Edmonton Comedy History

STERLING SCOTT reminded me of this room, which ran in the summer of 2007 out in St Albert and was run by BARBARA MAY. It was not a great room, made harder by the fact most nights the host would be getting progressively drunker and doing more and more time between acts with less and less coherency  as the night went on. It was a good idea to try and be up early. I got to know JEFF NEESER a little bit at this show; he was a regular attendee and would often drive me home. I also started to develop my spontaneity on this stage. There was no value in doing prepared material, so I committed myself to going up with nothing and winging it.

"I was more happy to meet people who are nice. If the shows went good, I didn't care." - Winston Herbert Winston Herbert started comedy in 1989 and performed regularly until entering semi-retirement in 2011. He started doing comedy at the Yuk Yuks when it was next to the Point After in the south side as well as the venerable Sidetrack Café. His contemporaries included Rob Ross, Jamie Davis, Tim Koslo, Bill Cowen, Terry Ireland, and Dan Trouton. His first paid shows were the four night Yuks Saskatchewan run (Yorkton, Regina, Saskatoon, North Battleford) opening for Kenny Robinson Yuk Yuks so dominated the local comedy scene at the time that when Winston worked a few shows for independant promoter Bob Angeli, he did it under a pseudonym to avoid trouble with Yuks. Winston enjoyed working with Tommy Chong, " a real nice man" and hung out with Emo Philips when the acclaimed joke writer and comic  was in town.

 There weren't a lot of women doing comedy when I started. I believe Krissy Stark and the infamous Barbara May were on the pro am scene as well as Angie Ismond, whose writing and laconic stage demeanor was a huge influence on me. Angie stopped doing comedy in 2005. As for professionals, I remember Dana Alexander was starting to make her mark, though I can't recall if she was based in Edmonton. Calgary's Lori Ferguson-Ford was headlining and would do the Londonderry Yuks from time to time. Kathleen McGee started shortly after I did, and was one of the hardest working comics on the scene.  She started the Blue  Chicago after just a few months in comedy to get more stage time. She won the Conic Strip's Funniest Person With A Day Job in 2008. She spent some time in Los Angeles honing her craft before returning to Edmonton. She was nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award in 2019. Dawn Dumont seemed to perennially fly under the radar despite her accomplishments as a writer and ...