Last Sunday at Yuk Yuk’s Laugh Off finals, one comic walked away $25,000 richer. Good luck to him. He’s going to need it.
“I didn’t get into this for the money,” said Tom Dustin, the scrappy Boston-based stand-up comic after after winning the $25,000 Yuk Yuk’s Great Canadian Laugh Off. “If I could make an okay living doing this, doing what I love, that would be enough.”
Those words have haunted me for days.
Would that have been enough for Eric Tunney, whose dead body was found last Sunday, just hours before the competition?
Tunney was once Toronto’s comedy golden boy, the fabled “next big thing.” Like dozens of hopefuls before him and since, he moved to Los Angeles, pursuing the dream. It didn’t pan out. He returned home to Windsor, did the occasional show in Toronto, earned some money doing telemarketing. Friends said he was depressed.
Comedy can be a cruel business. Ask anyone in the scene and they can name you dozens of next big things that never happened.
“There’s just no support system out there,” Yuk Yuk’s CEO Mark Breslin said to me after the show.
Many of the sharpest working comics know about pain. I think that’s what makes them funny. They’ve risen above their struggles and are on a stage, making us laugh at the human condition. Their mere presence is a triumph.
But what happens when the mic turns off, the lights go out and the crowd goes home? What do they do with their pain then?
Heavy, I know. But I’ve been wondering about that all week.
I started out writing about the Laugh Off. It was fine. It always is. Now in its fifth year, it’s become a well-oiled machine, produced for broadcast on the Comedy Network, full of real and a bit of forced laughter (we in the audience are coached on different kinds of laughs).
For me, it’s good place to scout out new talent. I now have my eye on a couple of talented acts.
Darcy Michael is an ultra likeable comic from B.C. who wears glasses, a cardigan and a few extra pounds. His big surprise mid-way through is act is that he’s gay (“one of those undercover fags”), and the revelation is perfectly timed to make you rethink the material that came earlier.
Mississauga’s Patrick Haye is a real find. He oozes charisma, with a cocky attitude and smooth delivery. His material isn’t the most original, but you can’t teach or learn star power. If he doesn’t make it in comedy, he’ll look great on TV or film, if it pans out.
I also liked Kitchener’s Landry, whom I’d seen (along with winner Tom Dustin) the night before when I was one of the judges for the last semifinal round. It was obvious those two were the funniest guys.
On finals night, Landry had mic problems so had to re-tape his act for the Comedy Network set. He took the opportunity to make it all seem fresh – adding new material that might not make sense on TV. Fearless. Guy’s got balls.
Neither Michael, Haye nor Landry placed. Second prize was a tie between the UK-born and now NYC-based comic David Barker and Nicaragua-born and Ottawa-based Martha Chaves.
Dustin didn’t seem to be the crowd favourite, so I’m surprised he won. After the show, he told me that he was better in his first appearance and the semifinal round. His material – about everything from veneral diseases to kids under pressure at spelling bees – is carefully crafted. His onstage persona of the short, sarcastic Beantown guy feels authentic.
At a reception after the show, I see comic Dave Martin, who was actually one of the stand-ups featured in a TVO reality series called The Next Big Thing. He tells me about how Eric Tunney inspired him, how early on he modeled himself after his career. Another comic corners me, asking point blank when I’m going to put her on the cover of NOW Magazine.
I look away, stammering some answer. Through the corner of my eye I see winner Tom Dustin wandering around with a beer in his hand, alone.
Tonight he’s $25,000 richer. Actually he’s $23,000 richer. Before the show he got all the comics to sign a contract saying the runners-up would get $500 to cover expenses and travel. He’s looking after the bottom line.
Smart guy, I thought. I hope he makes it.[rssbreak]
