Cover Story: Serious about laughter
Comedy Festival works to maintain a high-quality grassroots image
Uptown Magazine, April 7, 2005
Two years ago, a group of comedians sat in the near-empty lounge of the Sheraton Hotel on the Sunday night of the second annual CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival. Cigars and beer in hand, they shared their excitement about a wildly successful week of great shows, appreciative audiences and the rare chance to enjoy each other’s company.
During a lull in the celebrations, one of the veteran performers sat back, pulled on his cigar and said, “Remember this week, because this festival will never be the same.”
With the sudden success, it was plausible that the Winnipeg festival could become a glorified TV production and thus lose the coherence and creativity of its programming choices. But festival executive producer Jason Andrich doesn’t intend to let that happen. While the festival continues to add venues and increase its volunteer base, the focus behind the scenes is still on creating a great vibe.
“It’s always going to be like that,” Andrich says. “We can’t pay for huge names. We have to treat people well. That was a very conscious thing right off the top.”
It seems to be working. The non-profit festival, on now through April 10 at venues throughout Winnipeg, is getting repeat business from the big names. Russell Peters, Mark McKinney and A. Whitney Brown are all back to perform at the Pantages Playhouse shows, which are taped for TV broadcast.
Contrary to popular belief, the CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival has little to do with the CBC other than title sponsorship rights and the presence of cameras at the Pantages Playhouse. The festival is actually produced by the Osborne Village Cultural Centre (OVCC), the non-profit organization that owns the Gas Station Theatre.
Andrich says the perception of the festival being CBC-run is a challenge when talking to potential sponsors or other media outlets concerned about promoting the “competition.” At the same time, being associated with the big fish of the Canadian culture pond adds credibility to the festival.
“There’s perception, and there’s reality,” Andrich says. “The reality is fantastic. The perception is a little challenging sometimes. But the reality is so great, you deal with the perception.”
The recent controversy surrounding the possible sale of the Gas Station Theatre resulted in the OVCC’s membership replacing its board of directors in December. There may be a new board to answer to this year, but for the festival organizers it’s business as usual.
“We are absolutely supported, and this new board is absolutely behind us,” says Andrich.
The festival has a few other new challenges this year, including the fact that the Juno Awards fell on the weekend before the Comedy Fest was set to open.
“We really feel that our audiences are quite a bit different,” Andrich says. “It’s something we’ve known and we’ve been dealing with it, and ticket sales are good.”
Another challenge is the growth spurt of the festival’s community outreach arm.
“It would be really easy for us to get really caught up in the TV shows and the radio, but if you’re going to be a festival you need to be community based. If you’re not community based, you’re not sustainable. And we want to be around for a long time,” he says.
Programs that have been in the works for the past few years are now fully up and running. Learning From Laughter takes improv comedy into schools, while Comedy in Common produces free comedy shows so non-profit organizations can raise money through ticket sales. Every Pantages Playhouse show has a block of tickets donated to people who would otherwise be economically unable to attend the shows. Plus, the festival is experimenting with a tour of eight shows in rural Manitoba towns.
All of it is part of the festival’s original vision.
“It’s really important to us that we make this festival as accessible as possible. That’s the comedy festival creed. To make people laugh, to teach other people how to make other people laugh and to bring laughter to those who need it the most,” says Andrich. “And we’re taking that really seriously.”