Comedian Derek Edwards is known as one of the most popular standup comics in Canada.
He lives in the Toronto area, but he loves getting back home to the small towns of northern Ontario where the audiences seem to have more of an understanding of his laid-back style and his ability to find humour in everyday things.
Edwards is on a 12-city Ontario tour that will see him appearing at North Bay's Capitol Centre. Get tickets here.
His new 90-minute performance is called in Praise of the Ostrich, a reference to pulling his head out of the sand long enough to offer commentary on the current state of affairs. (See the clip below story.)
With 'In Praise of the Ostrich' Derek Edwards moseys back into town on a horse-drawn comedy wagon; a searing meander down life's twisting trails, steered effortfully by this 30-year veteran. He returns with a payload of blissfully funny personal stories – a cacophony of shenanigans – set to tickle the ribs and warm the heart.
With an easy conversational style, Derek reluctantly pulls his head out of the sand and launches into commentary on the influx of pot stores, self-driving cars, gambling tips, the challenge of staying youthful ... plus dressing warm.
Edwards admitted it is indeed a challenge to write a complete 90-minute comedy show, but it is something he has done before. He recalled one previous tour shortly after COVID-19 when he was appearing in a small town near Georgian Bay. Edwards said it was his first live show in months.
"I was just sort of breaking back in, and I was so rusty. Just like an old door rusty," Edwards recalled. "So it was getting back on — not to do a seven-minute guest set you know — but to do the hour and a half!
"Well, geez, I think I blanked out around 55 (minutes) and oh God, did I have a chat with the crowd," Edwards laughed.
He said it suddenly became like an interview with people asking where he was from and what he did growing up.
Edwards said he was delighted with the crowd and they seemed to enjoy his stories.
"And once something came up that reminded me of a bit I used to do, well, that was just a glorious fluke. But yeah, it was a bit of a scramble."
As a native of Timmins, Edwards also chatted about growing up in the northern mining town during the 1970s (he was born in 1958). He recently appeared in Timmins to help out at a local comedy festival and enjoyed wise-cracking about local news events, especially when a shoplifter was arrested after police followed footprints in the snow.
It is those sorts of incidents that help Edwards tell the stories that people love to laugh at.
Commenting on his upcoming tour, Edwards said he is not sure how he manages to stay relevant to so many generations.
"Well, you know, I really don't know. I don't think I've ever been up to the moment, you know, finger on the pulse of all newsworthy things," he laughed again, with that familiar gasping guffaw that has become something of a trademark.
He added that part of comedy is that the world can be such an unhappy place, but there is still humour.
"And I find the comedy is really just an escape hatch for people that don't want to deal with the real world. They just want some conscience-free giggles you know, just a belly laugh here and there."
Edwards adds that irritations that happen in everyday life can really be things we can laugh about.
"Well, sometimes stupid crap is a goldmine. The stupider, the better," Edwards laughed.
He said it is the everyday irritations that ordinary people deal with that they will find funny when others have to deal with them too.
The other thing Edwards relies on, he said, is anything that is a local issue.
He said he will spend the next several days to "polish and shine" the performance before he arrives at the Capitol Centre on May 12 and he is sure he will find a local issue or anything that is newsworthy to home in on.
"I'm thinking oh, that's in the show. I'm putting that in," Edwards laughed. He said he has to be careful to pick and choose things that people will relate to and at the same time be careful "about what you're yammering about."
He added that despite Canada's vast size, there seems to be a common thread of things Canadians find funny. He said the joke about oversized logging trucks rolling down Highway 144, propped up by a few hockey sticks, can easily be rejigged to comment on logging trucks in New Brunswick.
Edwards said Canadian audiences are courteous, but still "pretty sharp and worldly" and will go along with just about any joke as long as it is not mean-spirited.
From Vegas to St. John's, this Just For Laughs veteran is universally considered to be among the comic elite. Certainly, his peers think so, as evidenced by the fact that he's a four-time nominee, and winner of Best Standup Comic - Canadian Comedy Awards, as well as a multiple Gemini nominee for Best Performance in a Comedy.
As Rick Mercer says, "Everyone knows Derek is the funniest man in Canada."
Len Gillis is a reporter at Sudbury.com.
