The Laugh Olympics

As the rest of the nation gathered around their television sets, gripped in Olympic fever, watching the opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver games, I sat belly to the bar in a pub downtown. On Friday, February 12th Clancy’s played host to a couple of talented comedians in an offshoot of the traveling comedy tour known as Yuk Yuks.

Arriving slightly early, Ben, my friend Jonha and I quickly occupied three seats in front of an array of bright, shiny taps, ordered, and raised our glasses to the night. The room was dim and mellow, only a slight roar in the crowd as patrons waited with eager anticipation to see how the evening would progress. The clacking murmur of the pool tables faded into the background as more people made their way to their seats and the alcohol began to take its hold. We made haste with our first pitcher of Alexander Keith’s before the first act, and were well on our way with the second as Karen O’keefe took stage and began to warm the crowd up.

Karen has a bit of a slow start, but by the end of her set she had most of the room revved up. Most female comedians I’ve seen either make jokes about their rag or just complain about men and are just plain awful, but O’keefe was genuinely funny.

Let’s kick it over to Ben for his take on the delightful festivities!

As my colleague Brad informed you, Karen O’keefe provided us with an evening of knee-slapping humour and entertainment. Her jokes were clever and original and were the perfect setup for the headliner, Jy Harris. Based out of British Columbia, Jy left his Vancouver home (and the Olympics) to show Brandon what he had to offer: Gold medal entertainment! The energetic comedian had the entire audience rolling around and gasping for air. This was not due to his body odour but the fact that his jokes reeked of awesomeness.

While Jy compared UFC bouts to gay porn, I had the fortunate opportunity to shout out the punchlines to a few of his jokes. Unintentionally, of course. After such an occurrence, Jy promptly bestowed me with the title of Punchline Magoo and commented that I should be on stage with him... with his hand up my ass, as if I were a ventriloquist dummy. What fun!

All in all, Jy was a good sport though. My Quill associates and I were able to speak, shake hands and giggle with the comedians after their performance and we all agreed that we had a jolly good time. Thanks Clancy’s for offering us the chance to get together with friends over drinks and have a laugh! I highly recommend the next time Yuk Yuk’s are in town that you should go. If humour isn’t exactly your thing then you can stay at home and go sit on your thumb or simply put on your jammies and complain. Hurray!

Images Courtesy of www.clancysbrandon.com