Intelligent enough to dissect the headlines of the day, weathered enough to put the prototypical Canadian spin on it, Ron James delivers that elusive comedic balance in his stand up: artistic needs and audience expectations.
“It is so challenging to be creative in the first place, to create content that is going to appeal to 1,200 people in a theatre, of different socioeconomic status, of different points of view, different political leanings and with everything getting so polarized and fractured these days, it has the potential to be a minefield,” the comedian said.
James recounted his journey with StratfordToday over a Café Americano at a Stratford coffee shop, the morning after watching a performance of Hamlet.
James performed in Stratford two years ago, before the ‘white knuckle ride on a Corona coaster through a dystopian netherworld’ – one of his patented and much-loved descriptions.
He has linked up with the Stratford Festival to perform July 16 at the Avon Theatre in a ‘Comedy at the Forum’ event.
The festival is including a slate of ‘late-night laughs’ this summer: James Cunningham, Ali Hassan, Martha Chaves, Jordan Carlos, Howie Miller and Flo and Joan. Each perform on Friday nights at the Tom Patterson Theatre’s Lazaridis Hall, starting the Friday after James’s show.
A native Cape Bretoner, who was ‘45 pounds until he was 15-years-old’, James got into stand-up comedy later in life after being ‘broke in Los Angeles for three years, chasing the sitcom dream’.
He wrote a one-man show about his years in California, ‘Up and Down in Shaky Town - One Man’s Journey Through the California Dream’. From then to now is a whirlwind career that includes CBC specials with viewership in the millions.
The bulk of the last two-plus decades were spent travelling across Canada, meeting locals, writing thoughts down (his recently released novel ‘All over the Map’ is nominated for a Leacock Medal) and getting to know the country and its people.
“I have made my living driving widow-making strips of asphalt in the dead of winter, stuck in blizzards a Yeti wouldn’t wonder,” he said. “But I love the sight of swirling snow around a stage door.”
The gigs have kept him honest. Ontario has been home for 42 years yet James has learned how to entertain in different regions of Canada. Customizing material is important due to Canada’s regional identities, he said.
“Whether I was playing a community centre in Atikokan on the frozen lip of Lake Superior in February, where I started springing my trapline by myself back in ’99, or playing a 2,000-seater at the Windsor Centre in Edmonton, I always gave the audience what they paid for.”
James said he charts his comedic course according to the standard that comedy was founded on: Speaking truth to power.
“It’s all about the man on the golden throne, you don’t pick on the man in the gutter.”
He doesn’t spend a lot of time watching stand up and doesn’t understand why some of the more popular comedians south of the border with ‘more money than God’ need to pick on the marginalized.
George Carlin is his biggest influence.
“He believed in science, he believed in progress. He didn’t believe in being manipulated. What a heyday he would have had with guys like Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell.”
James saw Carlin in Las Vegas before he died. He talked for 90 minutes about the pressing issues of the day, not soliciting a single laugh. It was genius, sans comedic, he said, and it took guts.
James said while he admires that about Carlin, he needs to hear the laugh and “likes people to feel lighter when they leave the theatre.”
Another big influence is Billy Connolly. The two met briefly in Montreal after each had performed. James was too shy to wander over and introduce himself, so he asked his producer to do so.
Connolly, thick-haired and chewing on his cigar, was asked by James how a Glaswegian welder born to poverty became an international comedic sensation. That was a question about fame, the Scotsman answered, adding an expletive.
“Sing your song,” he told James. “Sing your song.”
James can relate to the every-man's faults by making them his own – Netflix binges or an inability to put the phone down. He is careful not to insult, or pander, or come across like he’s the smartest person in the room. James does his homework and pushes boundaries without overstepping, a careful, well-crafted gift.
“I never underestimate the audience’s intelligence.”
The pandemic has changed his outlook. A certain percentage of the population fell down the rabbit hole, he noted, and many people would have sold their souls for a ‘hug or a haircut’ during lockdowns.
“The fact that we got through it is reason for celebration…I am here to help people process what we have been through over the past few years through the language of laughs.”
“You have to keep moving forward, you have to keep adapting, you have to keep growing.”
James said he appreciates the Stratford Festival recognizing stand-up comedy as an art form with the scheduled performances this summer, describing it as brave and courageous.
From his standpoint, it’s also a sound business move, he noted.
“Let’s face it, two red bulls backstage and a glass of water on a stool is a whole lot cheaper than mounting the Pirates of Penzance.”
For tickets, check out the link: https://www.stratfordfestival.ca/WhatsOn/PlaysAndEvents/TheForum/Ron-James?utm_campaign=external-ron-james
