Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Andrew Clark's Book Delivers Good Canuck Comedy Overview
I picked up the book Stand and Deliver: Inside Canadian Comedy, by Andrew Clark from a lcoal used book store a couple of weeks ago (which in itself is a telling comment on the state of Canadian comedy). An uneven book, with a few minor factual errors in it (Chas Lawther starred as "Chuck the Security Guard" -- which I would stay up into the wee hours as a teenager to watch -- on CFMT, not CityTV as mentioned in the book, and places the famous CBC current affairs show This Hour Has Seven Days in the 70s, when it was actually around only the 60s). Despite this, the book is well researched, starting with a Canadian comic troupe The Dumbells which entered the Allied troupes during WWI -- a piece of history I was previously unaware of. Author Andrew Clark makes a good case that Canadian comedy finds its roots in satiric performance done from behind a mask, and with only a few exceptions, this theory seems to hold up well.

The book really falls into two major divisions: comedy done prior to Clark writing about the scene, and after his arrival. Not surprisingly, the latter is much more lively, though he does manage to find interesting things to talk about such well-known Canadian comedians as Wayne & Shuster, Hart & Lorne and others. The book also reminded me about comedy performers from my early childhood, such as Michael McGee [interesting that I could find nothing on the Web about him], Dave Broadfoot (whom I think was by far the most consistently funny member of The Royal Canadian Air Farce), Don Harron, Dan Ackroyd during his stint in the warped 70s CBC sitcom "Bringing Up Rosie", and plenty more. The book also looks closely at the roots of Stand Up comedy in Canada, starting with the few tough comics who manage to do broad stand up at Starvin' Marvins burlesque theatre in Toronto in the 70s, to the growth of commercial comedy in centered around Yuk Yuk's and the Just for Laughs Festival. There are also interesting stories about other Canuck comedy troupes, such as SCTV (whom I loved from season one), The Kids in the Hall, CODCO and more. The CBC gets soundly slammed for producing largely mediocre comedy since the early 90s, playing it safe with topical comedy shows instead of experimenting and taking a chance with edgier comics. Amen to that!

I was hoping the book might talk a bit about more about my favourite Canuck comedy troupe The Frantics, but no such luck, other than the ocassional reference to ex-Frantics member Dan Redican, who now works as a scriptwriter in the States. This is not a major fault, as a book that claimed to take a comprehensive look at Canadian comedy (which this book doesn't make) would end up being much larger than the 250 pages of this book. Well-written, well-researched, and leaves me wanting more.

Want a second opinion? Here's another review of the book.