What to know
- Toronto stand-up comedian Alistair Ogden has had a busy year, performing at Just For Laughs Montreal, opening for Jay Leno in Los Angeles and touring across North America.
- During a show in New York City, an audience member pointed out his resemblance to Princess Diana. Ogden has since ran with the joke, turning it into one of his best-known bits.
- Ogden describes his style as “soft boy comedy,” focusing on positivity, vulnerability and sillier self-focused instead of the more negativity he often sees in stand-up.
- He says his sensitive stage persona can rub macho and “tough guy exterior” men the wrong way, but he isn’t interested in changing his act to win them over.
Alistair Ogden doesn’t go out of his way to win over the boys. He’s proud to be one of the faces channeling “soft boy comedy.”
The Toronto comic has had a pretty solid year. He performed at Just For Laughs Montreal this summer, opened for Jay Leno in Los Angeles, and is currently on the road performing a run of shows across North America.
Standing at over six feet tall with a jawline that makes you wonder if he’s been doing exercises, one might expect Ogden to lean into the macho exterior. But he couldn’t be further from that stereotype. His sensitive on-stage material regularly pisses off toxic masculine men and his most well known joke revolves around looking like the late Princess Diana.
While Ogden stopped in Toronto over the weekend for a show at Comedy Bar Bloor, Now Toronto sat down with him to chat about staying positive, opening for Leno, and where the Princess Diana doppelganger allegations came from.
Although Ogden now calls Toronto home, his first foray into stand-up comedy was nearly 10 years ago at the University of Victoria while chasing his then dreams of working in fiction and screenwriting.
“I wrote a play for my playwriting class and there was a character who was a stand up comic. And [while] writing for that character, I was like, “Oh, I love writing jokes,’” Ogden explains.
A little while later, still in 2017, he stepped on stage for the first time and hasn’t stopped since.
Looking like Princess Diana
Throughout the last few years, one running bit that Ogden has consistently worked through his shows is his likeness to the late Princess Diana. During a show in New York City, he was roasting an audience member when a woman piped up and said, “Damn, Princess Diana being mean.”
@alistairogden Do you see it? 👸🏼 #heckler #lookalike #princessdiana #justforlaughs 🎥: @Just For Laughs ♬ original sound – Alistair Ogden
While this is how the joke became a running bit, he says the first person who noticed the resemblance was actually his manager, Ahmar, who brought it up during a dinner in London with another comedian friend.
Ogden was quick to deny the similarities, until Ahmar held up a photo of Princess Diana next to his face.
“Everyone was like, ‘Yeah, we’re seeing it.’”
He believes it’s his face shape where the resemblance starts and ends. He says he’s “had a lot of different types of haircuts, and people see it kind of no matter what.”
A couple of years ago, Ogden ran with the doppelganger allegations, making it his halloween costume. He dressed up as casual Diana in a crewneck and jogger shorts, and attempted the iconic revenge dress look as well.
“Maybe I’ll do it again. But I think I would need to upgrade it somehow. I need to do the makeup and the hair and the jewellery,” he details. “I’d really try to replicate the revenge dress look and the shoes and all that.
Opening for Jay Leno in Los Angeles
Earlier this summer, in June, Ogden shocked fans far and wide when he posted a photo standing next to former Tonight Show host Jay Leno with “I did a show with Jay Leno on Friday” in the caption.
Turns out, life does look more glamorous on Instagram.
Ogden explained that because tickets to his show at Flappers Comedy Club in L.A. didn’t sell that well, the organizers felt bad for him and asked if he wanted to do an opening set for Leno, who surprisingly performs regular sets at the same club.
“I had a show there and because I didn’t really sell very many tickets, they felt bad and was like, ‘How do we reward you for trekking all the way to L.A.? How about you come do a little set opening for Jay Leno,’” Ogden says.
“Stuff like that, there’s a certain element of social media that puts a gleam on it. But it was really just like a regular comedy club show that Jay Leno happened to be headlining.”
Performing “soft boy” comedy
Ogden isn’t interested in moaning about how much the world sucks during his stand-up sets, especially when negative comedy often feels like the default.
“I generally gravitate more towards positive comedy a lot of the time, even if it’s tongue in cheek positive, just because I feel like I’ve seen enough negative [comedy].” Ogden says.
“When you watch comedy for a long time, the negative stuff feels like the default. You have to push through that to get to the positive take on it.”
Not only does Ogden always strive for optimism in his jokes, he also gives off sensitive energy on stage, something he dubs “soft boy comedy.”
But the problem with being vulnerable on stage is that it makes “tough guy exterior” men uncomfortable, which ends up bringing out the worst in them. A few weeks ago during his show in Guelph, Ogden ended up face to face with an aggressive and rude heckler named Jacob.
@alistairogden Most annoying heckler I’ve ever dealt with 🤷🏼♂️ #crowdwork #heckler #canadian #guelphontario ♬ original sound – Alistair Ogden
“It definitely felt like the most absurd thing that’s ever happened to me on stage,” he says. “Because I have a sensitive energy on stage, I guess you can call it ‘soft boy’ comedy. It brings a certain energy out of the ‘tough guy exterior’ but ultimately fragile type of man where they have this knee jerk reaction where they need to say something to me.”
Ogden says he sees this unpleasant behaviour in men who become uncomfortable and think “I didn’t know I could even be like that.” He says by being silly and whimsical on stage, he’s subconsciously a threat to men who were told their whole lives they have to be “serious, bro-ey, and a tough guy.”
“I’m not gonna go out of my way to win over the boys. I just hope I can be true to myself enough so that a lot of other soft boys out there can relate to my comedy.”
