{"id":199263,"date":"2026-09-07T17:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T17:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/199263\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T17:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T17:09:07","slug":"vancouver-is-funny-right-how-five-local-comedians-are-proving-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/199263\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver is funny, right? How five local comedians are proving it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vancouver is funny, there\u2019s no doubt about that. Whether you\u2019re talking about our geographical inconsistencies (East Vancouver is the east side of Vancouver, but West Vancouver is the west part of the North Shore), or the fact that the Burrard Bridge is named after a man (Sir Harry Burrard-Neale) that never stepped foot in the city, it\u2019s somewhat inarguable.<\/p>\n

But as MRG Group gets ready to host Vancouver Is Funny<\/a>, its second annual month-long celebration of the city\u2019s comedy scene, the festival\u2019s name begs the question: can the city\u2019s comedians make you laugh?<\/p>\n

The many shows taking place across town will feature international headliners like Brennan Lee Mulligan, Marc Maron, and Hannibal Buress. But they will also employ a range of local comedians, with something on offer for every kind of audience member. We caught up with five Vancouver-based standups at the Biltmore in late August. Here\u2019s what they had to say. You be the judge.<\/p>\n

Lindsay Elliott <\/p>\n

AS I\u2019M CHATTING with my fellow Straight employees at the Biltmore, getting ready to interview the group of comedians who have started to assemble in the dark room, Ola Dada<\/a> approaches me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like your laugh,\u201d he says plainly.<\/p>\n

It makes sense, one supposes, that a comedian like Dada, who has performed at venues across the country, puts stock in different kinds of chuckles and guffaws.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are specific laughs I just love,\u201d he explains. \u201cMost people laugh the same kind of laugh, but when you hear a different one, it stands out in a room, even when there are 1,000 people. You hear a different one, and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s good.\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been finding laughs for a while now. Dada is from Fort McMurray and originally came to Vancouver to go to school to become an accountant. He picked up comedy as a hobby. Then it started taking up more and more of his time. He\u2019s been a full-time comedian for the last five years, made the semifinals of Canada\u2019s Got Talent, and has headlined Just For Laughs Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was almost like an accident,\u201d he says of his break into the industry.<\/p>\n

Dada describes himself as a clean comic.<\/p>\n

\u201dThe stuff I talk about is clean, but I do cuss a lot,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t know why\u2014when I worked at the bank, I never cussed at all. Now I\u2019ll be doing a joke about a pigeon, and I\u2019ll just go \u2018fucking pigeon\u2019. I\u2019m trying not to do that as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of that is perhaps related to his connection with God. Dada is open about his relationship with Christianity. He was raised in a religious family and at first rejected it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment I got a chance to live by myself, I was like, \u2018I\u2019m done with Christianity,\u2019\u200a\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

During COVID he started reading religious texts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI read the Quran\u2014I actually thought about becoming Muslim for a while\u2014and I read the Bible,\u201d he shares. \u201cI also did some research, and based on my worldview, it brought me toward Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if that\u2019s isolating for him in an industry that isn\u2019t exactly known for saving Sundays for church, Dada rejects that notion.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it\u2019s not that in any way,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat I will say is that it gives me an opportunity for people to ask questions and for us to have an honest conversation. For a while I did think about quitting standup because I thought I couldn\u2019t be Christian and do it. But now I feel like it gets people to see that I\u2019m just here trying to be the best version of who I am. We\u2019re not trying to be holier than thou. The goal is to come as you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silly laugh and all.<\/p>\n

Lindsay Elliott <\/p>\n

JESS LUPINI HAS been doing comedy for a long time. Just not professionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been the tool that I\u2019ve used to reduce tension in social situations,\u201d she says. \u201cMy family would joke around all the time; I feel like I\u2019ve been doing it my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n

She started doing improv before COVID hit but realized that, afterward, a lot of the people she was doing shows with had moved away. A friend asked if she had ever done standup, and she ended up initially taking the stage at Slice of Life art gallery just off the Drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be totally honest, I kind of blacked out that first time, the first few of them really,\u201d she says. \u201cYou have a sense of what you want to say. But I get pretty bad stagefright before shows. I get really nervous and shaky. Once I\u2019m on stage, it goes away.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few months after that first show, Lupini broke out in a major way after a joke she made during her set at Trans Girls: Raw and Uncut went viral.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a bit at that show that I hadn\u2019t done before. It was very much geared toward trans people, especially trans women,\u201d she says, referring to a joke about things that gave her gender dysphoria. Those included things like liking Steely Dan, going to Mission: Impossible movies, and not worrying about taking a piss in the woods.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople loved it; it was really fun. And Pride weekend was just after that, so I shared that clip<\/a>, and it just exploded. Millions and millions of people saw it, which boggled my mind. I suddenly had a bunch of people following me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That newfound fame brought both good and bad things.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media has definitely made it easier for comics to get involved and noticed, whereas we used to have to grind it out for so long,\u201d Lupini says.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, though, Lupini feels judged for having such a quick ascent up the ranks of the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get self-conscious because I see it in people\u2019s eyes. They\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, she doesn\u2019t know what she\u2019s doing.\u2019 I\u2019d rather just show people what I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lupini, who grew up in Victoria, sees Vancouver as an ideal spot for a comic to ply their trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re really lucky to live here,\u201d she says. \u201cVancouver gets a bad rap for a lot of things, and I think people often rightfully complain that some art spaces don\u2019t receive enough funding. That can be difficult to deal with. There are a lot of things that need to be improved in Vancouver when it comes to the arts. But we\u2019re really lucky that we have a super exciting, dedicated, diverse comedy scene and that there are a lot of clubs that can support the number of people who do want to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lupini is also a member of the popular Dungeons & Dragons group BlackwaterDnD, which streams weekly games on Twitch. The group has thousands of followers on social media, and Lupini was picked to feature in Brennan Lee Mulligan\u2019s Endless Dungeon shows<\/a> at Queen Elizabeth Theatre on September 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a huge fantasy\/sci-fi nerd,\u201d Lupini says, showing off her Star Trek tattoo. \u201cThere\u2019s something about the fantasy spaces\u2014they\u2019re often the safer spaces for a lot of weird, kind people. Without that, I probably wouldn\u2019t have had the courage to go to an open mic and do standup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsay Elliott <\/p>\n

IN 2018, SEAN McDonnell was starting to become a fixture in the Vancouver comedy scene by performing at open mics and hosting his own events at Charqui resto-bar in Kitsilano. One night at the old Yuk Yuk\u2019s on Cambie Street was a lot like every other night. McDonnell told some jokes about Vancouver weed and about working at a daycare. The crowd gave him some big laughs. He probably thought that was that.<\/p>\n

And then, five days after the set was posted on YouTube<\/a>, it was reposted completely out of the blue on Twitter by none other than beloved Canadian comedian and former Saturday Night Live star Norm Macdonald.<\/p>\n

That tweet helped McDonnell nail down a record deal with 604 Records, and it massively increased his social media following. But mostly, it gave him confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis might sound a bit gross and egotistical, but once you have that vouch, everyone else\u2019s opinion kind of becomes nulled out,\u201d McDonnell says. \u201cIf someone\u2019s like, \u2018I don\u2019t think you\u2019re funny,\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018I truly don\u2019t care.\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonnell never met Macdonald, who died in 2021, but they did often exchange messages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kind of surprised by it, because I felt like I would send four or five texts and two weeks would go by and he would just send these massive letters,\u201d he says. \u201cHe was a very sweet man, very calm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Macdonald, McDonnell can sometimes get close to that invisible line of going too far that comedians often flirt with.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, there hasn\u2019t been that much support from a lot of the industry up until the last two years,\u201d says McDonnell, who is originally from North Van. \u201cI do tend to talk about stuff that\u2019s a bit darker, for sure. If someone\u2019s asking about me and they go, \u2018Hey, what\u2019s that guy\u2019s big joke?\u2019 Well, there\u2019s one about British people and there\u2019s another one about people with Down syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n

That latter one<\/a> has over 375,000 likes on Instagram.<\/p>\n

Your mileage on McDonnell will depend on how comfortable you are with that invisible line. After all, his sophomore comedy album, released last year, is called Apologies in Advance.<\/p>\n

A 2024 appearance in the semifinals of the Seattle International Comedy Competition also served to show McDonnell where that line might be, at least when it comes to the gatekeepers of comedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been doing all the material that I thought would make me place, that I thought the judges would like,\u201d he recalls of his ascent up the competition\u2019s ladder. \u201cAnd so for the semifinal set, I just said, \u2018I\u2019m going to do the jokes that I want to do.\u2019 The audience reacted warmly, but the judges hated it\u2014I came in dead last.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good thing he doesn\u2019t need their vouch.<\/p>\n

ORIGINALLY FROM ONTARIO, Mark Thomson<\/a> was in Chicago, going to school to get a PhD in philosophy, when a friend recommended improv as a community-\u200bbuilding tool.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first I was terrified\u2014I hated it,\u201d Thomson says. \u201cBut I was like, \u2018I gotta be social. I\u2019ll keep going.\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n

Some seven years later, Thomson had developed that community and was thriving in the Windy City\u2019s improv scene. But when COVID hit, Thomson and his husband, who was eyeing Vancouver grad schools, decided it was the time to make the move north. Thomson himself locked down a professor job here, and around three years ago, he entered Vancouver\u2019s standup comedy scene.<\/p>\n

There has to be some sort of link between being a professor of philosophy and telling jokes on stage, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, you would think so. And the answer really is yes, but not in an explicit way,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t talk about doing a PhD or whatever, but I do think that kind of logical analysis and contextual thinking comes in a lot. I teach philosophy of gender and sexuality, and I\u2019m queer myself and grew up in an evangelical Christian family. So that does naturally make it into my material.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomson\u2019s comedy career saw a major milestone last year when he opened for one of his personal heroes in American actor and comedian Kate Berlant at the Bend Comedy Festival in Bend, Oregon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing; I was really happy with how it went,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve been a fan of hers for so, so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

On stage, Thomson is energetic and somewhat sardonic. For instance, he has bits about skinny women (\u201cWe don\u2019t need to be told that you\u2019re cold\u2014we assume it until told we\u2019re otherwise\u201d) and kids being annoying (\u201cWhy do I even know what it sounds like when a child cries? I don\u2019t work in a daycare. I\u2019m not friends with a child. I should hear that sound and think paranormal activity\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Off stage, he\u2019s more toned-down and seems genuinely interested when he asks about my own kids. Perhaps the puppy that Thomson and his husband recently adopted has changed his attitude toward small beings that need taking care of.<\/p>\n

Thomson has also become quite involved with Vancouver politics despite his relatively short time spent in the city. He\u2019s more than happy to dish out takes on Ken Sim and AI data centres when asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in Ontario, I had zero interest in politics,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then when I lived in the U.S., the way people reacted to things was really inspiring. They were calling local representatives and senators when the Black Lives Matter protests were happening\u2014people were very active, and I found it inspiring. So when I moved here, it felt like Vancouver was a small enough city that you could have an impact by protesting city council and canvassing and things like that in a way that federal politics was out of reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, small things that need taking care of are worth it sometimes.<\/p>\n

THERE PROBABLY HAVE been bigger fish out of water stories than Emily Woods<\/a> leaving her hometown of Red Deer after high school to head directly for the esteemed East 15 Acting School at the University of Essex in England, but we haven\u2019t heard of many of those.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for Woods to discover that reciting Shakespeare on the hallowed grounds of Mike Leigh wasn\u2019t for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that I didn\u2019t really like acting, and I wanted to tell my own stories and didn\u2019t want to tell the stories of old men,\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

So she started trying her hand at comedy, hitting open mics in the U.K. as a teenager. \u201cIt was the time of my life,\u201d she says. \u201cI was 18, smoking cigarettes, going on stage telling jokes, and then going to school at 8 a.m. the next day to do monologues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woods graduated right before COVID hit, but the pandemic forced her out of the country and back west. \u201cI kind of had to restart over here,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She ended up finding a home in Victoria, where she lived for a few years before moving to Vancouver about a year and a half ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cVictoria is my favourite place I\u2019ve lived,\u201d she says. \u201cI just ran out of stuff to do there. I got to chase my dream\u2014I recorded my special at [comedy club] Hecklers. There wasn\u2019t much else to do career-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woods\u2019 goals in Vancouver are fairly simple: \u201cDo as much comedy as I can and as I want. Have fun, be dirty, be loud, and uplift women in comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Woods\u2019 raunchier comedic sensibilities were not always well received on the Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a show one time in Sydney, opening for this fantastic comedian at a theatre full with about 200 people,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThe entire audience had white hair, and they crossed their arms and shook their heads all 20 minutes of my set. They were disappointed in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been good shows too. Woods points to an appearance on CBC\u2019s The Debaters earlier this year in which she argued with Ivan Decker about why massages are actually good.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure, I could go on some app, meet up with Tyler and leave even more unsatisfied than I started, or I can book an appointment online with a man named Michal,\u201d she told the crowd.<\/p>\n

The audience called it a draw. The U.K. would be proud.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can catch Ola Dada, Jess Lupini, Sean McDonnell, Mark Thomson, and Emily Woods at Little Mountain Gallery on September 27. Tickets to Vancouver Is Funny\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n