What does it take to be the nation’s best male stand-up of the year?
After chatting with the award’s recipient, Steve Patterson, we figured there is no definitive answer.
According to Patterson, comedy is a tough thing to judge and he feels fortunate that he “tickled the right funny bones” and “struck the right chords” to win this year’s Best Stand-Up Male award at the 12th annual Canadian Comedy Awards & Festival.
Although the awards did not get a lot of public time–Patterson thought it could be due to the fact that the title doesn’t start with a “G” sound, as opposed to the Geminis, Genies, and Junos–Canadians can get their dose of Patterson at the 2011 “Just For Laughs” cross-country tour that’s coming to Massey Hall in Toronto this Friday.
For the first time, the “Capital One Just for Laughs Comedy Tour” is showcasing a collage of Britain’s best stand-up talents in a Canada-wide tour. Patterson gets to host the show and interpret, at times, the British terms.
ET: It’s surprising that this is the first British comedian tour in Canada. Why do you think we haven’t had that before in Canada?
Patterson: I don’t know. “Just for Laughs” usually tries to bring the funniest comics from around the world. At times you get some British guy, the American guy, and Australian guy, for instance. This time they just decided “We’re going to find four really popular British comedians who all have different styles and we’re going to do a British comedy tour.”
The Canadian sense of humour is—we love to self-deprecate. And we obviously have ties to England so it makes sense to do it this way. I’m not sure why they haven’t done it before like this, but it’s a nice way for British comedians to be introduced to the whole country at once.
ET: Since you’re touring, are you taking some time off from “The Debaters”?
Patterson: Not really. We actually have to tape six episodes during the time of the tour. So we’re whomping it all in and we’re taping at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto on Nov. 7. So it’s one afternoon taping and one evening taping. They sort of had to work around my schedule because we need to deliver those episodes to the CBC radio. So I’m not taking a break, I’m just doing one really long day.
ET: You have an amazing voice and you use it so well in your acts. Do you have a vocal or musical background?
Patterson: I didn’t take any vocal training but I did a lot of music when I was younger, and I could always sing on key.
I surround myself with really good musical people. My collaborator owns a studio in Toronto called Imagine Sound Studios, and his name is Mark Camilleri. He backed up people like Céline Dion and has done full musical organization of giant productions like Mamma Mia.
When your backup singer is a thousand times as good as the person singing in the front, it makes the whole thing sound better. So that’s the secret really, surrounding yourself with people several times better than you musically.
ET: Have you ever thought of producing your own music CD?
Patterson: I think once I get off this tour in December, I‘ll kind of sit down and look at that. I’ve done quite a repertoire now, and often I’ll write a song for one occasion. Like when I hosted the Canadian Comedy Awards, I did a comedy song that I just called “Comedy Song” and people really liked it in the industry. Once I sit down and set tune, it doesn’t take me too long, and Mark is so quick musically that we could probably make one. It’s just a matter of finding the time to do it.
ET: Now that you’ve got the award, what’s next?
Patterson: The next thing for me is convincing the Canadian network of one type or another, that Canada deserves its own nightly show version of the “Daily Show.”
We have enough interesting people and enough entertaining people. If we interview these people and make it funny, and have it in a proper environment—not just ambushing people in the driveway at 7 o'clock in the morning—I think we deserve that show.
I want to be the guy that hosts it, so I’m trying to get that idea in front of the right people in Canada. If no one in Canada will step up and do it then I guess I got to start my own network like Oprah.
There are so many people in the U.S. that get their news from the “Daily Show” and from “Colbert [Report]” because other news is too boring.
Often the “Daily Show” and Colbert are actually just as reliable, if not more as the news.
That’s what I want to do—have a nightly show that combines facts and current events with comedy and gives Canadians something to watch, instead of having to watch the American version of that.
I think we have enough happening in Canada that we could do that on a nightly basis.
It is a tough sell, so like I said, look for the Steve Patterson network sometime soon.
For more information about the 2011 “Capital One Just For Laughs Comedy Tour” or to purchase tickets visit hahaha.com/comedytour
