Laugh out loud at The Park Theatre

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This article was published 18/05/2022 (1542 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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The Winnipeg Comedy Showcase is returning to The Park Theatre this month.

The 29th installment of the show will be held on May 19 at 8 p.m. and features local comedians Jordan Welwood, Dana Smith, Mike Green, Matt Nightingale, Spencer Adamus and musical comedy duo The Lady Lumps.

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We don’t get the opportunity to feel connected in the same way as easily anymore.

Veteran comic Jared Story is hosting the event. After the event made its return in October after a two-year hiatus owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, Story admitted he wasn’t sure how the event would be received.

“People had been stuck at home for so long, and maybe they’d forgotten how to laugh or be sociable,” Story said. “But it wasn’t like that. It was great. It kind of felt like old times.”

Story hand-picks the comedians. As a comedian himself, he’s often at comedy events around the city, like open mics and booked shows, scouting new talent.

“I just pick people who I think are funny,” Story said. “Some have been doing it for years, and others are a bit more new. I try to have a little bit of new blood on every show, and I never repeat one line-up member from one show to the next. I always have fresh faces.”

Since the show’s creation, tickets have consistently sold out.

Winnipeg-based comedian Dana Smith has performed in the showcase before and said it’s a “great vibe” with “incredible energy” in the room.

“In such a large place like The Park Theatre, there can be really great laughs,” Smith said. “It’s one of the only opportunities in Winnipeg that regularly hosts theatre gigs, whereas normally we’re doing bar shows.”

Smith recently released her debut album, I’ll Smile at Your Funeral, through Howl & Roar Records. She’s a member of the sketch comedy troupe HUNKS and has performed on CBC’s The Debaters, Just for Laughs Northwest and Chicago Sketchfest. She also hosts a women and non-binary open comedy night at Wee Johnny’s Irish Pub.

Smith described her comedy style as “high energy” and “brutally honest.” With in-person comedy shows being cancelled for two years, Smith said returning to the stage was “like breathing again.”

“I forgot that I missed it, and I forgot what it felt like to do it. I had forgot why I loved it,” she said. “I have basically a chemical dependence on it because of the endorphins and adrenaline. It’s the thrill-seeking… It raises the stakes and as opposed to just living every day the same you get peaks and valleys.

“We don’t get the opportunity to feel connected in the same way as easily anymore. Nowadays, with comedy on TikTok and Netflix, I forgot what being in a room and sharing laughs with people was like. It’s healing. There’s a magic in the room when it’s live.”

Tickets for the Winnipeg Comedy Showcase are $15 in advance and are available at www.eventbrite.ca and from any of the comics on the bill. Admission is $20 at the door.