COMEDIAN’S BIG HEART
Elias helps fundraiser
Joey Elias grew up in a household in which giving back was what people did: His parents were involved in community organizations, as were his grandparents. And so he gives back, too. “I learned from them,” he said. The Montreal-based comedian has played in more charity golf tournaments than you could shake a stick at — he is right-handed, but golfs left — and hosted community fundraisers here and in other provinces on behalf of schools, children’s organizations, Dreams Take Flight, Kiwanis clubs and more, as well as organizations raising money to fight diseases from ALS to diabetes.
Diabetes hits close to home for Elias: After learning 12 years ago that he has diabetes, he lost a considerable amount of weight — and has kept it off. He took to walking “a ton” as exercise. “I start and I can’t stop,” he said. “I put the headphones on (he listens to everything from “old-timey rock” to angry rap) and leave the phone at home,” he said.
Elias, 44, has entertained Canadian troops in Afghanistan (twice), in Rwanda, in Haiti, up at Canadian Forces Station Alert on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island, and at military bases across Canada. “And if they called tomorrow, I would be, ‘When do I leave?’ I think the soldiers deserve to be entertained more than anyone.”
On Thursday, Elias will be at Club Soda with comics Laurence Corber, Emma Eilkie, Darren Henwood, Ellie MacDonald, Habib Siam and Leonard Yelle in the fifth annual Joey Elias and the Comedy All Stars benefit show in support of On Our Own (O3). Henwood will host the event.
O3 is a Montreal-based organization that provides stable and affordable housing and life-skills support to young, vulnerable atrisk parents who need support to flourish; they need to learn budgeting, parenting, cooking as well as anger-management skills, said O3 director Fiona Keats.
Said Elias: “We talk about poverty and the homeless but we don’t realize that, right in our own neighbourhoods, there is need. I am a big ‘support local’ guy. Montreal has so many great communities.”
In person, he is imposing — he stands a broad-shouldered 6-foot4 — and in a gig at the Comedy Nest last Thursday, he razzed a few of the people in the crowd, ribbing a fellow who said he was working on a PhD in time management, for instance: “Hey, you — Dr. Time,” he called out.
But Esteban Vargas, the producer on his nightly gig as host of the CJAD Comedy Show from 11 p.m. to midnight, says Elias is someone who goes to bat for colleagues and for what he believes.
“He has got just such a big heart,” he said.
“He is very appreciative of everyone’s time and collaboration and he genuinely does appreciate how others make him shine,” he said. “He can look intimidating, but down inside, he has a very old-school nature. He is thankful for the people around him — to the friends, family, co-workers and the people who have his back.
“He has fought for producers, whether it has to do with work or personal conflicts,” said Vargas. “He will stand up for anyone he believes in ... he has spoken for people who don’t have a voice. “Years ago, he came across someone who was abusing his girlfriend in the street and he went up to them and split it up because he didn’t think it was right.”
Physically imposing as Elias is, “he is a kid inside,” said Vargas. “He likes having fun doing what he is doing. He has a schoolgirl giggle when he is having a blast. His whole body just shakes and he lights up and turns red ... it’s interesting to witness — and it’s contagious. That’s why everyone likes to work with him.”
A veteran of 16 Just for Laughs festivals, Elias continues to play clubs. “People ask: ‘Why do you do the small rooms?’ I’ll never leave the clubs, really. You can’t forget where you came from.”
That said, he loves radio. It requires
a different skill set from the one needed before a live audience, where he’ll hear if a joke gets a laugh. “In radio, you are in the room by yourself: ‘I hope that worked,’ you say. But that’s kind of the beauty of it: Every night is a different atmosphere. Every day is a new adventure. It’s Neverland, and that’s the way I look at life. I will continue to age, but I don’t have to grow up.”
Elias is big on paying tribute to his elders and people who were influential in his career,” said Vargas — people like the late Ernie Butler, a comedy impresario in Montreal for nearly 30 years, and comedian DJ McCarthy. “He sees them as the pioneers that have laid the groundwork.”
He is generous, too, in his support of up-and-coming comics. “To him, that is giving back the way he was helped when he was starting,” said Vargas. “He has had his mentors — and now he is paying it forward.”
Elias is big on charities, big on fundraisers, big on Montreal — but there’s one thing Vargas has a problem with. “He is big on the Bruins. A Montrealer rooting for the Bruins: I always razz him for it.”