It’s a long story

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This article was published 04/04/2016 (3812 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was, says Pete Johansson, time to come home.

“I had to get back to Canada; I missed it too much,” explains Johansson, who spent more than seven years living in Britain and, during that time, developed into one of the U.K.’s most in-demand standup acts. “It’s just too hard to be away (from Canada).

“I had also grown quite disillusioned with the British mentality and outlook on life. I know it sounds crazy, but Canada is quite a positive country — not as blindly positive as the U.S., perhaps, but much more positive than the U.K.”

Johansson, 42, was born in Spokane, Wash., raised in Kelowna, B.C., and began performing standup in Vancouver as a 16-year-old after being inspired by the comedy of Sam Kinison. He took his act to the U.K. in 2008 after his wife was offered a modelling contract in London. He wasn’t necessarily looking to restart in a new locale, but he quickly learned that Britain is a place where comedians get a level of respect and admiration that’s hard to come by on this side of the pond.

“It’s completely different over there,” he says. “Here, when you say you’re a standup comic, it’s usually followed by, ‘But what do you do for money? Do you have another job?’ whereas in the U.K. there’s a definite respect to it, and you can make a very comfortable living doing standup.”

“It’s almost as if (standup comedy) is looked down upon by the conservative nature of North American society, because it’s associated with drinking establishments and there’s this perception of a seedy underbelly that puts people off… There’s a good 20 to 25 per cent of the North American population that is afraid of what society really is — they live in a bubble of artificial ‘50s niceness where they don’t think people smoke or drink or use cuss words, and because standup has such a hard truth to it, it gets pushed aside by the fear of that group.

“In the U.K., everybody smokes and drinks and swears, so there’s no barrier to (standup) being a mainstream cultural influence.”

Shortly after relocating to London, Johansson made his debut at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a one-man show titled Naked Pictures of My Life, which earned a best-newcomer nomination and set his overseas career into fast-forward motion.

For the past half-decade, Johansson has travelled extensively throughout Europe, as well as to Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East and Japan, cultivating a style that embraces complex concepts and a longer-form storytelling style that avoids the usual setup/punchline rhythm.

“It was a matter of having to adapt to different circumstances at different points,” he explains. “The first time I did Edinburgh, playing to half-empty rooms every day, when there was no opening act and I had to walk out and do an hour, it was terrifying. But I realized I couldn’t just stand there and tell jokes; I had to find a way to engage and connect, so I started trying to use longer setups that painted more elaborate and authentic pictures of what I was going through. I was striving to be more honest.

“When I first started doing comedy (at age 16), who I was onstage was very far away from who I really am, and now I feel like I’m me onstage. It isn’t a matter of confidence; it’s just me being me, talking the way I talk. I don’t have to get into character.”

Johansson’s new one-man show, Good People (Friday, April 9, at 11 p.m., Park Theatre; tickets $15 at Ticketmaster), is a distillation of many of the ideas he has explored onstage during the past decade while trying to become a better human being offstage.

“It’s about me and the way my fears are evolving,” he offers. “It isn’t a perfect show. It’s in the process of being developed, and it’s a look at what it means to be a good person, what it means to admire other people that we consider to be good. It’s also a takedown of hero worship, because it isn’t healthy to have heroes — it’s better to admire their ideals and accomplishments, because the people themselves are too flawed to be held that highly. They’ll always let us down.”

You can sample Pete Johansson’s comedy here: wfp.to/johansson

You can also catch Johansson’s act at:

Truth Bomb — Friday, April 8, at 9:15 p.m., Pantages Playhouse Theatre (tickets $37)

The Debaters — Sunday, April 10, at 2 p.m., Club Regent Event Centre (tickets $30)

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @BradOswald