Smart comic known as ‘Professor’ to friends Obituary / Irwin Barker

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This article was published 22/06/2010 (5933 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of the most intelligent, inventive and unique voices in Canadian comedy has been silenced.

Winnipeg-born comedian/writer Irwin Barker died early Monday in Toronto after a lengthy battle with a rare form of soft-tissue cancer called leiomyosarcoma. He was 58.

He was diagnosed with the disease in June 2007 and informed that he had a year to live, but defied the odds and confounded his doctors by not only surviving for a couple of extra years but also continuing to work as a writer on CBC’s The Rick Mercer Report while regularly touring and performing to raise awareness and funds for cancer research.

"It’s a real tragedy," said close friend and fellow comedian Bruce Clark. "He lasted three years after they told him he might have one, but nevertheless, even if he’d lasted 10 years, it would still be tragic."

Barker died peacefully with his wife, Joanna, at his side, after an emotional but uplifting weekend vigil in which his family and a veritable who’s who of Canadian comedy was at his bedside.

"He rallied for a couple of hours on Saturday and we got to have a last visit with him," said comedian Tim Steeves. "The place was packed; there was laughter in the room — it was like Irwin wanted to have one last encore on a Saturday night."

Barker and Clark got their start together on Winnipeg’s comedy scene in the late 1980s, and right from the beginning, Clark could see there was something special about Barker’s wit.

"He was completely different from everybody else," recalled Clark. "He had this nutty, dishevelled professor thing about him, but immediately, you could see his material was very unique. There was no going to clichés."

In fact, Barker came to the comedy game relatively late in life. He didn’t try standup until he was well into his 30s; prior to stepping into the spotlight, he had a master’s degree in sociology and was working as a senior public-policy researcher for Angus Reid while lecturing part-time at the University of Manitoba.

Comedy was a hobby and an outlet for the creative thoughts that didn’t fit into his regular workdays in Vancouver. In 1992, Barker made the leap into comedy full time, landing a job on the writing staff of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, earning multiple Gemini Award nominations for his work on the long-running satirical show.

More recently, after his cancer diagnosis forced him to move to Toronto in search of the best treatment, he was hired as a writer on The Rick Mercer Report, and worked on that show until the end of its 2009-10 season.

"He never complained," said Steeves, also a writer on Mercer. "It’s unbelievable, after all he’d been through. At work, you could tell he was in a lot of pain, but he would try not to take his morphine because he wanted his wits to be sharp so he could write for the show. … It’s amazing that this kind of geeky little guy could be the toughest guy you ever met."

Winnipeg Comedy Festival artistic director Al Rae called Barker the smartest comedian he’s ever encountered.

"His comedy was incredibly intelligent; he’s somebody who obviously had a very high IQ," said Rae. "He was obviously a very concrete thinker, judging from the kind of professional work he did (before comedy), but he also had to be a profoundly good abstract thinker in order to look at things in other ways, which is the secret to comedy."

The 2008 CTV documentary That’s My Time: A Comedian’s Stand Up to Cancer, followed Barker on a year-long odyssey from his death-sentence diagnosis to a huge fundraising comedy show in Vancouver that took place exactly a year later —- the date by which his doctors said he’d be dead.

Earlier this year, Barker returned to Winnipeg to headline a Canadian Cancer Society fundraiser at a local nightclub. Despite his declining health, he remained determined to use his comedy to offer support to others fighting cancer.

"I want people who are dealing with cancer to be able to laugh at it," he said last February. "There’s strength in that — laughing around something gives you a kind of power over it. When you’re laughing at it or around it, you have mastery over it."

Barker was also completely unselfish about his humour, willing to share punchlines with other performers with no concern about who got the credit or the laugh.

"He enjoyed the craft of comedy," said Rae. "Many comics are a bit emotionally damaged and insecure … but I never heard Irwin say a bad word about another comic.

This Hour Has 22 Minutes star Mark Critch, with whom Barker performed frequently — including a 2008 trip to Afghanistan to entertain Canadian troops — said the Winnipeg-born funnyman brought a unique perspective to the stage and the writers’ room.

"Everybody called him The Professor," said Critch. "He would take such time crafting a joke to make it just right before he would even try it out. He was a great, great craftsman, and he could always take people by surprise.

"A lot of comics get up on stage and they’re like machine guns, trying to mow the audience down. Irwin was like a sharpshooter."

Barker is survived by his wife, Joanna, as well as his parents, three siblings and three grown children from a previous marriage. A funeral service is to be held Saturday at Calvary Temple.

Rae said the festival and the local comedy community will organize a fitting tribute.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

Irwin’s world

 

"My act is like a bus shack in Tuxedo — clean but, ultimately, pointless."

"I’ve started doing yoga. I do it on Wednesday mornings. Sometimes Thursdays. And Saturday nights, as well. You have to be flexible."

"I was at Costco this week to get some groceries … they have everything there. They have wading pools; I was thinking, why would you buy a wading pool when you’re grocery shopping … when you could just get the giant margarine and wait until it’s empty?"

"I’m studying to be a Buddhist, because you only live once."

"My nephew has ADD, and he’s been trying to raise awareness for it by wandering across Canada. Right now, he’s working on a farm in Michigan."

"I called for a cab and asked how long it would be, and they said, ‘He’ll be there in no time.’ So he’s either already arrived, or he’s never coming."

"You ever look up the word ‘dictionary’ in the dictionary? A little hand comes out and slaps you in the head."

"My doctor says I’ve got 12 months to live. My lawyer says he can get it down to eight."