THUNDER BAY - The political landscape south of the border has become comedic fodder for late night shows and standup comics. But even some of the most prominent comedians think the current leadership is not always a laughing matter.
Comedians Lewis Black and Kathleen Madigan will be stopping in Thunder Bay as part of their 49th Parallel Tour on Monday, Sept. 11 at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium.
“It’s not so much a tour but checking up on places we’re going to hide until this whole thing blows over,” Black said. “The illusion is we will get on stage and ha ha ha, then we’ll spend most of the time perusing the area.”
But the veteran performers said in an interview with the Thunder Bay Source that playing north of the border can actually be a reprieve from American audiences, because Canadian’s already have a front row seat to what is happening in their country, but don’t come with all the baggage.
“The audiences we deal with bring baggage to the room,” Black said. “They are either Democrat or Republican or even Tea Party sometimes. They have an agenda. You Canadians already get the joke. You’re already halfway there.”
“You guys don’t have a pony in the race,” Black continued. “It’s always been a pleasure to work up there because of that.”
Madigan and Black have teamed up in the past, including working together on Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil television series and performing in Iraq and Afghanistan during two USO tours.
The two comedians, who have gained a strong following across Canada and the United States, said working together is just a lot of fun.
“You get along and you basically share the same kind of fun,” Black said. “This is just flat out fun for us.”
“It was just something different,” Madigan added about the upcoming Canadian tour. “Also, I don’t have a tour bus and I wanted one so I called him and said: why don’t we go together and then I can use your bus. There’s not much for you in this deal, except I’ll be there.”
Madigan said her act will touch on a variety of topics, from family to travelling, and of course what is happening in her own country. And while Black added that his act focuses on unicorns and rainbows, he has built a following around his angry, finger-waving persona, most notably during his Back in Black segments on the Daily Show.
“The basis of my act is basically how we’ve found a way as a country to not accomplish anything,” he said. “Any chance we get to do something we say: Nah, that would be too hard, let’s not do it.”
So of course, there will be no shortage of finger waving and angry rants directed at the current political climate in the United States, including the president.
“I found I’m obligated,” Black said. “My audience wants it. I discovered that really quickly after he won because I was trying to ditch it and I was sitting on it and when I let it rip, you could feel them go: yay, that’s why I showed up here tonight.”
But even though the jokes about Donald Trump always seem to get laughs, both Madigan and Black think constantly talking about him and giving him attention might be part of the problem.
“The only way to shut down a narcissist is to ignore them,” Madigan said. “But I think if you are a nightly comedian, you almost kind of have to because that’s the news of the day. I think about it - am I participating too? But I’m trying to point out the absurdity of the absurd.”
“It doesn’t help that our news services feed into those compulsions,” Black added. “Essentially, we don’t have a discussion of issues of what needs to be done or why we can’t figure our health care or what are the problems that we have to overcome. It would be much better if they just had barnyard animals. We would get more out of that. It would make more sense than what I’m hearing.”
However, laughter can still be the best medicine, and for Black, sometimes it’s the only way to deal with what he calls an unprecedented situation for the American people.
“You have to laugh in order to be able to step back and not take it so seriously that it ties you up in knots,” he said. “He is a satire. If you read this in a book, in a piece of fiction, you’d be laughing at it. It’s trying to get beyond his dog and pony show.”
When it comes to Canadian content, Madigan said her take on the leadership, particularly the prime minister, would be much different.
“I would focus on how shallow I am as it turns out,” she said. “I would follow that man to the depths of hell. I’ve never seen someone that good looking lead a nation. I know that’s shallow.”
Black and Madigan will be performing at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium on Monday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m.
