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| Dom Irrera |
Comedian Dom Irrera
has been an ongoing festival favorite since he made his debut at Just For Laughs in 1988. This helped to make Irrera the obvious choice to host the All
Star Show, which is playing at Club Soda from July 16-19, and at Metropolis on
July 24.
“I have been
popular here in Montreal for years. I have been popular here even before there
was a Montreal,” boasted the Philadelphia native during a recent phone
interview from his home in Los Angeles.
A new addition to
the National Bank Club Series, the All Star Show will have Irrera helm a
line-up of comics who have performed at Just For Laughs multiple times and have
quickly become fan favorites, like Irrera, such as Alonzo Bodden, Ryan
Hamilton, Judy Gold, Robert Kelly and Adam Hills.
“This is a very
strong line-up, and this show will have something for everyone,” said Irrera.
“And I know the audience will get a good show. In fact, I guarantee that people
will love the All Star Show, to the point that if they don’t, you, Stuart
Nulman, will refund all of their money back.”
While the pressure
to deliver a good show has now been lifted off the shoulders of Irrera and his
all star co-stars, he has maintained throughout his career that he likes being
a comedian because it gave him leeway to be more honest and say things that are
on his mind without having to worry about the repercussions. “The world is more
politically correct these days, in which someone can get fired for saying anything
at work,” he said. “Comedy is the last vestige of freedom around now, and
comics have that license to freely say what they want.”
And it was his
upbringing in a large family in Philadelphia, in which everyone spoke their
mind with a humourous edge to it, that gave Irrera the impetus to become a
stand-up comic more than 30 years ago. “In my family, everyone was a clown, but
they never wrote down anything that they said, but I did it, and f--- them for
being so lazy,” he said. “If they did write down their material, my family
could have been massive in Quebec. They could have been hosting festivals
around the province like the Verdun Local Comedy Festival.”
A rabid sports fan,
Irrera loves Montreal for many reasons, and one of them is for its sports tradition.
“Montreal is one of the most peaceful loving cities around, but those Stanley
Cup riots they had, that was so f------ crazy. What happened there? It’s like a
guy who wins the lottery and celebrates the win by beating up his wife,” he
said.
And he’s not shy to
be in the minority position about the global mania that is surrounding the
World Cup this summer. “Because I live in L.A., I rooted for the home team
during the World Cup, which is Mexico,” he said. “But a soccer game runs too
long. If I can’t get to sleep, I turn on to a soccer match on TV and I fall
asleep right away. As far as I’m concerned, let the rest of the world have this
sport.”
With a career that
has seen him perform at comedy festivals in Australia, Ireland, France and
Denmark, and has compiled an impressive resume of movie and TV appearances
(many remember him as prop comic Ronny Kaye in an episode of “Seinfeld” 20
years ago), Irrera admits that he is always making stand-up comedy a constant
work in progress.
“I’m always honing my
act, and I keep on working towards making myself a better stand-up comedian,”
he said. “I enjoy this career of mine where I am always making people laugh. If
I get laughs, and people recognize me as ‘he’s the guy’, that’s fine with me.”
Now if you’ll excuse
me, I have to make my way to the bank to get that All Star Show “refund” money.
* * *
Sean Cullen, like
Dom Irrera, made his Just For Laughs debut back in 1988.
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| Sean Cullen |
However, while
Irrera made his debut at a gala in the St. Denis Theatre, Cullen, as one-third
of the manic musical comedy trio Corky and the Juice Pigs, made his debut
outside the theatre. Actually, it was right across the street from the theatre,
in which he, Greg Neal and Phil Nicol opened up a guitar case with a hand drawn
sign in the middle of St. Denis Street, and began to entertain the spectators
waiting outside the theatre before that night’s Louie Anderson gala (myself
included) with their attention-getting repertoire of offbeat comedy, songs and
jumping around.
“Me, Greg and Phil
actually crashed the festival that year, but in retrospect, it was pretty
nice,” admitted Cullen in a recent phone interview from his Toronto home.
From there, Corky
and the Juice Pigs began to establish themselves as Just For Laughs regulars,
which was capped off with their gala debut in 1992. When Cullen went solo in
1998, he debuted his first one-man show “Wood, Cheese and Children” at Just For Laughs, and from
there became a festival regular himself, appearing in numerous club shows and
galas as recently as last year. This year, Cullen continues his association
with Just For Laughs performing a solo show on July 23 as part of the Off-JFL
Series, he will be part of the Talk of the Fest lineup with host Nick Offerman
on July 25, and he will be doing a live taping of his podcast “The Seanpod:
With Sean Cullen” on July 24.
“The Seanpod will
be me and my co-pilot Mark Edwards. There will be talk, we will make up
sketches between the talk, we will play extemporaneous songs and even be
opening up to the audience for suggestions to make up some of those songs and
sketches. It will be a multi-weird show,” said Cullen.
The thing with Sean
Cullen, is that he is so multi-talented, it’s difficult to place him into one
category of comedian. He can sing, perform on the stage (he played the role of
Max Bialystock in the Toronto production of “The Producers”), host his own TV
show, do a variety if voice overs, write a series of children’s and young adult
novels (including a series featuring the character Hamish X), do improv comedy,
and be a game show panelist (which he does with great comic effect on the
updated version of “Match Game” that’s seen on Comedy Network).
“The idea of being
so multi-talented is a throwback to some of the greats during the golden age of
comedy like Jackie Gleason, and the team of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, who had
to have a variety of talents in order to survive,” he said. “Also, in order to
survive in the Canadian entertainment industry, you have to be able to do 10
different jobs, which is not like in the States, where if you do one thing very
well, you become famous.”
“And I love the
broadness of it all, because it elevates any show that I do. On Match Game, I
enjoy being spontaneous and having to think on my feet when I preface every response
that I reveal to the contestants. I also have to remember that I want them to
win some money on the show, too,” he added.
Cullen admits he enjoys working on "Match Game"and says that the spirit and camaraderie he has with the other panelists (which includes fellow regular Debra Di Giovani) equals that of the panelists that were part of the "Match Game" crew of the 1970s, which made stars out of host Gene Rayburn and regulars Bret Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly and Richard Dawson.
"We taped five shows a day, and there are five other talents who were always trying to be just as funny, so there was always tons of pressure to come up with something funny when you gave your response," he said. "Backstage, we always had a little something to drink between tapings, so by the time we got to the third taping, we became quite juiced, which raised the element of weirdness on the show, which translated pretty well on TV."
And while he awaits
word regarding a third season of “Match Game”, Cullen has several projects in
development or about to be released in the near future, including a science
fiction novel, more touring, developing a new hour-long TV detective series
(“which will be like Monk meets Columbo”), and a new comedy CD that’s schedule
to be released next month called “Live from Planet Serpo”.
For Sean Cullen,
being multi-talented certainly has its benefits.
* * *
For more information about The All Star Show, The Seanpod taping or any other Just For Laughs show, check out the festival's website at www.hahaha.com.
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