I’ve talked a couple of times about my cousin. His name isJohn Hastings and he’s one of the funniest people that I’ve ever met. And I’m not just saying that cause he’s a ginger. Nope, he’s really funny, like gets paid to be funny. Yes, it’s true, he was a comedian long before my 90 year old granny decided to give it a try.
I’ve seen him a couple of times live and now you will get to see him too, from the comfort of your living room.
I’m so excited to announce that John will have his own comedy special on The Comedy Network tonight! Comedy Now airs at 10:00pm and I seriously cannot wait.
I’ve always said that, to me, comedy is the hardest type of entertainment out there and not only is John making a living at it, he’s doing amazing.
In the entire world, there are precisely two different celebrities that if I ever met, I would instantly cry: Kelly Clarkson and Steve Martin.
It’s a short list, with a little variety, but one that I know to be true and on July 21st, I might be able to cross one of those names off of Celeb Cry list.
It’s been announced thatSteve Martin and his band The Steep Canyon Rangers will be doing a small tour in Canada, and I barely know what to do to contain my excitement. (I wanted to put an exclamation mark there, but even that didn’t seem to do my excitement justice.)
I’ve read Steve Martin’s autobiography Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life eight times, and without sounding like a crazy person, it is the closest thing I have to a bible. Okay, fine, it sounds crazy, but you should all read it. It’s a great story about following what you kinda know that deep down you should always be doing with your life. The fact that it’s funny is an added bonus. It also makes it completely different than an actual bible.
As some of you know, at 89 years old, my granny has decided to become a comedian.
Turns out, she’s quite good and actually nailed herself a spot on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. (Click here to watch it.)
A few weeks ago, she competed in a comedy competition in Winnipeg and I’ve finally gotten my hands on the video. It’s a solid six minutes of jokes that make you cringe and hopefully laugh. I know she’s my granny, so I’m a little biased, by I’m so impressed how she remembered all the jokes with no notes. Her confidence is really amazing.
I hope you enjoy this video..and if you’re curious, she got second place. But then again, so did Susan Boyle.
It’s not very often that you get to see a comedic legend live in person and tonight, I got to see Joan Rivers. Yes, that Joan Rivers and yes, she’s still alive. It’s a show that almost got away from me, I’d actually forgotten about it and for once Groupon made itself useful and had tickets for 50% off. Ignoring that meant that Calgary wasn’t super interested in the concert, it didn’t matter. Joan was funny and I wanted some.
We ended up scoring sweet 4th row tickets and thankfully the theatre was almost sold out. (Ahhh the power of Groupon.) Now, I don’t think there really is a point to talking about how funny Joan Rivers was, cause I really thought she was freakin’ hilarious. And if you don’t already know this, then you probably haven’t ever thought she was funny. She was everything you’ve heard: Rude, crass, hilarious, blunt, shocking, terrifying, humble and most of all, funny.
You’ll probably hear lots of people lots of people say lots of things about Joan, but at the end of the night, I was left really with one message, whether she meant it or not: Be yourself. And I’m not saying that in a cheesy youtube video on Ellen sort of way, but I just mean, keep doing what you’re doing. Whatever you want to do, however long it might take you, just keeping doing it, at 79 years old, Joan has never stopped and my gut is sore from laughing, so surely she is doing something right, right?
She really is someone that that you have to see in person, but here’s a super quick clip of her opening the show tonight in Calgary. It’s good to know that with all the things she’s seen and done, she still hates Air Canada as much as the rest of us.
Oh Jean Morrison, you did it again. If you happened to watch George Strombolopolous Tonight last night, you may have noticed a certain Artic Fox named Jean Morrison, who just so happens to be my Granny. At 89 years old she is now a finalist in the Winnipeg Gone Wacky comedy competition. The video of her chatting withGeorge Strombolopolous is just too cute for words. While technically she is my granny, I’m more than happy to share her inspirational message with all of you!
Go Granny Go!
If you want to see her original routine, click here.
If you’ve been reading this blog during the past few weeks, you know that my granny, Jean Morrison, has made it to the finals of the Winnipeg’s Gone Wacky stand up comedy competition. It’s been inspiring to see her following her dreams, even at 89 years old. She’s a determined woman and I can’t wait to see what she does at the finals of November 24th. If I could be in Winnipeg for the show, I’d be there in a heartbeat.
In the weeks leading up to the finals, my granny is training hard and getting her final routine ready for the big stage. As you can imagine, the story of an 89 year old comedian has caught the attention of the Winnipeg media and this past Friday, my granny made an appearance on CTV Morning Live. (The picture is my granny with one of the show’s co-hosts, Kristin Hursh.)
I think she did a wonderful job and I know that she was so nervous. I talked to her afterwards and she said that she hadn’t slept in two days! Seriously, how cute is she?
Click here to watch the video, it’s called “89 Year Old Comic Wows Winnipeg”. (Hey CTV, you need to make your videos easier to share) and keep your fingers crossed for the 24th!
It’s not every day that you ask your blog readers to vote for your 89-year-old grandmother in a comedian competition, but today is that day. Actually, today is the second day that I told you about it, but I figured we could all do with a reminder, right?
The Winnipeg Gone Wacky competition closes on November 6th, which means you only have a few more days to vote for my granny, who is trying to make her dream of being a stand up comedian come true. Seriously, I couldn’t make this stuff up. Her name is Jean Morrison, and I happen to think she’s hilarious, I’ll let you watch the video, but I think you’ll agree.
Admittedly, it’s sorta annoying that you have to register to vote, but come on, it’s my granny! How can you not want to take a few minutes to vote for her!
Ever wonder who the funniest person in Canada is? Well on Monday night, the Canadian Comedy Awards answered that question.
Debra DiGiovanni (Who I know from Video on Trial) and Steve Patterson, who hosts CBC’s The Debaters took home the golden microphone stand. Actually, I’m not too sure what the award actually looks like, so let’s just go with the microphone stand, mmmkay? The hilarious, if not hard to understand, Nikki Payne won for Best Taped Live Performance.
Comedy awards for the best improv troupe, stand-up newcomer, best film, television show, sketch group, writing, directing and a handful of others were also handed out. You can click here to see the complete list of winners.
Someone who might be a little more well-known to you, The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee was awarded Canadian Comedy Person of the Year. Jason Priestly won Best Television Performance (Male) for his role on HBO Canada’s Call Me Fitz. I still haven’t seen this show, but it’s won so many awards, it’s pretty hard to ignore. If only I wasn’t too cheap to order HBO Canada.
Congrats to all the winners!
Speaking of comedy, did I ever show you the video of my 89 year old grandmother doing standup comedy……?
Imagine for a second your grandmother decided to take the stage at an open mic comedy night..in Winnipeg.
Well fortunately for me, I don’t have to, because my 89-year-old grandmother did just that, and I knew she would, she brought the house down. And luckily for you guys, there’s video of the one and only Jean Morrison to prove it.
It was all a part of the Winnipeg’s Gone Wacky contest and up for grabs is a chance to make it to the Top Ten and perform at the Comedy showdown. The winner of that will be named Winnipeg’s Wackiest Amateur Comedian 2011, and she could win a $1,000 and a Blackberry Playbook.
You have to register to vote (which is annoying), but seriously, she’s 89, how could you not want to vote?
My granny has always dreamed about being a stand up comedian, and she’s dabbled a little bit, but I think this was the first time she intentionally went up and had a routine prepared. I can’t imagine ever standing up like she did, especially in a crowd full of comedians.
I’ve watched the video probably nine times already and I continue to be in awe. How lucky am I to have someone that has set the Morrison bar so high, yeah, I’m very, very lucky.
I feel like I’ve been posting a whole lot of cool opportunities and contests lately, I hope you guys are taking advantage of some of them because they really do seem pretty cool. Here’s another one that just popped into my mailbox.
The Comedy Network is looking for some social media savy person to have the Best Summer Job Ever!
The job is essentially to be the social media guru for the comedy channel and it comes with a furnished downtown Toronto suite for two months this summer! Now I don’t know very many internships that come with those kind of accommodations and probably amazing access to some great concerts and shows in Toronto, so it would definitely be cool! The only rule says that you have to be 19 years old or older.
Hmmm…maybe I should apply. Nah, I’m too busy already. BUT this is one of those opportunities where you hear about afterwards and you wish you had applied, so why not just apply? All you have to do is submit a tweet to @comedynetwork. It takes probably five minutes to come up with something witty and it could literally change your life.
I don’t know, seems worth it to me!
Applications close June 6th! Good luck, Good luck, Good luck!
I’ve talked a couple of times about my cousin. His name is John Hastings and he’s one of the funniest people that I’ve ever met. And I’m not just saying that cause he’s a ginger. Nope, he’s really funny, like gets paid to be funny. Yes, it’s true, he was a comedian long before my 90 year old granny decided to give it a try.
