Ron James gets sharp: ‘I’m all about content’
PREVIEW
What: Ron James Where: Royal Theatre When: Tonight, 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $57.50 (Royal box office 250-386-6121)
Ron James is disdainful of Canadian comics who he believes trade on fame rather than substance.
He’s not a fan of Russell Peters or Howie Mandel, for instance. At the recent Juno Awards, Peters drew widespread criticism for calling young women in the audience a “felony waiting to happen.”
“It wasn’t a joke. It was a misogynistic throwaway. It was lazy,” said James, interviewed from a tour stop in Kelowna this week.
“Russell’s a lazy comedian. And I’m all about content. The people who hired Russell got bit in the ass, but they’re shameless star **** ers. It’s fame that got Russell there, fame and money.”
James is also critical of the hiring of Howie Mandel as host of the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards. Again, he believes it’s an example of the powers-that-be enlisting celebrity over bona-fide talent.
“Show business is a myopic, navel-gazing cabal of self-serving individuals who are fond of their own flatulence,” James said.
Such comments are typical of this Toronto-based comedian, a five-foot-four dynamo with an auctioneer’s rat-a-tat delivery and a university professor’s vocabulary.
James is known across Canada for such TV series as Blackfly and five seasons of the Ron James Show. He’s now touring B.C. after a three-year absence.
Although a familiar face in this country, James has yet to achieve the international celebrity of Peters or Mandel (he insists he doesn’t criticize them “out of jealousy” as he makes a “very good living”).
James, 59, was educated in the comedy school of hard knocks. The Nova Scotia native was a late bloomer who did his first professional standup gig at the age of 37. Before that, he did improv with Toronto’s Second City Comedy troupe. James then spent three rejection-peppered years trying to make it in Los Angeles before returning to Canada. Over the past 15 years, he has built up a loyal theatre audience touring this country.
James’s comedy is a satirical ping-pong through current events — his targets in Victoria will likely include Justin Trudeau (“Mr. Sunny Ways”) as well as Donald Trump and his party of “kleptocratic rubes.”
His delivery reflects a love of language. As James describes it: “I love the way words trip off the tongue and tickle the ear as well as the funny bone.”
He believes he has improved over 15 years of touring, now delivering shows that are more focused and sharply honed. James was embarrassed a few years back when a Just for Laughs TV special broadcast an old routine from 2002.
“I just couldn’t watch it. I was like Stephen Leacock on Benzedrine. It was mental, it was crazy. There was no control. It was an awful set.”
Years on the road taught James hard-won lessons. He advises aspiring comedians that you “have to fail and be willing to fail” at first. Also, he believes Canadians dislike mean-spirited humour.
These days, James says he’s more comfortable in his own skin. He takes more chances on stage. He isn’t afraid to get controversial.
By way of example, he told a joke about working up a pool of sweat in hot yoga class, wondering why the Nestlé corporation didn’t “stake a claim” to the unclaimed body of water. The routine ends with James declaring that if water must be given for free, it ought to go to indigenous communities in Canada. After all, they’re still boiling their water supplies as a safeguard.
It’s humour with a slight political edge. At the same time, James still believes his main job is to deliver entertaining shows that make his audiences happy.
“I want people leaving the theatre lighter than when they came in. I think it’s the comedian’s job to carry the knapsack for a while on the journey,” he said.