Canadian Comedy Origin+

SOME ISSUES WITH HOW TO PROCEED ON STUDYING CANADIAN COMEDY SKETCH=

• Comedy is fluid and travels (always changing)

• Many history books (and the lone Canadian comedy history book) tend to have an inherent (possibly) colonial bias

• There is limited information on early troupes/works

WHERE DOES CANADIAN COMEDY FIT IN THE WORLD?

• Canada can be seen as a go-between for the US and Britain (the relay station of comedy for these places since they didn’t like each other very much at this time)

• Ideas pass from Britain to the US via Canada

• English Canada has a foot in the US and another in the UK

• Canada serves as “cultural translators”

  
  

Comedy comes from Europe

• formed in Europe

“COMEDY IS TRAGEDY PLUS TIME”

• lived experiences is the source of ,many jokes for comedians (a way of dealing with it)

• comedy often arises from situations that were once tragic or painful, but as time passes, people can find humor in them.

COMIC TERMINOLOGY

• To Kill = Had a great set

• To Bomb = Did terribly

• “I slayed them!” = A really great set

• “I died out there.” = A very bad set

• “The audience wanted blood.” = A difficult crowd