There probably won't be any rocket attacks on Saturday night, but in spite of that it should be a good night of comedy for Tim Nutt in Prince George.
The national-level standup star is headlining the 18th edition of Stand Up For Charity, a fundraising event held to benefit the many benevolent works of the local Kinsmen Club. There will be a dinner, a few opening acts, master of ceremonies Mike McGuire and then main attraction Tim Nutt.
By way of introduction, Nutt has been working the top comedy circuits in Canada for a couple of decades. He was named Best Of The Fest at none other than the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival (some say the biggest and best in the world) a couple of years ago. He has done the big festivals in this country - St. John's, Winnipeg, Halifax, a couple of the aforementioned J4L events - and internationally as well.
He is a specialist in the scenario-to-punchline style of comedy, and his natural wit is renowned. It's what got him onto a comedy showcase for Canadian troops stationed in Afghanistan, where terms like audience dynamics and hostile reception take on life-altering new meanings.
"It puts Grande Prairie into a new perspective," he deadpanned.
On one hand, battle-ready soldiers in the throes of anti-guerilla combat need a good laugh when they are off-duty for a few hours. On the other hand, if you aren't funny, they aren't inclined to throw you any sympathy. Nutt had to do one show inside a base tent at Kandahar Air Base. It was an American military installation but included an international contingent of soldiers, including Australians and Canadians from the English-speaking world, so Nutt was talking to a global contingent. Just before the show began there had been rocket attacks, so fighter jets were busy overhead and Nutt was a little jumpy. He soothed the moment by coming on stage wearing a vintage Canucks jersey and working in a joke about the Hockey Night In Canada Theme Song to help cast the Canadians in their own positive light within the audience.
Before three seconds had elapsed, all the Canuck troops were singing the notes to the song and cheering wildly.
"It was just chilling. Pretty incredible. The whole purpose of the thing, three weeks before Christmas, was to bring them all a little bit of home. That was part of the goal," he said.
It was the crew from This Hour Has 22 Minutes that arranged the visit. Nutt was joined on the special mission by fellow comedians Erica Sigurdson, Shaun Majumder, Irwin Barker and Mark Critch.
"It was tough, and it was weird, but it was really incredible," Nutt said. "Irwin, Erica and I did a private show just for a platoon from (Canadian Forces Base) Shilo - just the three of us, a campfire and them, where they kept the LAVs (light armoured vehicles). That was really cool. They were sort of attached like the red-headed stepchild to a big battle group from CFB Petawawa, so they got some special treatment from us and it was really cool."
He also got to experience the unique sensation of playing poker with some of the soldiers there. He and Barker got into some games, and soon learned they were outclassed simply by professional demenour.
How do you read the poker-face of someone who spends all day staring down death itself?
"Never play poker with gunfighters," said Nutt. "They don't bluff, they don't back down, and they don't care. I'm not much of a poker player to begin with but Irwin was known as one of the best in Canadian comedy circles; Irwin lost his ass."
Life takes on different meanings when you come back to your safe home in your safe country surrounded by affluent everyday people. "When you see a CF-18 at an airshow, they aren't angry," he quipped.
So now he is back to the regular comedian routine of writing new material, refreshing the act at club shows and then doing festivals and major club appearances. It's not the constant pace it once was for Nutt due to his parenthood. He has two kids he and his wife are raising in Kelowna, now, after a recent move from Toronto.
"Mostly I just want to perform at bigger, badder venues. That's the career goal. And international stuff. Australia always looked interesting. There's a wonderful festival in Ireland I'd like to go back to, The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny. It's a town of about 10,000 people and another 15,000 come into town for the comedy festival. And it's the best comedians in the world, it was just incredible."
But just because you are telling English-language jokes to an English-language audience doesn't mean your comedy translates perfectly. The most unpredictable situations can arise.
"I found out very quickly that the Irish don't have toilet plungers in their house, and I had a 20-minute bit about a toilet plunger and I got stared at for a whole day. So (Irish comedian) Ed Byrne pulled me aside and told me I probably didn't want to keep that bit in the show. In Ireland, if you have a problem with your toilet, you call a guy."
We don't tend to whip out our CF-18s in Prince George, but Tim Nutt hopes the comedy is strong enough to keep our plungers safely stored in our bathrooms.
Standup For Charity 18 happens Saturday at the Kinsmen Complex (777 Kinsmen Place). Doors open at 6 p.m., dinner at
7 p.m., and the comedy at 8:30 a.m. Admission is $40 available in advance at Studio 2880 and the Kinsmen Complex.
