Pow! You hear that? That’s the sound of the 2009 Montreal Fringe Fest knocking my teeth out. ‘We Call This Comedy’ is the first show for my Fringe Fest bonanza and it did exactly what it set out to do, make the audience laugh.
For a Fringe a festival show the show is a bit vanilla, the format is simply the two Montreal comedians (Ali Hassan and John Hastings) each doing a half hour of stand-up. In between the two sets the two do some collaborated work in the form of songs and hypothetical letters to annoying apartment neighbours.
I’m familiar with both of these Montreal locals’ work having seen Hassan MC at the ‘Comedians of Color’ and ‘Comedy Without Borders’ events and Hastings at Comedy works and at a fund raiser for the Filipino women’s centre. Despite the fact that I’ve heard most of their jokes before this show still was able to get a lot of laughs out of me as they’ve obviously tightened their craft and execution.
In the first half of the show Hastings explores his experience growing in a waspy Ontario household and the process of telling his parents that he wanted to go to theatre school. As he points out, this would be a crushing blow to any parents who hope to have children who are “productive members of society.” The rest of his set, leaned a bit too much on sex jokes, but hey, its the stand up comedian’s bread and butter.
Before Hassan took the stage, the two shared some songs with the crowd. Sadly I had already heard this material at an open mic night at Comedyworks, and sadly the gags from the songs seem to work better in a more intimate setting, rather than a large venue like the Just For Laughs studio. Nonetheless, they were still entertaining.
Finally Hassan took the stage to provide half an hour of his material. In previous shows, I’ve seen Hassan do a fantastic job slinging around race humour like it was second nature, so I was upset at the fact that he did almost no jokes on race issues, rather he focussed on the topic of food and his experience as a chef. While funny, I couldn’t help but think he opted to stick to less controversial topics (like the fact that his mother was in the crowd) to ensure he reached as many people in the audience. While probably a smart plan, and certainly very funny, it’s not his best work.
Overall though the show does a great job ensuring that you feel that you money was well spent, of not for the comedy then at the very least for the samosas handed out at the end of the show prepared by Hassan himself. Food and comedy? Can’t beat it.
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