Camille Mitchell has been in the acting game her whole life. The daughter of a bona fide Hollywood movie star who acted alongside such luminaries as Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. In this, her podcast debut, Mitchell talks about her dad as well as stories from her own career on TV and the stage, including getting punked by Burt Reynolds.
Jessica Holmes makes her podcast debut on What's So Funny?! Exciting times! The former Air Farce cadet talks about why she doesn't like playing comedy clubs anymore, gets into some frank talk about her depression, moves on to discussing her year-and-a-half in Venezuela working as a missionary for the Mormons, and explains why couples don't need to have activities in common to make a good relationship.
Richard Lett is no stranger to the podcast. Somehow, we always have things to talk about. This time, we sat in the great outdoors, shooting the breeze in the breeze. Richard spoke of being sober but never clean and even performed some spontaneous beat poetry. At least it was beat after I was done adding the bass and drums.
Julie Kim was positively glowing in this episode. That's right, the standup comedian/brainiac was pregnant. She tells us about her varied interests, from science and engineering to comedy. She also talks about growing up a rebellious chubby kid living on top of a variety store with all the free pop and chips she could eat. This episode brought to you by Lick's Burgers.
Dino Archie joins the 5-time member club in this appearance. And that's no conspiracy. We talk about his wonder year – winning the Seattle Comedy Competition, recording sets on Jimmy Kimmel and Comedy Central – as well as Mexicans in the NBA, parallel parking, Fresno trivia, Hall and Oates, and I ask him leftover Reddit questions.
Ed Hill returns to the What's So Funny? studios telling tales of his triumphant crabbing exploits. Along the way, we discuss piano lessons, boogers, drugs, gout, Googling racism, tweeting Jimmy Fallon, ghosts, and being a weirdo whisperer.
Ari Shaffir pulls no punches. In this episode, the Skeptic Tank host and standup comic talks about Carlos Mencia, plausible deniability, adverbs in blogs, pedophiles, Jehovah, censorship, offence, practice making perfect, and his feud with Howard Stern. Lots to chew on here.
Caitlin Howden steps into the great outdoors, i.e. What's So Funny?'s nature studio. We sat on a park bench in glorious sunshine watching the world go by recording this one. She tells us about being a dominating Grade 6 basketball player, getting cut from the improv team, stalking boys, making decisions, Big Brother Canada and The Bachelor, and boom boxes. Caitlin's instructions for listening: Go for a walk on a beautiful day to get the full experience.
Dave Merheje is a Toronto comic living in L.A. but representing the YQG on his headware. It's all very confusing. We talk about Catholic saints, rap and hip-hop, Winnipeg, ethnic comedy shows, the good and bad of Justin Bieber, and horrible gigs.
Mike Storck zoomed into town just to speak with us. Well, and he was headlining one of the local clubs. We were so rushed, though, we had to record in the roving studio. He talked about the ethics of pranking, Star Wars, heckling, and storytelling.
Sara Bynoe is all over the Vancouver comedy scene, creating and hosting a variety of comedy shows that aren't standup, sketch or improv. We try to get to the bottom of the correct label. We also talk about the Puppy Bowl, partying clean, being Kliph Nesteroff's muse, and being creeped out by Jian Ghomeshi.
Chris James recorded this episode of What's So Funny? in one take. Impressive. He tells us about a horrifying real-life experience that he's weaved into comedy gold. And we talk a bit to his friend Vishal Ramesh, a comedian from India now living in Vancouver.
Shauna Johannesen comes to us sleep-deprived. As she should be, too. She was in the middle of a theatre run of her own play, Common Grace, and was starting work on a short film for the Crazy8s festival (which has since been completed). We talk about both those projects as well as auditioning, kids vs animals, and thievery.
Ivan Decker returns to What's So Funny? just in the nick of time. Literally. This time we discuss Bill Burr, wisdom teeth extractions, approaching industry types, observational comedy, his upcoming album, and science! He does a knock-up job.
Byron Bertram stops by the What's So Funny? studio before he takes off to Australia for a few months where he'll perform his one-man show and do some street performing. In this episode, we give him a dry shave as he talks about finding love on Tinder, the politics of accents, coming from an artistic family, playing dives, and his quest for fests.
Erica Sigurdson is the Duchess of Canadian Comedy. In this pre-Christmas episode, we brainstorm the rest of the royal line. She also talks about hitting people, doing corporate gigs, staying home instead of moving to the US, being engaged for nine years, and bombing... in Afghanistan. Plus she explains why giving is better than receiving. This episode brought to you by the Omnipod, your number one choice in Diabetic pumps. (Not really, but we're open to offers.)
Norm Macdonald will talk for as long as he's talked to. Or until there's a knock at the door. Thankfully that knock didn't come for 90 minutes so he sat talking about hypochondria, God, science, childhood memories, and comedy among other topics. Deep stuff.
Robert Kelly is a standup comic, podcaster and actor. What's worse is that he's successful in all three! But to show he's human, he's only passable on a drum kit. In this episode he talks about his need to be liked, his love of honesty, his falling away from friends after having a kid, and his mother's love of... Well, just listen.
Kate Davis has been entertaining audiences and embarrassing her children for 18 years. The Toronto standup started out as an adorable little English girl with a posh accent before moving to Canada with her cockney parents. Theatre gave way to standup and she hasn't looked back. Fun fact: Davis has been nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award 13 times (and never won)!
Graham Chittenden takes time from his only day off on the Just For Laughs Comedy Tour to be with us. The Brantford, Ontario, native drops some analogies and whines about his hometown, interviewing Sarah Silverman, and not writing himself a recurring role on Mr. Dee.
Ewan Currie returns. The rocker was in town for one day, with a concert that night, but still made time for us. He tells us the comedy origins of The Sheepdogs' latest album, Future Nostalgia. He also talks about his musical theatre career in high school, hobnobbing with the country's mayors, his ideas for podcasts, his love/hate relationship with journalists, and getting photographed with the most hated man in Canada. Rock on!
Melanie Rose has been performing standup comedy for nine years, but we let her on the show anyway under the 10-year rule providing she avoids eye contact. In this episode, Rose talks about homelessness, mental health, bank robbers, farm living, the big city, and red theatres, among other things.
Dylan Rhymer returns to What's So Funny? after being MIA for a couple years. Never short on opinion or stories, he gets right to it in this episode. We learn about the origin of his now-gone mutton chops. He spills his guts on the breakup of his marriage and a UK tour from hell. He gives us the low-down on performing comedy with his dingly-dangly bits in full view. And there's even a bit of politics thrown in for good measure since this was recorded the day before the federal general election.
Robyn Edwards finally gets a shot on What's So Funny? Her OutTV costars on Morgan Brayton and Other People have all had their turn. Could it be we saved the best for last? You be the judge. We talk about her other TV role as an FBI agent on a big, American show. We talk about her ultra-religious upbringing. We talk about her coming out. And we talk about the complaints she gets from customers she has served. We have a grand old time, that's for sure. This episode brought to you by Frozen Pizza.
Mark Friebe and Sheila Sharma last visited us a loooong nine years ago. They drove in from the Giggle Dam out in Port Coquitlam to tell us about the fire that nearly destroyed them, the challenges of doing politically incorrect sketches, and Sheila sings all 66 books of the Bible in 43 seconds. Not bad for an atheist!
Andy Cañete speaks real good English for a South American. We talk about how that's possible and what it's like to live under the thumb of a dictator, even one whose name sounds like a nice glass of wine or a wooden puppet boy. He also tells a good story about giving the silent treatment to Jennifer Beals and talks about his best friend, Senor Fantastico.
Lauren McGibbon isn't the son of a tree-dwelling monkey but she does tell us about her family's violent history. The improviser also tells us about her mad research skillz when it comes to acting in scenes, her brief standup career, her brief flight attendant career, and mom's brief career as a dancer on TV variety shows in the '70s.
Ian Boothby and David Dedrick are busy guys. Not only do they do what they do when not podcasting, they also co-host three (count 'em!) podcasts. Okay, one of them is finished now but lives on in the ether. The mothership is Sneaky Dragon, the catch-all free-ranging and fun conversation. Then there's Compleatly Beatles, which they dissect every Beatles album and song. And also Totally Tintin, about, you guessed it, that charming Belgian comic book. We talk about all of the above and more.
Janice Bannister makes her second appearance on What's So Funny? – both without regular host Guy MacPherson. She must be getting a complex! This time she talks to Colleen Brow about her many-faceted career, from writing to producing to teaching to speaking to performing.
Fatima Dhowre is the first What's So Funny? guest who's been to Somalia, not once but dozens of times. We go into quite a bit of detail about that lawless land. We also talk about her having more in common with white guys than black because she lacks that urban quality the rest of her family possesses, her love of roasts, how she got over her obsession with video games, Bill Cosby as an early influence, and she reveals her hidden talent.
