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Peter Anthony speaks from North of the Border
Since April 1, 1999, the day we launched our magazine, we’ve always had a tremendous number of readers from Canada or residing in Canada. (And, although Bonnie McFarlane hails from Alberta, she has never really dwelt on the Canadian comedy experience– so we haven’t had a columnist who speaks directly to our readers about what it might be like to be a comedian from up north. Until now. Peter Anthony (website) currently resides in Toronto and, in this, his first installment of “North of the Border,” he delivers a wake up call to “Canuck comics.”
Outside of the Yuk Yuks, there are 10 independent clubs, several agencies for corporate and college work, and whatever the ambitious comedian can book for him or herself. Most Canadian bookers, unfortunately, can’t see the benefit in sharing talent, in giving comedians the autonomy they inherently crave. The result of this forced loyalty is damaging to comics. Having only one option creates precipitous dips in work.
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When I click on the link, I end up at a blank page. Is it just me?
I was getting the same problem on the link. I think it may be a browser issue as I was running Safari on a MAC. I tried Explorer too but it also failed. Web master…YOU HAVE A GLITCH!
That being said, I did have the whole story sent to me and it is a great read. Peter hit the nail(s) on the head. There is a glut of newbies in Canada, being pumped out of the Humber puppy mill, other rooms are producing their own mutts as well. With a closed market (ie: work for this booker, you can’t work for that one) the industry starts to weaken. Both the clubs and comics make less in my opinion. The bookers just see the new guys as a way to fill the stage for cheap. eventually the lack-lustre shows these guys do (while the more expensive and talented guys get pushed out) will kill the crowds.
Their method comes down to selling club brand name instead of the product (comics) and looking at the bottom line. How cheaply can i fill my stage. Canadian businesses are always spineless when it comes to spend a dollar to make 2.
Can you imagine the music industry or sports working this way? Come to the venue to see Label X musicians!!
Come to the X stadium and see the X stadium athletes play! Naw, I’ll pass.
London UK has an open market and it is thriving, great pay, great venues and no real limits on where one can play. The result? Rooms book based on merit, share acts and promote the acts by name. There is a thriving market with this strategy and bookers and comics are all making very good coin.
Somehow, North America, and Canada especially, are not willing to examine this business model. As such there is a lot of grumbling among the acts. There are a lot of trust issue on both sides that could be avoided.
As a professional I can say that I am loyal to myself first (as is anyone in any business is) and then loyal to what makes me money and gets me recognition in my chosen field.
Restricting my options makes me think that my best interests are not being looked after.
The US has the luxury of a larger market and more places to play so they have less of a control issue with bookers. Tell Dubya to loosen up the border and let some of us Canucks in…we are fun to work with and we always like to help other comics with lines and tags.
I have been alerted to the problem of not being able to reach the Peter Anthony column…I checked it out on IE and Netscape…it seemed okay.
Then I opened it up in the HTML editor and– THERE IT WAS: a missing “< " Sometimes that’s all it takes is one lousy “< " in the right place to screw things up. And the insidious part is that it works in some browser but not in others…some are less “fussy” than others. Thanks to all who posted about the error.