Maritime comedy powerhouse returns to Morinville

A character unlike any other, Jimmy Flynn strolls on stage wearing a red plaid shirt, torn blue jeans, rubber boots and a yellow sou’wester, the typical garb for an East Coast fisherman.

But Flynn is no typical fisherman. Instead of tossing nets, the New Brunswick-based comedian slings a guitar over his shoulder and his catch of the day is a non-stop flood of jokes.

Over the past 50 years, he has bantered his way across the world singing songs, telling stories and delivering an array of universally enjoyed thigh-slappers.

“There’s no place on the planet people haven’t laughed at a Jimmy Flynn show,” said the high-energy performer as he prepares to return to the Morinville Community Cultural Centre on Saturday, June 3 for a Surf and Turf traditional East Coast cabaret dinner.

Dubbed “Canada’s Ambassador of Good Cheer,” Flynn can’t seem to keep a straight face even during an interview.

Ask him where he’s from and Flynn replies, “A small place in Newfoundland – Marystown. It was so small it had two cops and one gun.”

Asked to elaborate, and he continues to embroider his joke.

“It’s a town so small, they put a mirror at one end of Main Street to make it look bigger.”

Flynn originally left home in his late teens to find fame and fortune on the Vancouver rock and roll scene. High school was not his gig.

“I was always the class clown. I got kicked out of more classes for laughing than anything else.”

For years he played the West Coast party scene until a manager who spotted his combo music and comedy act suggested Flynn cut his hair.

“I got a gig the next week with a more low key group called Finnegan. When we went to the Maritimes on a 10-week tour it was incredible. People went crazy and we never went back to the West Coast. I went west for music but it was comedy that brought me home.”

Today Flynn resides on a New Brunswick farm he shares with family, 800 sheep, horses, a dog and cat. His point of pride is the house he and his wife of 47 years share, a construction dating back to 1884.

“And we are only the second owners. We have seven big barns and a lake in the backyard.”

At Morinville’s cabaret-style dinner, Flynn is planning on delivering improvised jokes and stories on family, friends, the prairies, politics and whatever news is current.

“Now Donald Trump. I’m going to take him apart.”

And by the time Flynn rolls into town, there should be plenty more juicy presidential punch lines ready to fire.