`WEIRD LITTLE WORLD'
Comedy trio to perform at Grindstone
Toronto comedian Andrew Packer was starting a Southeast Asia tour in early 2020, aiming to end up working the comedy circuit in Australia for a year or so — when the ever-reliable buzzkill pandemic blew out the old plan's candle.
“I was in Chagall, in the Philippines, on a tiny island with maybe 50,000 people on it,” notes the 27-year-old, telling the story over the phone right before getting on his first plane — here to Alberta — in more than a year.
Packer and his comedy colleagues Che Durena and Jacob Balshin are on a mostly smalltown Alberta-b.c. tour, stopping at Grindstone in Edmonton on Wednesday.
Back to this pandemic story. “When the world shuts down, and you're on this little island, it was a pretty nerve-racking experience for sure.”
A self-confessed pro-pot comedian, you can see some of his routines on Youtube when he was stuck in the Philippines, where he jokes onstage about how the police will shoot you if you're caught with marijuana … though it turns out mind-altering mushrooms are just fine.
That wasn't the only thing that was upside-down. While the rest of the world was in isolation, Packer was performing in front of a crowd of hundreds, and marvels at this in the footage. “Obviously the Philippines was hit pretty hard,” he notes on the phone, “but there weren't really cases on the island, and they were super vigilant about restricting access — so we were in our own weird little world.”
His tropical quarantine ended up being, dig this, eight months — infecting his stand-up routine with stories of climbing coconut trees. Fortunately, his longtime girlfriend (now-fiancée) was with him, and besides hanging out on beaches, the two ended up helping out with an NGO school. They also got really spectacular at clam fishing.
“Basically,” he explains, “you take a machete and you dig into certain spots during low tide in the ocean. Our first time, we got, like, four clams. But by two months in, we were getting like 35 clams in an hour and a half session.”
Being cut off from the weed had an impact, too. “Even since getting back, my consumption hasn't adjusted back to what it was before,” he says. “I think I've actually found a happier and healthier balance in my life, to be honest.”
In case you couldn't tell, Packer's swell at telling stories, and this is the basic style of his comedy — a mix of shrugging confessional and really quick-on-his feet crowd work, where he asks a lot of questions of his audience, bring them into the act.
As he and Durena and Balshin are about to hit towns like Grande Cache, Redwater and Bonnyville for the rest of the month, I wonder if he and the big city boys are at all apprehensive … but it turns out that the three are all in Toronto via growing up in small communities: Oshawa, Port Coquitlam and suburban Thornhill.
Bonus, they already toured Alberta in 2018 and loved it.
“When we play a comedy club downtown in any major city,” Packer explains, “usually there's staff that do crowd control. And if someone's kind of talkative, if they're too drunk, they might move them out.
“But when we play small-town Alberta and someone's shouting out and piping up, it's not just some guy that can be thrown out — it's Jim, and Jim drinks there every single day of the week.
“So you've got a different dynamic of how you handle hecklers and handle an audience and kind of commanding the stage.”
As an act under the banner JNT (Jokes 'n' Tokes), Packer, Durena and Balshin are almost a variety show of sorts, each with a distinct comedic approach.
Packer says he's the guy in a longterm relationship, while Durena's a bit edgier, “a man of the night,” Packer laughs. “He explores a lot of topics that I don't cover, like climate change. Also like comic books and stuff like that — the DC Universe and Marvel Universe.”
Balshin, meanwhile, “is our little Jewish boy that we love having around, interweaving songs that are comedic throughout his set — and it just adds such variety.
“It has grown to be more than just a pure stand-up show,” he says. “I respect both of them so much and seeing them go on stage every night and bring new things to that table just motivates me further. So, yeah, we have a healthy competition thing going on, too,” he laughs.
Even if you're not in Edmonton for the Wednesday show, you can catch all this in action into September — with stops in Grande Cache Saturday and Sunday, on to Grande Prairie, Mayerthorpe, Redwater, Egerton, Bonnyville, Lac La Biche, Drumheller, Okotoks, Banff, Kimberley, Creston, Crawford Bay and, finally, Camrose on Sept. 5.
The detailed itinerary is at linktr. ee/jntcomedy.
If you're in the Philippines, however, you'll have to wait a bit till Packer is back — though not forever.
“My fiancée and I want to go back there and get married,” he says. “And dig up some more clams, of course.”