PREVIEW
Alls I’m Saying Tour
Derek Edwards
Thursday, June 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Arden Theatre
5 St. Anne Street
Tickets: $47.50 (includes facility fee and GST) Call 780-459-1542 or at www.ticketmaster.ca
Canadians have a lot to think about these days. NAFTA is kaput. There’s a retaliatory trade war fuelling the news, and Kinder Morgan will cost Canadian taxpayers billions.
Then along comes stand-up comedian Derek Edwards, a naturally gifted craftsman on a 17-city stop of Western Canada, who delights in making people laugh.
He is a four-time nominee and winner of Best Stand-up Comic at the Canadian Comedy Awards and a multiple Gemini nominee for Best Performance in a Comedy. In 1995, he won the Vail National Comedy Invitational in Vail, Colorado, the only Canadian to do so.
His Alls I’m Saying Tour has nine stops in Alberta including a one-nighter at St. Albert’s Arden Theatre on Thursday, June 14.
The tour title, Alls I’m Saying, is a catch phrase the Ontario resident often heard while growing up in Timmins. Folks used it to emphasize an opinion when facts were missing, he explains.
Often dubbed the ‘comics comic,’ Edwards has a gift of being able to connect with people from all walks of life from the CEO to the minimum wage earner.
As Edwards explains it, “I didn’t crack the stage until I was 29. For many years I drove a forklift. I worked in the lumber industry. I was on tree-planting crews. I did painting and drywall. When I finally started in comedy, my perspective was more rounded.”
Edwards also attended university and had the opportunity to see George Carlin on stage during one of the American comic’s college tours.
“He came through town and packed the place. I can’t describe the pandemonium.”
It was the satisfaction of seeing so much laughter that pushed Edwards into taking comedy seriously.
Through three decades of laughter, he’s ad-libbed and worked crowds across Canada playing everything from grungy biker bars to cosmopolitan music halls.
Edwards’ strength is a tight-running monologue on the absurdity of human nature. He disarms audiences with an unpretentious, folksy manner, while delivering smart, pivoting punchlines.
The seeds for stand-up were planted early in Edwards' childhood as both of his parents fostered a robust sense of wit and humour.
At his high school graduation, the valedictorian failed to show up and Edwards was asked to read announcements. Finding them on the boring side, he opted for a comedic spin and won over the audience.
Trump is irresistible fodder for comedians across North America. And while the bombastic president was initially a magnet for the Just For Laughs comedy veteran, Edwards currently sticks to Canadian material.
“Trump is so over done and so much is constantly written about him. I’m really offended by him and he needs a smack-down. The late night TV hosts are doing a good job. Nobody really cares about his politics in Canada. Part of the fun of living here is that people don’t take themselves too seriously.”
Taking down the States a peg or two is not in Edwards’ sights. Instead the Arden gig will deal with his observations on political correctness, law enforcement and the ins and outs of marital situations.
In his closing line, Edwards says, “The world out there is a blast. Come on in. Take off your thinking cap and share a joke or two.”
