What's So Funny?

Ed Hill joins us for the third time, this time smelling of Korean BBQ. We get to the bottom of his anglo-sounding name and talk about his upcoming album recording – also coincidentally his third. And he shares with us his favourite street joke – also coincidentally the only one he knows.

Colin Heath is a clown. No, that's not a knock on the guy. He's a professional who has toured with Cirque du Soleil all over the world and is currently at Bacio Rosso in Vancouver. He's also a playwright, artist, actor, and has even done standup comedy... once. Not only that, but he went to junior high school with our host (not that Heath remembers that).

Brittany Lyseng is our first guest of 2019, the start of our 15th year doing this thing. Wow. The Calgary-born-reared-based standup talks about the ups and downs of the business... the elevator and escalator business, that is. We also talk about her favourite teacher and why she won't be invited to perform at her high school (go Ghosts!). Oh yes, and comedy. We talk about that, too.

Dave Nystrom returns to the What's So Funny? studios 14 years after his first appearance. A year after that, he up and moved to Hollywood, California, USA. For the past few years he's been living in Calgary, Alberta, CA, raising a horde of children and doing standup there and across the country. He tells tales of his years in LaLaLand and reminisces about his early days starting out in Vancouver.

Harry Doupe comes bearing gifts, but that's not the reason we always invite him back around Christmas time. Who better to recap the year than the veteran writer/standup? He's got opinions and stories to keep us going for years. This episode is no exception.

Steve Bays is back, and like always with the musician, it's epic. That is, if you define 'epic' by length. We always have so much to talk about when he comes by. We talk about the BC Ferries, his recent visit to New York City, talking to Seth Meyers, being complimented by Noel Gallagher, and he shows off his amazing array of accents.

Melanie Rose, the comedian not the porn star, returns to the show 100 pounds less than her first visit. She talks about her gangster grandma, felonious fathers (both step- and biological) and criminal ex-consort. We also talk about the perils of being an older standup in the community. And more!

He Fangzhou, or Fangzhou He depending on how you roll, is our guest all the way from... Toronto. The Chinese national came here to study math but somehow got sidetracked into standup comedy. He's love to have the kind of career here that Canadian Mark Roswell (aka Dashan) has in China. But He tells us there's an advantage to a Canadian in China over a Chinese in Canada.

Kevin Kent accosted my beautiful bald head at Bacio Rosso, and yet I still invited him to guest with us. He's an improviser and drag queen from a cabin in the wilds of New Mexico who has run away to join the circus. Kind of. He tells us his life story, from Albuquerque to Chicago to Seattle and now Vancouver, for a couple months, anyway. We recorded this on Grey Cup Sunday, which was news to him.

Kevvy returns. In this episode, the front man for the band Fake Shark comes decked out in Vancouver Grizzlies gear. We talk a bit about the glory of the Grizzlies before moving on to his latest efforts as the foremost comedy album producer in all the land. He also talks about doing standup (of sorts) in high school, his love of Adam Sandler, and his Dave Chappelle tattoo (among others).