Comedy GIANTS in Vancouver

By Chris Yee
[senior culture writer]

Vancouver’s comedy scene is bursting at the seams with talent – but as the organizers of the upcoming late-night live comedy showcase GIANTS note on their website, Vancouver’s comedy venues are decidedly “low-brow”.

“Good spaces run by good people,” they add, “but not spaces meant for polished, theatrical comedy.”

And so GIANTS, debuting at the Cultch on Oct. 8, came to be. Its organizers hope that the series, being set in a venue with bigger stages, better lighting and more suitability for putting on performances than a dive bar or coffee shop, will provide “high-level opportunities for comedic projects of all sorts” in Vancouver as it runs in the Cultch’s 2011-2012 season, according to a statement on the GIANTS website.

The series debut, appropriately titled GIANTS I, will feature as its centrepiece Kevin Lee and Sean Devlin’s Townhall: Attendance Mandatory, where audiences are encouraged to voice their opinions on whatever issue the duo can think of (or make up) in this mock town hall meeting.

Lee and Devlin have collaborated on a number of projects, including the live sitcom/video podcast The Living Room, performed at the 2006 Vancouver International Fringe Festival, the Vancouver International ComedyFest and, more notably, ShitHarperDid.com.

In addition to the centrepiece, GIANTS will have a number of regular segments, including two showcases of other local comedians, The Heavy Hitters and The Wild Ones. Headlining as a “Heavy Hitter” on Oct. 8 is Graham Clark (of Stop Podcasting Yourself and CBC’s The Debaters) while the other showcase, The Wild Ones, will include, among its mix of local comedy talents, one Andrew Barber, who is best known for his six-part YouTube series A Boston Bruins Fan in Vancouver. Other attractions are Emmett Hall’s News Around Now, described on the GIANTS website as a “one-man absurdist news show,” and Delicious Things, a segment where comedian and Cactus Club sous-chef Nik Bunting serves up delicious appetizers and delicious comedy in one performance. Tying the whole event together are video segments by comedy/art/karaoke collective Weekend Leisure and an open bar with $4.25 pints, courtesy of Whistler Brewing.

GIANTS I debuts on Oct. 8 at 11 p.m., at the Vancity Culture Lab at the Cultch (1895 Venables Street). Tickets are $10 (including tax), and can be purchased online from thecultch.com. More info on GIANTS can be found at giantscomedy.com.