Happy Birthday to me! Yep, today is the big day and I’m looking forward to receiving a pile of Facebook wall posts as a gift.  (In fact, those have already started to roll in.)  I shall do my best to respond to them all… but if you have had a birthday whilst on Facebook you know it can be an intimidating proposition.

I know there are people out there that view their birthdays as a major event.  I’ll tell you right now: I’ve never really done that.  This birthday in particular has snuck up on me and with a busy schedule of performing and preparing for Tuesdays With Morrie in under two weeks (have you got your tickets yet?) I won’t even really get a party in.

As with most North Americans the time surrounding my birthday is filled with questions about gifts.  I consider myself very lucky; having want or need of very few material things.  (But thanks in advance for the socks, Mom!) So these questions are tough to answer.  When I think about the things that make me smile I am far more focused on experiences.  Events that give an audience (even an audience of one) a sense of joy.  The more remarkable, the better.  I suppose this is what I see as the true value of entertainment, and the reason that I do what I do.

A few weeks back (maybe going on a couple of months now) my friend Cory Mack shared this YouTube video with me and it is a perfect example of what I am talking about.  Imagine being one of the people to witness this event as it happened.  How could you not help but smile for the rest of your day? I just watched the video for the up-teenth time and I know that’s how I’ll spend the rest of my birthday.

This Thursday night is the opening night of the new Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club in Edmonton, AB! (For those of you that thought this post was about Tuesdays With Morrie: don’t worry, still lots of time to get your tickets for our June 7 to 13 run.) And guess who is on the show?  That’s right… it’s Nikki Payne!  Oh, yeah, and I’ve been given one of the coveted opening spots on the show.

I’m quite honoured to have been selected for this and have been obsessing about my set for that night.  (And by “obsessing” I mean “putting in about twice the work I normally would for a show”.  And by “twice the work” I mean “showering”.)

Having seen Nikki Payne (the headliner) several weeks ago I can tell you that it’s going to be an unforgettable night.  If you’re in Edmonton and looking for tickets all the details about the show are online here.  Also, Nikki created a Facebook event for the evening.

While it is a little strange being a Calgarian and playing the new Edmonton club before the new Calgary club I trust the audience up there won’t hold it against me.  (And if you are surprised to hear that there is a new Yuk Yuk’s in Calgary: it’s a great new club in the Elbow River Casino with great acts coming through all the time.  Click here for details.)

See you in Edmonton!

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PS:  Part of the reason that you might not have known that Yuk Yuk’s in back in Calgary is that they haven’t got approval for a sign on the casino to promote themselves.  The city has held them up in red tape.  So, to do my small part, I created a petition a few weeks back that I would love for you to sign.  It’s online here, only takes a minute, and is free to sign. The petition isn’t so much about comedy as it is about the rights of local businesses.

I’ve been obsessing about this week’s blog post.  Quite frankly, I had no idea what to write about until I sat down and started typing.  I feel accountable to have a weekly post on this site (with rare exception).  This forces me to be writing and creating content every week.  You may ask, “Why?”.  I’m glad that you asked.

While I wish my motivation was noble, the true motivator for me is fear.  This is the same motivator that keeps me writing new material for stage, keeps me working on new magic routines, and forces me to take part of my day to work on getting the next gig.  It’s not a fear that the phone will stop ringing.  It’s a more personal fear that the well will run dry.  It’s a fear that I could run out of ideas.

Creativity is not something that can be scientifically analyzed and this ephemeral quality adds to the fear.  I think about how I created my best comedy material and my most amazing magic and honestly can’t provide an answer.  “It just happened.” The inability to cite specifics in regards to this process scares me a little.  I can’t (without more than a little doubt) point to one method or technique that produces results.  (No one in a creative industry can.)  So, it gets scary.

Fear isn’t a bad motivator. While some may view the emotion as negative it has had huge evolutionary advantages to our species.  (I typed that assuming that we are of the same species.  Any walruses reading this should not take offense.) Fear can make us run faster and fight harder.  Turning that fear into a positive result is what a lot performers do every time they take the stage.  Transforming nervous energy into a more energized show reaps huge rewards.  In the same way, fear motivates me.

While I can’t point to a specific method to achieve success on stage I can take steps to ensure that something good is produced every now and again.  Hence this blog.  Hence the daily writing.  It’s just me fighting the fear.

So, what are you afraid of?

It takes a LOT to get me frustrated to the point that I will vocalize it.  And, a LOT more than that for me to sound angry.  But a couple of weeks ago one of my best friends pushed my buttons on a particular topic and definitely received an atypical response from me.  (What else are friends for?)

All it really took was one sentence: “There are no arts in Calgary.” Now, I have heard this lament from many different people and yet all I see every day of my working life is Calgarians producing great art in all different forms from theatre, to comedy, to music, to visual arts, to dance, etc.  Now, I will make some concessions about the local “arts” scene:

1. Art is not as visible as it is other places in Canada.  Larger cities often have more of an “arts” sector – you can see it everywhere you walk when you are downtown (or wherever that section of the city happens to be).  Calgary’s scene is more spread out, but that is no different than the rest of our civic planning.  (And these days I admit the phrase “civic planning” is more oxymoron than government division.)
2. The Alberta Government is not as supportive as other provincial governments.  While this may be changing (they have created new programs and positions) it has been very true since Klein’s government.  What is more amazing to me is that despite a lack of government support – great work is still being produced.

To avoid my stress level increasing every time I hear that Calgary is “artless” I have come up with a new response: “Really?  How many artistic events have you gone to in the past year?”  If this hypothetical person answers with “None” it may seem like a victory for their argument.  “I haven’t been to see any artistic events because Calgary doesn’t have any.”  But that is a gross exaggeration… and a heck of a good way to lose the argument.  (If I learned anything from that friend of mine that took debate in high school.)

Walk into The Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts in downtown Calgary any given week and at least half a dozen different theatrical productions are going on.  I can’t begin to count the number of music venues in town and I’ve definitely seen a number of art galleries.  That is all without even picking up an arts-focused newspaper or doing a Google search.  In fact, if Calgary had only one arts event a year it proves that Calgary DOES have the arts.

Perhaps this misinformed idea of “no arts” has more to do with the visibility.  The mainstream newspapers in town (whose names don’t deserve the press in this blog), have very few artistic-type articles.  The largest theatre companies in town have to fight for the press… so the “little guys” don’t really stand a chance.  As mentioned above, the community is more spread out than in other places, which makes it slightly more invisible, but you CAN find unique and wonderful events if you take a few seconds to look.

Pick up a FFWD (they are free every week) and cover a wide range of arts.  There are tons of event listing websites.  Pay more attention to your radio station’s PSA segments.  And maybe, just maybe, say “Yes” to one of those Facebook invites that you receive.

On the flip side of the coin: don’t look for any of it.  But, in doing so, remove the phrase: “There are no arts in Calgary” form your speech.