Comic has a host of stories ready for Okanagan audiences
One of Derek Edwards’ favourite stories — and believe me, he has thousands of them — is his very first comedy performance three decades ago.
The 59-year-old Canadian stand-up comedian and actor who performs at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 27 at Kelowna Community Theatre (and Oct. 28 at Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre) describes his first show as “so terrible” that it took a year before he ventured on stage again.
“It was the weirdest thing. I’m in downtown Toronto and I asked if there was anyone from my hometown. I’m from a little mining town eight hours north and there was a table full of people from that town. The coincidence was unbelievable. And coincidentally, they were all hammered,” he said in an interview from his Ontario home.
“When I asked, in jest, as a joke, if there was anyone from Timmins and I hear this gigantic screaming howling recognition, I stumbled and forgot where I was going, of course. So the next five minutes were more like five days,’” he said with a laugh.
“It didn’t occur to me to improvise like ‘I moved out-of-town to get away from you ***holes.’ Instead, I wandered off five minutes later in tears. It took about a year to work up the nerve to try it again. If I had gone through that five times in a row, I’d be a great carpenter right now, I swear to God. I try not to look back.”
Edwards is a regular at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal where he was recently hailed as a “virtuoso at the peak of his performance,.” He is the only Canadian winner of the Vail International Comedy Competition, is a two-time Gemini nominee and has been nominated numerous times as Best Standup Comic at the Canadian Comedy Awards.
His numerous TV credits include The New Red Green Show, A&E’s Comedy on the Road, Just For Laughs and CBC’s Comics.
Fresh off a tour of the Maritimes, Edwards is coming to British Columbia for 10 dates, then hitting the Prairies before completing a swing through Ontario on his “driveathon.”
Reserved seating tickets are $47.50 (including convenience charges) from Select Your Tickets in Kelowna and Ticket Seller in Vernon.
He prepares a stack of material for a tour, but is constantly adding local flavour. By the end of his Maritimes’ tour, for example, there was 20-25 minutes of East Coast jokes.
“It really morphed while I was on the road. It was about the neighbourhood in a sense. The best thing that could happen is if I could have similar good fortune out there. I’m keen for it. It’s the Alls I’m Saying Tour, the most Canadian title for a show that’s ever been done,” he said.
“It’s just like a Thanksgiving dinner: you have the meat and potatoes pretty much figured out, and the rest you kind of throw in for garnish. That’s the terrifying part, of course: doing something that’s untried. Stand-up has a precipitous learning curve; it’s like a U-turn really. That first night is just a nail-biter. You keep rolling the dice, but people have been good to me so far.”
Unlike many comedians who focus on U.S. President Donald Trump, Edwards tends to veer away from politics.
“It’s so hard to keep up. It divides people you know and you want to bring a crowd together as much as you can. You can certainly have a little air of superiority over our southern neighbours for a change with the ridiculous decisions they’ve been making over the last year. From football players to musicians, everybody’s taking a swipe at the guy. That’s why I try not to make it a big point or a highlight of the night talking about Trump because people are getting tired of it. But it’s one of those rubberneck things for something on the other side of the highway. You just can’t take your eyes off the carnage.”
Married more than 20 years, Edwards pays tribute to his wife, Dawn, who is earning rave reviews as an eBook author under the nom-deplume Judith Jackson.
She figures out where he has to drive, maps it out and even prepares a list of people he should meet-and-greet at each stop.
“She gives me this package that says Tour for Dummies. It truly is for dummies and I bless her heart for it. I think that’s why she’s OK on her own; she likes to talk to adults once in a while. And I don’t quite fit the bill,” Edwards said with another laugh.
“She does some writing, you know. I’m sure there’s an occasional numbnut character (like him) but I’m never one of the protagonists. I don’t think I warrant that much attention.”