Comedian periodically funny 118 times on new project

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This article was published 02/04/2024 (930 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg-born humorist Garrett Jamieson has crammed a lot into his new sketch comedy album. Every single chemical element on Earth, in fact.

Periodic Jokes contains 118 tracks covering all the metals, semi-metals and non-metals in the periodic table of elements with a mix of oddball skits, science wordplay and admittedly bad puns.

“Some of (the sketches) are, in my mind, brilliant, and some of them are just so dumb they will actually make you laugh out loud,” Jamieson says over the phone from his home in Toronto.

The album — released by Toronto indie label Comedy Records — started as a genre experiment that, initially, had nothing to do with chemistry.

It was the height of the pandemic and non-fungible tokens (a kind of digital trading card) were gaining mainstream popularity. The craze led Jamieson to a testable hypothesis: if comedy has been captured in every other format then the world of blockchain could be the next frontier.

“A comedy sketch album has never been made in NFT form. Releasing it in (a way) where people are actively trying to collect it is very interesting to me,” he says.

He settled on the periodic table as the subject matter in order to create a large inventory of collectibles. Jamieson is also a fan of sci-fi — and, by extension, science in general — so the content had personal appeal.

Each track can be purchased as an NFT, which includes an illustration of the chemical element, an audio recording of the accompanying skit and its script.

In creating 118 sketches, Jamieson researched each element — from hydrogen to oganesson — to find funny entry points for jokes; everything from names to atomic numbers to physical qualities was fair game. His research also resulted in newfound appreciation for elements such as bismuth — a rainbow tinted mineral — and gold.

“Gold is the wildest element. It’s the most conductive element; it doesn’t tarnish,” he says.

Academics and scientists were his imagined audience while crafting the album. A lifelong Gary Larson fan, he also took inspiration from the cartoonist’s eccentric but clever sense of humour.

“I was definitely writing above my weight,” says Jamieson, who’s known for off-the-wall standup comedy and sketch projects. “It’s the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but what’s cool about smart humour is that it’s also very dumb — just like The Far Side.”

Jamieson enlisted comedy friends from Toronto to collaborate on the album as voice actors. In some cases, the recordings were done as cold reads, leading to fourth-wall breaks and outbursts of laughter from the cast.

To keep the album a reasonable length (87 minutes), the skits range from 15 to 60 seconds long, creating a jam-packed and sometimes chaotic listening experience.

“People will miss things, so it allows it to be listened to again and again,” Jamieson says, adding that it’s been difficult to explain the nuances of the multi-layered project to the public. For the comedian, the confusion only adds to the meta humour.

“A lot of this is really funny in the sense that it’s maybe too far ahead of its time.”

Periodic Jokes is available for download on most major streaming services. Find the project on Instagram (@periodic_jokes) and visit garrettjamieson.com for more of Jamieson’s work.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

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