In comedy, scandals have been making headlines that overshadow any punchline – and rightly so, thank goodness, and all that.
This is not an article about this revolt, but about a revival: of the audio comedy experience, a once revered form of entertainment.
Comedy podcasts such as WTF with Marc Maron and Comedy Bang Bang have received huge traction. SiriusXM plays uncensored comedy. A new label devoted to comedy, Comedy Records, was founded in Toronto in 2010 (it's now based in New York).
Vancouver indie record mogul and comedy fan Jonathan Simkin, recognizing this resurgence, launched a comedy division focusing on comedy albums. Simkin, president and co-founder of 604 Records (with Nickelback's Chad Kroeger) identified not just a hole in the market but the opportunity offered by new platforms: streaming services, YouTube, digital downloads. Eyebrows were raised – he says some industry people were "dumbfounded." Even if he's not exactly laughing all the way to the bank yet, the outlay is low, there's a variety of revenue sources – and Simkin projects he will turn a profit, eventually. "The comedy thing is a patience thing for me," he says.
Simkin has released four comedy albums to date. All have hit No. 1 on Canada's iTunes comedy chart.
"People are treating me like I'm some genius in the Canadian comedy world. The truth is all I did was what we do with the music stuff," Simkin says. "All we're really doing is marketing 101."
He also lobbied the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS), which operates the Juno Awards, to re-introduce the best comedy album category. The last time a Juno was handed out for comedy album, it went to Bob and Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) for Strange Brew. That was 33 years ago.
Next year's Junos, to be held in Vancouver, will see the category's return, sponsored by SiriusXM.
"We thought this was really interesting [that] there's a few independent labels bringing on and helping comedians," says Allan Reid, president and CEO of CARAS and the Junos. The board voted unanimously to reinstate the category.
"We are the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences," he says. "And even though it's primarily a music focus …we went, 'Here's a recording form that's drawing a lot of interest.' And there's some legendary comedians that have come out of Canada; it's like, what a great way to recognize emerging ones and hopefully some of the stars."
Shirley Gnome, Kevin Maher, Kevin Banner, Jonathan Simkin, Charlie Demers and his daughter are pictured at 604 Records.
If you are of a certain age and disposition, there's a good chance comedy albums were a formative part of your popular culture awakening. Simkin's a music guy – his label hit it big with Carly Rae Jepsen, Marianas Trench, Theory of a Deadman and others – but comedy was important for him, too; growing up, he listened to Monty Python, Eddie Murphy, Steve Martin. Today, he does a lot of his comedy consuming on YouTube.
"I'm one of those people that, if I wasn't making myself and others laugh, I'd probably be suicidal. It's just one of those things that helps me deal with my own existence."
One of his music producers, Kevin (Kevvy) Maher – also of the band Fake Shark, with 604's Light Organ Records – began producing comedy albums on the side a while back out of personal interest. He and Simkin began to talk about that work, the opportunities for comedy on new platforms and the rich scene in Vancouver. Simkin decided to put out some comedy records; Maher was dispatched to find potential comedians.
First up was Kevin Banner's Dreamboat. (Sample punchline – about being asked, because he's in an interracial relationship, whether it would be weird if his child was a different colour than him: "The only disappointing part of that is never being able to convincingly play 'Got your nose.'") The album debuted at No. 1.
"I could say, even if it was just for a day, I had the No. 1 comedy album in the country. It felt pretty neat; I'm not gonna lie," Banner tells The Globe and Mail. "It was really nice to be able to take a screen-cap of my name on the top of the charts and share it across my social media and have people that I grew up see that I had done something with this stand-up thing."
Gavin Matts' album Premature also debuted at No. 1 upon release. (Sample line: "I do crazy stuff without WiFi, crazy. Like, I bought a puzzle.") The release coincided with his victory at this year's SiriusXM Top Comic competition. When he did a live-stream event from 604's Vancouver studio, 1,700 to 1,800 people tuned in, Simkin says.
"Compared to a Marianas Trench live-stream, that's a small number," Simkin says. "But for most comedians, if you're playing a gig in front of 1,700 people that's a [really] big gig."
Simkin has released four comedy albums to date. All have hit No. 1 on Canada’s iTunes comedy chart.
Charlie Demers is a comedian, author, theatre and radio performer and voice actor (Beat Bugs). He says there's something powerful about the experience of listening to comedy; he recalls flying Air Canada as a child, his headphones plugged into the armrest, enchanted by the comedy audio channel. "I think listening to comedy is actually a better way of experiencing it; it's a truer way of experiencing it even than seeing it on TV."
He released Fatherland in November with 604 Records. As the name suggests, album themes include parenting (his daughter Josephine is nearly 4) – and Nazis. (Sample joke: "The whole concept of white supremacy; it's an idea with zero evidence. People who believe white people are better … there's nothing to suggest that. The best you could say about us is that we tend, on average, to have better desserts.")
Demers loves the long-play album format.
"Some of us aren't built for those seven-minute TV slots," he says. "You go out, you do the taping, you have one shot to make it work, and if you can't find the footing in that small amount of time, you're just kind of hooped. And that's the footage that exists. Whereas, with the album, for those of us who need a longer runaway to land on, you've got more space and you've got more time.
"The other nice thing," he says, "is working with 604, that Call Me Maybe money … goes deep. So they have a few bucks to play around with."
This has meant the world to Shirley Gnome, who released three comedy music albums independently before signing with 604 Records. "Boy, things are way easier when you have money," she laughs. "And not only that – it's the support, the expertise, the spirit of the label being really entrepreneurial and experimental."
She's particularly excited about the ability to make high-quality music videos; the video channel is a big part of Simkin's vision. Simkin calls Gnome "an X-rated female Weird Al." (Sample lyric from her album Taking It Up The Notch is an instruction for men engaging in intimacy: "Don't think about the world, don't think about war, the suffering of people more and more, economic struggles, corporate power, it's the mental equivalent of a cold shower.")
Maher – he and Gnome were class clowns together in high school – says a huge part of the fun was taking the musical aspect of the project so seriously. "We weren't even laughing when we were talking about these gross sort of juvenile lyrics," he says. "We were really concerned with pulling off our Aerosmith moment."
Simkin has entered all four of his eligible artists – Banner, Demers, Gnome and Matts – for Juno consideration. Nominations will be announced in February.