The multi-hyphenate will see you now

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This article was published 25/04/2023 (1082 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Comedy isn’t a cure-all, but jokes can certainly be a balm during tough times.

That’s the premise of Gerry Dee’s first cross-country standup outing — entitled the Best Medicine Tour — since the outset of the pandemic.

“We’re coming out of, sadly, a time where a lot of people got sick,” the Canadian comedian and actor said over the phone while preparing to entertain East Coast audiences earlier this month. “Maybe some laughter will help a little bit.”

The show, which is less COVID-19 humour and more lighthearted observations about Dee’s personal life, comes through Winnipeg on Saturday.

Levity has been a lifelong condition for the host of Family Feud Canada and creator of the CBC sitcom Mr. D.

“It’s just what I grew up with, you know; my parents didn’t have a lot of money and I never remember noticing we didn’t have money — there was just a lot of laughter in our house,” Dee says, adding that it’s a parenting style he’s applied with his own family.

“It’s not all laughing as a parent — you’re disciplining and trying to guide them — but I love when they make me laugh; I love when they have a sense of humour.

“If you’re laughing, you’re not crying and that’s a good thing.”

While his wife and three kids provide frequent joke fodder, self-deprecation remains a cornerstone of his routine. “I tease me just as much,” he says.

Dee, who last performed locally during the 2019 Winnipeg Comedy Festival, is putting out plenty of new material this year.

He returned to the small screen in February with the debut of Animal Control, a Fox television series starring Joel McHale that focuses on the inter-species and interpersonal shenanigans within a municipal animal-control department.

Dee appears in eight episodes of the first season as Templeton Dudge, an animal-control officer from a neighbouring precinct with a major chip on his shoulder.

“To get on a U.S. sitcom was something I’d always wanted to do,” he says. “It was interesting meeting the cast, who are all kind of well known in the industry and in Hollywood — I’m not, so it was nice to gel with them and kind of expand my acting resumé.”

While Dudge doesn’t share many similarities with Dee’s longtime alter-ego, high school teacher Gerry Duncan, it’s been exciting to get back in front of the camera. Dee played the inept title character of Mr. D — which is based on his real-life pre-comedy teaching career — for eight seasons until the show wrapped in 2018.

“He’s the nemesis of Frank, which is (Joel McHale’s) character, so I’m a bit of a jerk and I tried to have fun with that,” he says of the new role. “It’s just fun to act. I missed acting; there wasn’t a lot of that since Mr. D ended.”

Animal Control features a wide array of non-human cast members — including ostriches, kangaroos, snakes, cows and rabbits. Despite that, Dee hasn’t met many of the co-star critters.

“I’m not in a lot of scenes yet with animals in Season 1, so I dodged a bullet… or didn’t, because I think that’d be really cool,” he says. “There’s been some pretty crazy animals that they’ve all worked with… we’ll see if we get a Season 2 and if that changes (for me).”

Dee also has a new book coming out in October. Funny You Should Say That, his second autobiographical release, is a series of personal essays about growing up in suburban Toronto, fatherhood and making the leap to comedy.

“It’s always fun to be able to get to do something that I never thought I’d see myself doing,” he says. “If you told me in high school I’d write two books, I’d have laughed at you.”

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @evawasney

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