Cracking Ottawa’s first comedy festival,
Event expands to create Ottawa’s first comedy festival
Cracking-Up the Capital is taking an ambitious leap this year, expanding to four nights in a bid to become Ottawa’s first comedy festival.
The annual comedy night that has raised awareness and cash for mental health issues has grown steadily since it began in 2004. Last year, the successful Cracking-Up comedy gala at the NAC hosted by Patrick McKenna convinced organizers that Ottawa was ready for a festival spread over several days.
“We decided we’re going to go full out,” said John Helmkay, who co-founded Cracking-Up and is the group’s president.
Organizers hope to fill at least 75 per cent of the 4,100 seats available for the four shows running Feb. 6 to 9.
Cracking Up 2013 has attracted some big names, including McKenna, improv veteran Colin Mochrie and Canadian funny woman Nikki Payne.
The goal is to keep growing as Ottawa’s first comedy festival, while still raising money for worthy causes and helping to destigmatize mental illness, Helmkay said.
This year there are three themed nights — covering aboriginal, youth and women’s issues — and a grand finale at the NAC hosted by McKenna and featuring Big Daddy Tazz, John Wing, Tracey McDonald and Don Kelly. McKenna, who signed on as master of ceremonies for the gala last year, has helped bring Cracking-Up the Capital to a “whole new level,” said Helmkay.
McKenna, best known for his roles on TV’s The Red Green Show and Traders, “knows everyone,” Helmkay said, from standup comics to television and film personalities.
The festival was able to book Mochrie, the improv genius behind the show Whose Line Is it Anyway?, to host an improv battle between University of Ottawa and Carleton teams, because Mochrie and McKenna are friends.
The performers are working for cut rates because the shows are fundraisers for Ottawa organizations.
Helmkay says awareness of mental health issues has improved considerably since he began working with the Royal Ottawa Hospital’s volunteer group more than a decade ago. Back then, he often got puzzled reactions to his choice of charity work.
“People would say, ‘ Why are you volunteering for a mental hospital?’ ”
These days, not so much. “Everyone you generally talk to understands now that mental health is just as important as physical health,” said Helmkay, an engineer at Health Canada. “We’re not just seeing it any more as the institutionalized and the crazy. We know it affects all of us, and if it doesn’t affect us directly, within every family there is almost always a connection.”
There has been a lot of attention paid to depression and youth suicide in recent years, helping bring mental health issues into the mainstream, he said.
But “we are not all the way there,” he notes — especially when it comes to people personally acknowledging a problem with mental illness, alcoholism or addiction.
“There is still that stigmatization that personally goes with that. They are still viewed as weaker, or that they are lacking in some way. But we are making great strides.”
A comedy festival raising awareness and money for mental health issues seems likes a natural fit. Everyone expects comics to have a delightfully skewed version of the world.
“There’s nothing funny about mental illness, it’s true,” said Helmkay. “But when you look at these comics, it’s always coming from their own perspectives. We’re laughing about the illness, but we’re not laughing at the person. The comedy is really based on their experiences in recovering from it.
“The message is about hope and recovery, not so much about the illness itself.”
And, he says half-jokingly, Ottawa is the depression capital of Canada, so there should be no problem finding people who can relate.
The shows raise money for several Ottawa organizations: The Royal Ottawa Hospital and its mental health program, the Amethyst Women’s Addiction Centre, the Youth Services Bureau, the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre and the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health.
The festival hopes to raise $30,000 to $50,000.
It’s a partner with Winterlude this year, which will help it gain attention and promotion.
Cracking-Up the Capital operates with about 10 volunteers and a budget of $75,000, raised mainly from ticket sales, with a cash contribution from VerTerra Corp. and inkind donations of things such as hotel rooms and restaurant meals. It receives no government grants.