was naughty, he kept the game going, he made the contestants feel good, he set up the celebrities. He was perfect."

Which is no knock on Jimmy Pardo, the L.A.-based comedian who has been hosting a live version of the game for three years. Pardo, who once hosted National Lampoon's Funny Money on the Game Show Network, brings the same dynamic to the live show, which will play the Firehall Arts Centre this weekend as part of the Global ComedyFest. Panelists like Wallace, Janeane Garofalo, Andy Richter and Brian Posehn will be on hand to supply answers for a lucky audience member.

Make no mistake, this is no ironic alternative comedy lampoon of the game show.

"I think the trick was not to do it as a parody," says Pardo, no relation to the occasional Match Game TV announcer, Don Pardo, although he gets asked that question about 500 times a day. "Just play the game and the funny will come out."

Getting his comedic peers to join in was half the battle, too.

"Every time they tried to bring Match Game back on TV," he says, "they put six people on the stage and then they tried to recreate or force this chemistry that doesn't exist. And it just doesn't work. Whereas the one that we bring up to Vancouver, we all know each other. And we're able to laugh at each other. If somebody tells you your answer sucks, you're able to laugh about it as opposed to going, 'Why is Jim J. Bullock telling me I'm not funny?'"

Even the 65-year-old Wallace is right at home. "Boy is she great," says Pardo. "She fits right in. She's sharp, she's funny and she brings a little bit of history to the game. And she's not afraid to go a little blue if she needs to. She's just a joy to be around."

With a renaissance in TV game shows hosted mainly by comics, is there a place for Pardo back on the tube?

"Sadly they're famous comics," says the self-deprecating Pardo. "They're taking my job and I'm going to have to whack Howie Mandel in the back of the head with a two-by-four."

***

Match Game isn't the only show in town. Other festival highlights include:

- Asssscat, Firehall Arts Centre, tonight at 9, tomorrow night at 7: New York's Upright Citizen's Brigade brings its acclaimed one-hour long-form improv show to Canada for the first time. One word from the audience sends a guest monologist (tonight it will be Andy Richter) off on an improvised monologue, which in turn sets in motion a series of scenes from the rest of the cast, including Saturday Night Live alumnus Tim Meadows.

- Charlie Murphy, Lafflines Comedy Club, tonight through Saturday: Murphy isn't just the older brother of superstar Eddie Murphy, he's a stand-up comedian in his own right, best known for his supporting role on Chappelle's Show. Depending on the night, you'll see a combination of Brent Weinbach, Ian Bagg, Ryan Belleville, Peter Kelamis and Jeffery Yu opening the show.

- Rockomedy, Firehall Arts Centre, tomorrow and Saturday, 11 p.m.: If music be your bag, this is the show for you. Brian Posehn of Just Shoot Me and The Sarah Silverman Program hosts. Guests include the Andy Kaufman Award winner Reggie Watts, the musical duo Hard 'n' Phirm, and Howard Kremer's rap alter ego Dragon Boy Suede.

- Best of the Fest, The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts, Saturday, 8 p.m.: If you can only get to one show, this one encapsulates the highlights of the past two weeks. Hosted by the hugely popular Ron James, it features a star-studded cast, including Janeane Garofalo, Todd Barry, Stewart Francis, and Jon Dore among others.

Do you know Who in the Hell is Todd Allen?; Comic wants it more up close and personal (The Province)

Pity the lot of the working stand-up comics. Out in the trenches killing people with laughter from town to town, working their way up to theatres and national television exposure. Do they get stopped on the street? Does anyone remember their name? Not so much.

Todd Allen knows this all too well. The 29-year-old comedian has played the prestigious Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, had his own Comedy Now! TV special, and earlier this year became the first Vancouver-based comic to appear on a U.S. late night talk show when he guested on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

"I'm no different than any other comedian in Canada trying to carve out a career," he says. "Some of my credits are pretty fancy-dancy but nobody knows who the hell I am."

And that's the premise of his new one-man show, premiering at Studio 16 during the Fringe Fest. Who the Hell is Todd Allen? allows the Victoria native to tell stories about his life without the rat-a-tat delivery that is often expected in stand-up shows.

"It's still very funny but I don't feel the pressure right away to have to give a really quick dumb joke so that they know I'm funny. You have a little bit more leeway with a show like this. It's not so much, 'What have you done for me in the last four seconds?'"

Allen says that much of the show will be based on his stand-up act and characters he's developed over the years, admitting that the difference between his club act and the one-man show is maybe imperceptible.

"It may be more for the performer than the audience what the difference is. It's kind of self-indulgent doing a one-man show. Even stand-up itself is quite self-indulgent, I think. 'Who the hell is this guy to be doing this?'"

He got the idea when he started experimenting with using no microphone doing his act. As subtle as that may seem, he felt he was able to better communicate with the crowd. And the idea cemented when he saw Henry Rollins perform.

"I was blown away," he recalls. "His stories are very engaging and very funny. And he's obviously trying to communicate his thoughts and feelings to an audience as opposed to just trying to get a reaction out of them like stereotypical stand-up comedy does. I still like stand-up, obviously, but I find that there's some meaning in trying to communicate with people."

It's all part of his love-hate relationship with his chosen profession. In his eight years of stand-up, he says he's quit probably 17 times. What keeps him coming back?

"It's just better than everything else, you know?"

ON STAGE

Who the Hell is Todd Allen?

Where: Studio 16, 1565 W. 7th Ave.

When: Sept. 6-14

Bullard still at the mic (The Province)

Bullard still at the mic

Comedy Showdown: Former TV host hoping to wind up in radio

 

The Province, February 21, 2008

In the U.S., late-night talk-show hosts are a dime a dozen. The three major networks have six among them. But in Canada, there’s only been one of note. And he’s been gone since 2004.

Open Mike with Mike Bullard hit the air back in 1997 on CTV in front of a miniscule crowd of about 100 at the back of a Toronto restaurant. His round face shadowed by a day’s growth of whiskers, and quick put-downs of anyone in his sights, were an instant hit with Canadians.

The show moved to bigger digs, attracted bigger guests, and he was sitting pretty. By 2003 Bullard had done 1,100 shows and his contract was up. Foolishly, he left, signing up with the rival Global network. Six weeks later, buh-bye.

“I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to try some place else and see what happens,’” he says now. “I could have gone back [to CTV]. Do I wish I had? Many times. But I don’t look back. I try to look forward.”

In this age where it seems anything that ever hit the airwaves is available on DVD, it’s surprising there’s no highlight package from Open Mike. Bullard gets asked that all the time but has no answer. It seems that maybe only a public clamouring for one might get it done. There’s certainly no shortage of memorable moments, like the time he asked Julian Lennon who his favourite Beatle was, or when the late Mitch Hedberg made one of his first TV appearances, or when the sitting prime minister paid a visit.

Bullard’s all-time favourite show was when Ricky Martin arrived at the height of his fame. The host was told that under no circumstances was he to ask him any questions about his sexual preference. Bullard being Bullard decided to have a little on-air fun. As he tells it, “We do the interview and it’s going really well and we’re almost at the end. And I go, ‘Listen, Ricky, I don’t want to pry but I gotta tell you I’d be remiss in my duties if I didn’t ask you this question.’ And you could just see the colour go right out of his face. I said, ‘But if I don’t ask you this question I really won’t be able to look in the mirror tomorrow morning.’ And he stutters and stammers and goes, ‘W-w-what is it?’ And I go, ‘Are you Spanish or Puerto Rican?’”

After his cancellation, Bullard started doing corporate gigs with his standup act before landing a gig as a morning guy on XM radio. The station ran out of money, as he puts it, but Bullard thinks he’s found his calling.

“That’s where I want to wind up,” he says, whether it’s satellite or terrestrial radio. “There’s none of this, ‘Hey, let’s write this, let’s go over it 25 times and put it on the show tomorrow.’ It’s right there and now.”

Bullard has always been about the here and now. Abandoning any prepared material early in his standup career, he started concentrating on crowd work. He’s one of the few comics working today who can go a whole hour just spritzing with folks. You can see him in action at Yuk Yuk’s tonight through Saturday hosting the Comedy Showdown competition.

His impressive memory doesn’t forget a name or relevant piece of information throughout the night. It’s not anything he works on; it just comes naturally.

“I don’t know what it is,” he says. “I guess I’ve never lost a brain cell through drugs or booze because I never drank or anything. On the down side, I’m up all night with sparks going off in my head. That makes me wish I had had a drink once in a while.”