Comedy Night in Canada offers laughs, insights

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2003

By Lucas Aykroyd

Each major hockey nation celebrates the sport according to its own culture. Never renowned for its classical composers, Canada would be unlikely to stage an opera based on its 2002 Olympic gold medal performance, as the Czech Republic will do next year in commemoration of its 1998 Nagano run.

But considering the number of comedians Canada has given the world–names like Mike Myers, Jim Carrey and John Candy–it made perfect sense for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to tape a special entitled Comedy Night in Canada at North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre on March 24. The title is a takeoff on CBC’s longstanding Hockey Night in Canada.

The evening featured a roster of laughmeisters whose touring and TV credits included everything from Just for Laughs and The Red Green Show to Late Night with David Letterman and A&E’s Evening at the Improv.

Making guest appearances were longtime Canadian TV commentator and 1947 Calder Trophy winner Howie Meeker and all-time NHL penalty leader Dave “Tiger” Williams. The latter demonstrated his preferred method of dealing with hecklers, mock-pummeling some dolt who rushed the stage.

Overall, the humor tapped into all kinds of veins, including ethnicity, economics and the Canadian hockey enforcer culture. Host Will Davis kept the audience riled up between segments with his jokes: his story climaxing with a “lint statue of Harold Snepsts” was priceless.

American native Daryl Lenox kicked off the main show by saying how he was “very happy to be here in a celebration of a sport I never played.” He pointed out that in Vancouver, any natural or manmade catastrophe can be minimized by the realization that “the Canucks are almost in first place.”

Toronto’s Tim Rykert confessed that he never played hockey as a kid either: “I had a condition: I was a wimp.” You can likely guess the direction Rykert took with his depiction of Maple Leafs enforcer Tie Domi doing a public service announcement about donating to blood banks.

To balance things out Ontario-wise, a local, youthful aspiring comic mugged it up with his quips about the “Tijuana Senators,” reflecting how Ottawa’s NHL team earned its success this season with a low payroll.

Irwin Barker noted how beer-drinking is an integral part of Canadian hockey culture and cracked: “Did you know beer was invented in 4000 B.C. in Egypt–by a Canadian?” Anyone who owns the Tragically Hip album Road Apples will get a particular kick out of his bit on using a cow to “drop the puck.”

As well as doing a mean impersonation of Don Cherry prior to the show, Peter Kelamis contributed the show’s best international hockey flavor with his dead-on Esa Tikkanen imitation. Babbling “Tikkanese” is not something that can be transcribed. If Robin Williams has any Helsinki gigs in the near future, he’d be well-advised to take notes. Ditto for the Kelamis riff on the incident where Ziggy Palffy kissed New York Islander teammate Travis Green after scoring a goal a few years ago.

Mike MacDonald promoted the Canadian nice-guy image with his quips about how it’s better to put hockey on your $5 bill than some dictator and how hockey is the best sport in the world. Which is something most people reading this web site likely can agree with.

Comedy Night in Canada airs on CBC in May as a one-hour special. Canadians and US border residents can check their local listings for details.