In the lead-up to Sad Mag’s epic com­edy night, Laugh/Cry, on March 16th, which is TOMORROW (!), Sad Mag published a series of inter­views with some fine and funny people. Our comic line-up features some of Vancouver’s most notable, potable comedians. But when the interview pressure is on, who really delivered? Hereforto: the Best of the Best…

Best “Why I Became a Comic” Story… Alistair Cook!

Darren Li: Is it true you had a spon­sor and were plan­ning on becom­ing a pro­fes­sional snow­boarder, until you broke your leg? 

Alistair Cook: I was a young man in high school [and] I took drama instead of phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion when I was in reha­bil­i­ta­tion, and found that act­ing gave me an excit­ing adren­a­line rush equal to the rush I expe­ri­enced while snowboarding.

Best Inauguration into the print pages of Sad Mag… Tegan Verheul!

Carmen Faye Mathes: How were you involved in Sad Mag’s Glam­our Issue?

Tegan Verheul: I got to be in a real cool photo shoot with some of my favourite local come­di­ans and they made me look much pret­tier than I do in real life. You can’t tell, but I’m wear­ing a corset and it hurt so much that any time I laughed I also cried.

Best Quin­tes­sen­tial Van­cou­ver moment… Ivan Decker! (as told to Maegan Thomas)

I was walk­ing through Gas Town on the way to Water­front sta­tion. It was a cold rainy day in Novem­ber. Tourists were tak­ing pic­tures of the steam clock and the 12 o’clock cruise ship horn that sounds like the open­ing chords of “O Canada” could be heard over the hus­tle and bus­tle of home­less peo­ple ask­ing for money to look after the cars of peo­ple park­ing and cab dri­vers honk­ing at every­one and everything.

I had just pur­chased a 16 oz Amer­i­cano from an inde­pen­dent cof­fee shop and scoffed slightly as I walked by Star­bucks with my unmarked cup proudly dis­played in front of me. As I arrived at the steam clock I became annoyed by the amount of peo­ple block­ing the side­walk to pho­to­graph a rather unre­mark­able out­door grand­fa­ther clock. I decided to try to avoid the crowd by dart­ing in between a tree and a line of news­pa­per boxes fea­tur­ing var­i­ous pub­li­ca­tions con­tain­ing pop cul­ture non­sense and sudoku puzzles.

As I stepped on the metal grate that cov­ered the tree roots I real­ized very quickly that painted metal coated in rain water didn’t exactly have the trac­tion to sup­port my cur­rent speed and direc­tion. Before I could make any math­e­mat­i­cal adjust­ments to my travel how­ever, I hit the ground so hard that every­one around stopped what they were doing and looked just in time to see me throw my pre­ten­tious cof­fee across the street, nar­rowly miss­ing a bike courier. I quickly apol­o­gized to every­one and attempted to untan­gle my head­phones from my scarf as I hur­ried away to get on the sky train with­out pay­ing for a ticket.

It was embar­rass­ing at first but then I real­ized I’m prob­a­bly inter­net famous on some sort of Korean “Fail Blog” equiv­a­lent.

Most enviable future plans… Andy Kallstrom!

Carmen Faye Mathes: What are you most excited about right now?

Andy Kallstrom: Gen­er­ally: That guy who wants to send a retired cou­ple to Mars.

Per­son­ally: There’s a good chance I’m mov­ing to Eng­land soon.

Best use of organic consumables in a comic role… Rachel Burns!

Jackie Hoffart: If the com­edy of Rachel Burns was a bas­ket at whole foods, what would be inside?

Rachel Burns: I’d say there would be some com­fort foods – maybe a chick­pea curry; some­thing that will make you feel secure and also full but not stuffed. Def­i­nitely an item with incon­gru­ent pack­ag­ing, like tofu with a pen­guin on the out­side. A dented egg­plant that you kind of feel sorry for, but not enough to send it back. Some­thing you’ll never actu­ally use but you bought impul­sively, like a giant bag of organic pine nuts. Dried beans that you’ll never get around to soaking—even though you promised your natur­opath you would do it, over and over again.

Best rendition of an audience seduction… Cameron MacLeod!

Maegan Thomas: What’s Cam MacLeod expe­ri­ence?

Cameron MacLeod: At the return of the HERO show I opened the show by seduc­ing the audi­ence with Roses, cheese­burg­ers and shots of Blue Alize to the song “Thinkin bout you” by Frank Ocean. That’s about as close to the Cam MacLeod expe­ri­ence as you can get.

…and finally, dare we do it? Funniest response?! Let’s ask the audience: Who do you think deserves to take the cake?

Who are you? What’s the Ivan Decker experience?
My name is Ivan Decker, I am a stand up comedian from Vancouver. I’ve been fortunate to have the pleasure of opening for some big name comics to sold out crowds at the River Rock Theatre. Which is amazing. Some people will lie and say they prefer small intimate rooms but there’s nothing better than putting on a sharp suit and performing for a thousand people.

Tell us the last time you laughed til you cried?
I was re watching an old episode of Seinfeld and discovered this fine moment:

Jerry: “Kramer are you reading the VCR manual?”
Kramer: “Well, we can’t all read the classics, Professor Highbrow!”

I rolled around my apartment floor for about 5 minutes.

When did you realize you were funny?
I always liked telling jokes and making people laugh but the idea to become a comedian I think sprouted in high school. I was very opinionated as a teenager but whenever I expressed myself seriously people would just laugh in my face. Maybe they were all high… or maybe I was funny. Maybe both! In any case I think that’s where my comedy was born… Getting mad about things nobody really cares about. That’s the real Ivan Decker experience. IT’S ALWAYS TOO HOT ON THE BUS!

Who was your comedic mentor when you were coming into the life?
I’ve probably watched Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedian” documentary about 60 times. But in terms of real life people I was really fortunate that a few of the more established comics on the scene really helped me out. Guys like Lachlan Patterson and Dave Nystrom to name a couple. So much of comedy is things you need to discover for yourself but they helped me with the basics like “move the mic stand out of the way” or “Don’t let a couple heckling douchebags from Surrey make you feel like you can’t do this. They are cowards that shout from the dark.”

You’ve become a staple at the Vancouver Comedy Fest, what’s it like to rep Vancouver stand up?
It’s pretty dope. When people want to do stage time in this city now they have to bring gifts to my family.

Quintessential Vancouver moment?
I was walking through Gas Town on the way to Waterfront station. It was a cold rainy day in November. Tourists were taking pictures of the steam clock and the 12 o’clock cruise ship horn that sounds like the opening chords of “O Canada” could be heard over the hustle and bustle of homeless people asking for money to look after the cars of people parking and cab drivers honking at everyone and everything.

I had just purchased a 16 oz Americano from an independent coffee shop and scoffed slightly as I walked by Starbucks with my unmarked cup proudly displayed in front of me. As I arrived at the steam clock I became annoyed by the amount of people blocking the sidewalk to photograph a rather unremarkable outdoor grandfather clock. I decided to try to avoid the crowd by darting in between a tree and a line of newspaper boxes featuring various publications containing pop culture nonsense and sudoku puzzles.

As I stepped on the metal grate that covered the tree roots I realized very quickly that painted metal coated in rain water didn’t exactly have the traction to support my current speed and direction. Before I could make any mathematical adjustments to my travel however, I hit the ground so hard that everyone around stopped what they were doing and looked just in time to see me throw my pretentious coffee across the street, narrowly missing a bike courier. I quickly apologized to everyone and attempted to untangle my headphones from my scarf as I hurried away to get on the sky train without paying for a ticket.

It was embarrassing at first but then I realized I’m probably internet famous on some sort of Korean “Fail Blog” equivalent.
If you couldn’t be you, which Ivan would you be?
Probably Ivan Oiser. He was a Doctor and a 25 time fencing champion with 3 different swords. Chicks love a Doctor that can use sweet swords. Also he wasn’t a big fan of Nazis. BONUS POINTS!

You are an animal or exhibit at the zoo – which are you?
Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, TIGER UPPERCUT! ….Sorry can you repeat the question?

Ivan Decker has got a weekend of headlining coming up at the end of this month at the Comedy Mix here in Vancouver March 28 – 30; he’s on twitter @Ivandecker; he is featured in the current issue of discorder; AND he’s appearing in an amazing comedy show March 16th for Sad Mag!!

In the lead-up to Sad Mag’s epic com­edy night, Laugh/Cry, on March 16th, we are cel­e­brat­ing our comic line-up with a series of inter­views with Vancouver’s most notable, potable comedians.

Get it while it’s hot! Sad Mag’s Jackie Hoffart interviews Rachel Burns!

Who are you?
friend. daughter. ex step-sister. sleeper. common-law spouse.

How did you get involved with sadmag’s laugh/cry event?
A text message came from my friend and I said yes.

If the comedy of Rachel Burns was a basket at whole foods, what would be inside?
I’d say there would be some comfort foods – maybe a chickpea curry; something that will make you feel secure and also full but not stuffed. Definitely an item with incongruent packaging, like tofu with a penguin on the outside. A dented eggplant that you kind of feel sorry for, but not enough to send it back. Something you’ll never actually use but you bought impulsively, like a giant bag of organic pine nuts. Dried beans that you’ll never get around to soaking—even though you promised your naturopath you would do it, over and over again.

Why did you start doing stand-up?
I needed a new avenue to explore feelings of extreme anxiety and failure? With unrelenting elation mixed in, for good measure.

What kinds of things make one show good or another show bad?
Some shows are definitely setup to be more fun than others. But… the tricky thing about being in some sort of post-apocalyptic hellscape (aka sports bar in the suburbs) is that you still might have fun on stage. There is something about a guy in a UFC tshirt saying I was funny that means something to me. And there’s something to be said for learning to not make assumptions about who your audience is. That said, any show with a private bathroom and a fruit basket is nice. (It happened once.)

Have you ever tried improv?
Yes! I tried improv and it was really hard. I learned that it’s completely different to premeditate and rely on just yourself (as with standup) than have someone gently encourage you to be a cactus (as with improv). I have a huge fear of letting people down—even inanimate objects. (When the House of Clogs near my apartment closed, I felt sad / somewhat responsible. If only I had liked clogs more!) So I have a lot of respect for people who can do that; jump in and trust and be physical and participate.

How do your comedy chops help you most in everyday life?
It helps make life a bit more tolerable? Recently I had a somewhat terrifying experience climbing a volcano, and the only thing that kept me going was thinking of how I could make fun of it later. It’s channeling that moment where you cry in front of a 14 year old and decide that it’s all “experience” for “comedy” that can help justify your inept social interaction.

If money weren’t an issue, what would you do with your time?
I’d probably live part-time in an ashram, spend lots of time with my 7 new dogs, fly to somewhere sunny every week, I don’t know. Lots of eavesdropping at fancy mom restaurant lunches for screenplays I’d never complete?

In all honesty, removing all excuses to not be working harder towards my dreams sounds stressful; I’d probably watch a lot of Wheel and become comfortably rubenesque. I’d like to spend time administrating the dreams of others—that seems like a worthy and less risky pursuit.

Favourite semi-recent tweet:
I AM LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK AND ALL OF MY MONEY GOES TO BALLOON GRAMS  – paul f tompkins

Sad Mag also enjoys Rachel’s twitterfeed, like, a lot. @analog_r

Who are you? What are you EVEN DOING HERE?
My name is Cameron MacLeod. I do comedy stuff (Sketch, Improv, Curation/Production of festivals).

Currently I’m working on a feature length film Steel Viper Force as well as some video sketch. I produce and host the HERO show at the China Cloud theatre and perform bi-weekly with Instant Theatre at Havanna on Commercial. I am also recording a new record with the Vancouver Rap group Too High Crew under the alias ClamDigga.

You’ve graced the pages of SadMag’s Glamour issue and been a sultry centre spread for Discorder. What’s it’s like to be a major sex symbol in the Vancouver comedy scene? 
That’s weird to think about. I don’t consider myself a sex symbol because I definitely don’t hit the gym enough. But if other people want to that’s obviously cool with me.

[Eds. Note: this is total bull, Cam totally has pictures of himself in his wallet, I know it. I bet the pony tail/no pony tail debate takes him HOURS every morning.]

What’s Cam MacLeod experience?
At the return of the HERO show I opened the show by seducing the audience with Roses, cheeseburgers and shots of Blue Alize to the song “Thinkin bout you” by Frank Ocean. That’s about as close to the Cam MacLeod experience as you can get.

When/why was the last time you laughed til you cried? 
I was probably on mushrooms. I always end up laugh crying and sounding like a Hyena.

Who was your comedic mentor when you were coming into the life? 
I’d say Aubrey Tennant had an impact. He doesn’t do comedy anymore but he was hilarious and I produced my first comedy show at DV8 restaurant with him. He also produced Softcore Comedy at the Cobalt with Paul Anthony before Paul started Talent Time. I remember one show where they both wore diapers on stage and weren’t allowed to go to the bathroom during the show. They both definitely pee’d in those diapers. Some of Aubrey’s spilled out onto the stage. That’s commitment.

When did you realize you were funny?
The first time I realized what a fart was, where it was coming from and that I could make them happen.

What’s the funniest place in Vancouver?
The International Village, aka Tinsel Town. That mall has the weirdest shops in it. Everything is out of place and seems like it’s some kind of front. It’s the perfect place to buy a cashmere sweater, a weed leaf belt buckle with a knife in it, and then eat some Taco Time.

Quintessential Vancouver moment?
I did shots of Jameson’s with Mayor Gregor Robertson after producing his Roast for the OLIO Festival (R.I.P.Olio). But I’d say a great Vancouver day is spent at the beach in the summer followed by a bike ride to any of the Comedy or Music shows happening in Vancouver on a regular basis. There are too many good options to list.

FMK – Gregor Robinson, Sean Devlin, your clone.
I would “F” Gregor Robertson, Marry Sean Devlin, and kill my clone before he tries to kill me.

Who and what do you recommend?

The Sad Mag Laugh/Cry Comedy show at the Toast Collective on March 16th.

The next HERO show is on May 2nd at the China Cloud.

Like The HERO SHOW on facebook for all updates and show times

Follow me on twitter @ClamMacleod and here are some of my friends…
@shitharperdid
@thesundayserv
@_LittleMountain
@EastVanComedy
@abeautifulpodcast
@curtisgrauher
@STEELVIPERFORCE
@itstomhill
@DrGMackenzie
@InstantTheatre

In the lead-up to Sad Mag’s epic comedy night, Laugh/Cry, on March 16th, we are celebrating our comic line-up with a series of interviews with Vancouver’s most notable, potable comedians…

Alistair Cook, AKA “The Godfather,” is the founder of Vancouver’s Instant Theatre Company. Cook, who has twenty years of experience performing, producing, and instructing improvisation, is also the former president and National Artistic Director of the Canadian Improv Games, which holds a tournament every year in Ottawa featuring the most talented high school teams. Cook chatted with Sad Mag contributor Darren Li about changing vocations, gullibility and bringing improv into every day life.

Darren Li: In your opinion, Alistair, what makes improvisation more appealing than all the other branches of theatre?

Alistair Cook: Live theatre speaks – live experience always stands out more because it’s so much more energetic.

DL: What is the most useful skill that you can master when it comes to improvisation?

AC: Being present in the moment. Not thinking about what is going to happen two minutes later or what happened two minutes before.

DL: According to the Vancouver Sun, you had a sponsor and were planning on becoming a professional snowboarder, until you broke your leg. Explain the transition you made from snowboarding to the theatre business. What specifically made you want to pursue a different goal?

AC: The fact that I was a young man in high school. I took drama instead of physical education when I was in rehabilitation and found that acting gave me an exciting adrenaline rush equal to the rush I experienced while snowboarding.

DL: Does having so much experience in improvisation influence how you perceive events and how you interact with people in your everyday life?

AC: Yes, there are two ways. The first is that I am more comfortable in my organization skills and am better at fixing problems when they come up. The second way, which is negative, is that it has made me a more gullible person. On the stage, you have to believe everything your partner says, but in real life, that is not always the case.

DL: Improvisation puts great emphasis on comedy. Have you always been a funny person?

AC: Not really, I am funnier on the stage than when I’m off the stage.

DL: A question from all the aspiring actors, how would taking some of your classes or workshops help them in developing their acting skills?

AC: They would learn the skill of being present in the motivation of your character. It is essential in acting and improv teaches you to be present in the moment. Things don’t always go as planned on stage, scripted or not.

DL: As the former president and National Artistic Director of the Canadian Improv Games, you say that the games have been a “tremendous training ground for actors” (Vancouver Sun). How so?

AC: The alumni base is huge, there are over 2000 kids involved every year. The improv games have been a great starting base for actors who are now famous including Seth Rogen and Sandra Oh.

The Instant Theatre Company provides classes, workshops and holds monthly shows for people looking to expand their interest in improv.