What does it take to be the nation’s best male stand-up of the year?
After chatting with the award’s recipient, Steve Patterson, we figured there is no definitive answer.
According to Patterson, comedy is a tough thing to judge and he feels fortunate that he “tickled the right funny bones” and “struck the right chords” to win this year’s Best Stand-Up Male award at the 12th annual Canadian Comedy Awards & Festival.
Although the awards did not get a lot of public time–Patterson thought it could be due to the fact that the title doesn’t start with a “G” sound, as opposed to the Geminis, Genies, and Junos–Canadians can get their dose of Patterson at the 2011 “Just For Laughs” cross-country tour that’s coming to Massey Hall in Toronto this Friday.
For the first time, the “Capital One Just for Laughs Comedy Tour” is showcasing a collage of Britain’s best stand-up talents in a Canada-wide tour. Patterson gets to host the show and interpret, at times, the British terms.
ET: It’s surprising that this is the first British comedian tour in Canada. Why do you think we haven’t had that before in Canada?
Patterson: I don’t know. “Just for Laughs” usually tries to bring the funniest comics from around the world. At times you get some British guy, the American guy, and Australian guy, for instance. This time they just decided “We’re going to find four really popular British comedians who all have different styles and we’re going to do a British comedy tour.”
The Canadian sense of humour is—we love to self-deprecate. And we obviously have ties to England so it makes sense to do it this way. I’m not sure why they haven’t done it before like this, but it’s a nice way for British comedians to be introduced to the whole country at once.
