What's So Funny?

Brad Upton has been entertaining audiences for 33 years. And he still kills! The Seattle-area comic talks about the best way to deal with hecklers, how standup and teaching 10-year-olds are intertwined, playing mind games in athletic and comedy competitions, and dishes the dirt on the likes of Rodney Dangerfield, Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, Smokey Robinson, and George Jones.

Joel Plaskett went from a power pop rocker with his band Halifax-based band, Thrush Hermit, in the '90s to a "nationally adored" singer-songwriter. In this episode, we talk about me fake-kissing his wife in university, Jimi Hendrix's high school career, getting heckled on Twitter, and John Candy's van. And, of course, Anne Murray.

Camilo the Magician is... you'll never guess... a magician! He's also our first guest with a pop song written in his honour. It's a good one, too, by the band Said the Whale. In this episode, Camilo Dominguez (that's his given name) talks about growing up in Bogota before moving to Victoria at the age of 15, scaring religious old ladies on airplanes, and even performs a card trick for me. Nothing like magic on a podcast!

James Kennedy burst onto the Vancouver standup scene and became a headliner in short order after spending most of his 20s in a band. He's never met a competition – be it in comedy or music – that he hasn't conquered. Not bad for a kid who never finished high school. Oh, and he also loves monkeys.

Harris Anderson and I first met sharing a bowl of alcohol. Now he's in studio talking about his comedy and music. He also talks about his love of Jonathan Winters and Victor Borge, quotes Milton's Paradise Lost, says why jazz makes him nervous, and expresses his love of dogs.

Barry Crimmins... the man... the legend. The great political satirist joins us despite having a love-hate relationship with podcasts. Despite industrial work being done right outside his hotel room window, we manage to talk for an hour about the best and worst US president of his lifetime, the problem with Hillary, his experience on Air America (or Err America, as he calls it), and the early days of comedy in Boston.

Fred Ewanuick teaches me how to pronounce his name and then we get down to business. The professional pretender talks about his time as a bad theatre student, performing improv in his mom's coffee shop, his role as Hank on Corner Gas, and his regrets about his starring turn on Dan For Mayor.

Lori Gibbs returns after a 5-year absence. Or I return to her hotel room, is more like it. She talks about getting hit on in comedy clubs, how she got her nickname "the human antidepressant," her radio career, being a keynote speaker, the art of crafting, and we settle, once and for all, who has the bigger head.

Part two of our 2016 highlights, with guests Steve Bays, Graeme Duffy, Jy Harris, Ed Hill, Chris James, Richard Lett, Brett Martin, Efthimios Nasiopoulos, Scott Patey, Nancy Robertson, Ari Shaffir, and Sam Tonning.