Get off the stage

Last weekend, this page had the pleasure, and misfortune of attending the 'Best of the Fest' performance at the Vancouver Comedy Festival. I usually enjoy stand-up comedy, so Walnut Boat and I opted for this variety platter on the premise that if any of the comics sucked that hard, they wouldn't be on stage that much.

The 'comedian' who was on at the end of the first half of the show should be glad I didn't quite catch his name, and I was sitting in the balcony. It was a relatively weak evening as most of the talent delivered material for a suburban, comfortable upper middle class who likes things the way they are, annoying for someone like me who comes from the George Carlin/Chris Rock school of invective. This 'comedian' who I did hear is a writer for Rick Mercer's weekly suck-up session on the CBC, went, in this page's opinion, a little too far.

Had this page been sitting anywhere near this 'comedian' when he sniped that he would "rather give money to support the troops than to those idiots on the sidewalks with their cardboard resumes", rest assured, he would not have finished his five minutes. The usual West Side fascists and Fraser Valley troglodytes laughed and applauded, but the rest of us managed an outraged glaring silence that had this fool retreating into weak camping anecdotes. Some of us still remember the words of a former Vancouver Mayor who opened his election campaign with the words "No one is disposable". Had I been seething a little less to come up with a decent heckle, it would have been "If I wanted bullsh*t right wing commentary, I would have picked up the National Post!"

Unfortunately, that wouldn't have worked either - as part of CanWest Global's sponsorship of the festival, they were giving out free copies of the Post in the lobby during the intermission. Jingoism and homeless bashing may be in vogue again, but they sure as hell aren't funny.