Blue Bridge Comedy Festival's
Best of Victoria Night featuring Johnny Bagpipes (with Kristeen von Hagen, Damonde Tschritter, Sean Proudlove, James Ball and more)
Where: Victoria Event Centre, 1415 Broad St.
When: Tonight, 8 p.m.
Tickets: $20, available online at rmts.bc.ca and by phone at 250-386-6121
They tell jokes on stage. They currently reside or have lived in the Victoria area.
Beyond these key characteristics, the performers at the inaugural Blue Bridge Comedy Festival's Best of Victoria Night don't necessarily have much in common.
Take, for example, Johnny Bagpipes and Kristeen von Hagen, two of the evening's marquee acts.
American-born Bagpipes (not his real surname, shockingly) calls Langford home but performs primarily for company parties and other private events across North America and beyond. His normal routine - family-friendly standup interspersed with equally chuckle-inducing bagpipe wails - reflects the fact that lobbing F-bombs in front of a corporate crowd can be a career-limiting move.
"In corporate, you have to be sterile and very clean," he says. "I had a lady complain once that I used the word 'fart.' It is getting so politically correct."
In contrast, there's von Hagen, who grew up in Victoria but resides in Toronto. As a fixture of the standup circuit, the 30-something comic is afforded greater licence to be crass.
Her observational humour makes light out of the ennui of romantic relationships, dealing with family and growing older.
Swearing happens, sex comes up. And in addition to having opened for superstar funnyman Russell Peters, she's toured as a warm-up act for the Australian comedy troupe Puppetry of the Penis. (It's kind of like making balloon animals - without the balloon.) Evidently, von Hagen isn't likely the go-to entertainer for the Chartered Accountants of sa国际传媒's annual convention.
Not only does the hometown show present both comics the opportunity to share a bill with acts they might not normally encounter on the road - including a handful who slug it out locally - it also means the composition of the crowd differs, at least slightly, from what each is used to.
For Bagpipes, it represents a chance to let loose and tell jokes that might get him in trouble in a stodgy corporate setting.
"I'm going to talk about my colonoscopy. I'm talking about getting a balloon in my ass," the 49-yearold laughs.
Conversely, von Hagen says playing Victoria can add layers of stress that she doesn't experience while performing in other cities.
"It's always more terrifying in front of the hometown crowd," she says. "Girls you went to elementary school with are there, your parents, your cousins.
"You can't be as flippant and as creepy as usual."
But will she make major adjustments to her routine to minimize the awkwardness potential?
"Unfortunately for my mother's sake, probably not."
