Finding the funny
Comedian Jim Gaffigan mines his life and love of food for comedy
Sipping from a cup of coffee, comedian Jim Gaffigan leans forward and drops the hammer.
“You don’t like peanut butter cup ice cream?” he exclaims. “I love peanut butter cup. That’s why we can’t get married.”
Gaffigan, 53, has built a standup career making observations about food (he even wrote a book about his fascination — 2014’s Food: A Love Story). But he’s enjoyed success by honing an act inspired by observations from his own life.
In addition to authoring books, playing sold-out shows, starring in a sitcom and having a burgeoning film career, Gaffigan helped make comedy specials must-binge TV on Netflix. Now he’s bringing Quality Time, his seventh hour-long special, to Amazon Prime Video. His new tour returns to Canada early next year
Q So in Quality Time you take aim at people who untuck their shirts. I’m a guy who wears untucked shirts.
A I’m an untucked shirt guy, as well. That self-deprecating thing is a key element in my humour. It establishes vulnerability. If you look at someone like Richard Pryor, the guy onstage is pretty profoundly vulnerable. People respond to that.
Q You also talk about many things in Quality Time. How did you decide what to put in?
A For my last special, Jim Gaffigan: Noble Ape, I was revealing the story of what had happened in the last six months (including his wife’s battle with a brain tumour). But I think that Quality Time is much more of finding a topic and taking it apart, whether it be marathons or horses, or the heat and summer. If it’s important to me, I’ll kind of overanalyze it. And I think that’s where some of the gems are ... It’s not the British kind of humour where there’s a larger theme.
Q Do you ever latch onto an idea for a joke that you can’t let go of even if it doesn’t work?
A There are ideas that I love that are maybe not in a joke yet, but I’m kind of confident that they’ll get there. I have a few right now — and some of these might sound lame — but I want to do a bit on low testosterone. I just think that’s a funny idea. Also, there’s someone in the Village People, the band, that’s dressed like a biker. I wonder: how do bikers feel about that? Like that just seems incongruous to me.
Q Canada is really nice in the summer. Why do you want to return here in January when it’s brutally cold?
A Whether it’s an ideal time to go to Lethbridge (Alta.) doesn’t matter. What matters is that I have all this material on Canada that I want to try. I know it’s a kind of lazy stereotype that Canadians are polite and nice, but they also are great comedy audiences. And that’s a lazy stereotype, too. And I’m like, “Yeah, I want to come for the good comedy audiences.”
Q Do you have a favourite Canadian delicacy?
A You know, the poutine thing is very complex. You can’t complain about cheese curds, gravy and fries, right? But I don’t even think even calling that a delicacy is fair. Now, that’s not to say that it isn’t high end. There was a time I was in Ottawa in April, and they were celebrating their second poutine festival of the year. So I understand the value of it. I wish I liked salmon, but I don’t. I think there’s good Indian food here, too. I know oysters are a big thing, but I find them kind of disgusting.
For a full list of Jim Gaffigan’s Secrets & Pies tour dates, visit jimgaffigan.com/tour-dates. mdaniell@postmedia.com
Twitter: @markhdaniell