Canada’s Finest ft. Kate Davis, Mark Little and Mike Wilmot Comedy Bar, Toronto ON, January 23
By Julianna Romanyk
Published Jan 24, 2016
This edition of the Canada’s Finest series at Comedy Bar was acceptably amusing, but not exceptional. Though all of the comedians were received positively, not all of them had unique material, so some sets earned deeper laughs than others.
The first comedian of the night was Kate Davis. Davis’s delivery was very memorable: her raspy voice oscillated with excitement as she performed, and her voice for her son sounded accurate enough for an animated show. However, her material was nothing more than ordinary, and it often tread on unsurprising paths. Her bit about her adolescent son didn’t expand past the stereotypes of pubescent boys being highly sexual and having bad facial hair, and her story about her son getting high heavily relied on the predictable trope of high people getting the munchies. In addition, she went slightly over her allotted time.
Contrastingly, Mark Little‘s material was unique. He talked about his love of raccoons and affectionately called them “garbage bears,” made heartbreak funny with a series of simple but effective props, and pondered how his friend was supposed to answer the question “Do you look at your poo?” on a psychological exam to be a police officer. Additionally, Little performed a bit about the show Just For Laughs Gags, which was intentionally very lengthy because he was explaining how ridiculously extensive the show’s reaction shots are after each prank. The joke was effective in exaggerating the topic to a comical level, but by virtue of the premise it inevitably felt too long at times. Having said that, it was still a great joke because whenever the crowd started to get tired of it, the absurdity of the joke seemingly never coming to end sent another wave of laughter through the venue.
Lastly, Mike Wilmot (pictured) performed a crudely fantastic set about what it would be like to die with your face in a urinal, painted a garishly funny caricature of his hormonal wife, and did a bit about human statues that ended on a wonderfully bizarre tangent in which a human statue’s father offered to lick his son’s eyes to support him in his passion. Wilmot also recounted the frustration of trying to quit smoking with abundant usage of the c-word, which he explained was necessary because it’s the only swear word that has the potential to provide shock anymore. The sold-out crowd lapped up his blue humour, and his set provided a superb end to an initially underwhelming show.
