He’s here, he’s there… Ron James is everywhere

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/10/2009 (5926 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ron James, your moment has arrived.

After 16 years spent touring incessantly, writing obsessively, networking strategically and causing Canadians to laugh convulsively, the nation’s hardest-working comedian has suddenly become its most in-demand entertainer.

In addition to starring in his own weekly TV series, The Ron James Show (Fridays at 8 p.m. on CBC), the 51-year-old performer has also been tapped to host this year’s Gemini Awards gala (Nov. 14 in Calgary) and, as soon as his TV-taping schedule wraps up on Oct. 30, will embark on a mini-tour of sold-out comedy concerts in northern Canada and on the East Coast.

"There is a nice sense of completeness to the different aspects of my career right now," said James. "But I’ll say now what I said in my journal 15 years ago, when I was playing Rumor’s (Comedy Club) — the reward is doing the work. I’m doing what I want to do. Whether I had the series or the Geminis or whatever, I’d still be standing in front of a microphone, trying to make sense of a rapidly changing planet. I’d still be doing what I think I was put here for."

And while he’s doing all of the above, James has also somehow found time to jet west from Toronto this weekend to take part in Laugh It Off, local comedian Big Daddy Tazz’s annual fundraising show in support of Mood Disorders of Manitoba. James will headline the show, which is hosted by morning-radio personality Chrissy Troy and also features performances by Dan Licoppe, Matt Falk, Darcy Oake and, of course, comedy’s self-described bipolar Buddha, Tazz.

For the rest of the story, pick up tomorrows Saturday’s Free Press.