If you’re a comedy aficionado living in the Sea to Sky corridor, chances are you won’t want to miss the Snowed In Comedy Tour’s next visit to Whistler. The group performs Jan. 24 at 6:30 p.m. in the Maury Young Arts Centre.
Founded by former Just for Laughs winner Dan Quinn, Snowed In is entering its 15th year, and continues to distinguish itself in a comedic landscape dominated by American acts. This time around, Quinn will be joined by Great Canadian Laugh Off winner Paul Myrehaug, six-time Canadian Comedian of the Year nominee Pete Zedlacher and Erica Sigurdson, a regular on CBC’s The Debaters.
The crew has travelled the world, receiving acclaim in France, Switzerland, Australia, and the United States, but Whistler continues to be a mainstay of their itinerary. Once upon a time, Snowed In did up to four shows a week at the Garibaldi Lift Co., and its members loved it.
“Whistler was always that stop that we were so excited for,” says Myrehaug. “It’s an unbelievable town, and it was just something we all had marked on our calendars. It’s a chance to chill out, snowboard and spend time together. Whistler has always been something we look forward to every year.”
The Sea to Sky crowd reminds Myrehaug of Antwerp, in Belgium, which tends to boast a similar mix of European and American expatriates. He and his fellows have enjoyed performing to a melting pot of various cultures, which gives them more material to draw from. Not that doing stand-up comedy for a diverse audience is necessarily easy, mind you.
“It’s been scary as hell,” Myrehaug admits. “At first, I was kind of a cocky kid who [went overseas] and got smacked in the face immediately. Not all your jokes are going to work in other countries, and Canadians as audiences are ultra-friendly and very forgiving crowds. When I first started going to places like the U.K., it really tested my mettle. I had to grow some thick skin and become a better writer.
“I just finished some work in the Netherlands, which are famously the toughest crowds in the world—I would say they don’t really laugh. It was terrifying, but as a comedian, performing in other countries helped me grow exponentially.”
‘A really cool step’
Myrehaug isn’t exactly sure when he joined Snowed In, but he remembers Quinn contacting him more than a decade ago to participate in a filmed segment. Weeks later, the Camrose, Alta. native got an invite to sign on full-time, and he hasn’t looked back. Myrehaug praises Quinn not only for being a tremendous talent, but one of the few reliable business minds in the industry.
A lot of comedians tend to be easygoing, Type-B personalities, but Quinn has what it takes to be the frontman for a thriving tour. Snowed In visits more than 70 cities from coast to coast in North America alone, and he handles the emails, calls and marketing required to make it all tick.
The Vancouverite has certainly made his mark in helping an underdog comedy group stand the test of time.
That said, Myrehaug feels change is afoot.
“What I’ve noticed is that in other Western countries, there’s a system where tours use clubs [as a developmental circuit] before they take their shows into theatres, and I think that was lacking in Canada,” he remarks. “Maybe we had just a bit of a younger scene where groups stayed in clubs, which is fine. Now, you’re starting to see Snowed In and a lot of other tours bump up into theatres.
“There were a lot of pioneers ahead of us, but we would be the first independent ensemble tour that really caught heat and went across the country. It’s going to be really cool in the future for the younger comics coming into a system that’s now built, where you can go from clubs into theatres. Canadians are used to buying tickets now in theatres, and I think that’s a really cool step for Canada in maturing as a comedy scene.”
Learn more about Snowed In and its upcoming Whistler visit at www.snowedincomedytour.com/
