Movable comedy feast

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This article was published 14/02/2025 (405 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What do you get when you put four comedians in a car, travelling across Canada in the middle of winter?

It sounds like the setup of a terrible joke, but it’s become the biggest — and arguably one of the most successful — comedy tours in the country. And it rolls into Manitoba this week (today in Brandon at the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium and Friday in Winnipeg at the Gas Station Arts Centre).

Dan Quinn, comedian and founder of the Snowed In Comedy Tour, attributes its success to the quality of the production.

“People will spend their money once, but it’s not often they’ll do it twice if they didn’t enjoy the show,” says Quinn, who’s now about a month into the 68-show tour.

“Our biggest success next year is going to be based on our show this year. That puts a lot of pressure on us because we write a new show every year, which in comedy is pretty rare.”

The lineup is a bit of a comedy smorgasbord. Joining Quinn are Canadian comics Erica Sigurdson (who has appeared on CBC’s The Debaters, as well as multiple televised specials for the Winnipeg, Halifax and Just for Laughs comedy festivals); Paul Myrehaug (winner of the 2007 Great Canadian Laugh Off as seen on the Comedy Network); and Pete Zedlacher (whose TV appearances include Rookie Blue, Little Mosque on the Prairie and Degrassi: The Next Generation).

The tour, which started as a way for Quinn to go snowboarding with some friends one year, is now celebrating its 16th year.

“We had a blast doing it and audiences were blown away because they really hadn’t seen shows like that come to their towns. The shows get bigger every year. I think I’ve got this good formula down, and we keep tweaking as we go, so people enjoy it more and more every time we come back,” he says.

This may be the best show yet, based on the variety of comedy, Quinn says. Myrehaug’s humour is described as “dry and dark,” Zedlacher plays into his working-class roots and does wild impressions, and Quinn and Sigurdson borrow liberally from their respective relationships — albeit from the male and female perspectives. (His wife is a Winnipegger whom Quinn says loves being part of his set.)

“Luckily I met my husband in comedy. I would never say anything onstage that he didn’t know I was going to say. I think I play it fairly evenly in both our roles and some of the ridiculousness that can happen when you’re in a relationship with someone for a long time,” Sigurdson says.

As she does in her set with relationship baggage, Sigurdson jokes about how things have changed on tour since turning 50 in November.

“I’m a classic over-packer, and it’s getting worse. In my 20s, my skin-care routine was eyeliner and mascara, and now I’ve got a chemical vault that travels with me. When you’re on the road this long, you need to bring the essentials!” she says.

The comedians shot some of their adventures for a TV show they’re looking to release in the fall, with the tour itself wrapping up in mid-April.

“It’s an all-Canadian show — there’s no American money or tariffs or trades going into this,” jokes Quinn. “The people on the show are very good comedians, and the show itself is bigger than the sum of its parts.”

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