By Megan Mooney
I wasn’t sure I wanted to trek all the way to Saint John for the Canadian Comedy Awards, but I’m glad I did.
This year is the 10th anniversary of the awards, and this has been a great way to celebrate that. The Imperial Theatre in Saint John is beautiful and provides a pomp and circumstance that the awards deserve.
In the world of arts awards, comedy often gets short shrift. It’s as though established awards don’t think that comedy is artful enough. Let me tell you though, comedy? Not an easy thing to pull off. There were an incredible number of very talented people nominated this year, and they worked their asses off to get there.
Unfortunately these are awards that aren’t very well known in the broader world, but I do think that’s changing slowly but surely. The awards were being filmed, although not being broadcast live. It would be great if we got to a point where it was broadcast live on The Comedy Network, but it’s possible that the comedy crowd is a bit to “blue” for a live broadcast. But there were moments last night where I thought I might pee myself I was laughing so hard, I think that’s the kind of thing that’s worth broadcasting.
The fun for me started on the the plane from Toronto. I would say 80% of our flight was filled with folks heading to the awards. There was a bit of a current of excitement, lots of laughing and talking to folks that I didn’t know. It felt a bit like we were going to camp or something.
But the awards are actually only one part of the festivities, so, for folks in Saint John the fun started on Wednesday with the Funniest Person in New Brunswick contest. It’s 5 days of festivities, in fact, on Friday, the night of the awards, there were then two more comedy shows. There have been shows in various venues across Saint John, bringing lots of laughs to lots of people. All of the events are open to the public, there were people at the awards who had bought tickets to watch the festivities. Maybe next year they’ll get to see them on television!
And, here’s some late-breaking news for you, apparently there’s a party tonight that I’m supposed to be at. Apparently comics are a resilient bunch with a great deal of stamina.