Dan Quinn can’t seem to get the song about a certain Eskimo out of his head.
Toting his snowboard around on the third annual Snowed In Comedy Tour, the Vancouver comedian has once again invited some of his fellow Canuck comics to join him. And this year, Phil Nichol is on also on board, literally, and he’s brought his guitar along with him to sing a few ditties.
The former member of musical comedy trio Corky and the Juice Pigs (which also featured Sean Cullen and Greg Neale), Nichol still performs the group’s biggest hit –– about being the only homosexual Inuk (that’s the PC version) in his tribe.
And, according to Quinn, it’s still a crowd favourite.
“It usually involves a round of drinks,” he laughed. “I have a bone to pick with him, though, as it’s such a stupid song… but I can’t get it out my head. It’s there before I go to sleep.”
Any adults needing to thaw out from the Vernon Winter Carnival parade Saturday morning can huddle inside the Performing Arts Centre for a night of hilarity when the Snowed In Comedy Tour returns to town.
Last year’s show, hosted by the Vernon Chamber of Commerce, sold out, and this year’s lineup has a few familiar faces, and a few new ones.
Besides Quinn, Craig Campbell, who lives in Devon in the U.K. and appears on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Road Show on the BBC, is back. However, Ed Byrne is taking a break this year to have his first baby, due this month, and Glenn Wool, who joined the middle of the tour, is going down to L.A. for some TV commitments, said Quinn, adding Paul Myrehaug has also performed a few dates with the group at the beginning.
Nichols, who also lives in England, and Peter Kelamis, who plays character Adam Brody on the TV show Stargate Atlantis and is a two-time nominee for Canada’s top comedian, are welcome additions, said Quinn.
“Phil is doing the whole trip with us, and Peter is someone I have known for a long time,” said Quinn. “We’ve skied almost every day on this tour. We love being out there. That’s been the dream of this whole thing.”
As in the past, these boys aren’t just knocking back beers and telling jokes on stage, they are hitting the slopes –– in almost every mountain range and resort town in B.C. and Alberta.
The tour’s origins go back to 2008 when Quinn, himself a winner of the Canadian comedy competition at Just For Laughs, came up with the idea to go from ski hill to ski hill and play bars and theatres along the way.
This year, the comics are hitting 14 ski hills on their 23-day tour, and conditions have been ideal, for the most part, except for a few blips.
Wool got snowed in, literally, when he wasn’t able to get to the gigs in Revelstoke and Golden due to the avalanche on the Trans-Canada Highway a few weeks ago. They also missed skiing at Kicking Horse in Golden due to the conditions.
“We really have to start thinking of renaming this tour to ‘Up To Our Necks In The Ladies Tour,’ which would be a great seller,” joked Quinn, adding that you’d think snowboarding all day would result in a few jokes.
“I wish I had more snowboard jokes, to be honest, but Craig recently pulled one out in Revelstoke. It was an anecdote about him walking across the parking lot on pure ice in his ski boots.”
Quinn is also looking forward to returning to snowboarding here in the Okanagan.
“The great thing with Silver Star and Big White is there is something for everyone: double blacks, greens and blues… and the Interior snow has been good,” he said.
However, swishing though powder all day does have its drawbacks. It can leave you legless, and Quinn doesn’t mean in the Irish way.
“There’s been a few times where I’ve pushed myself hard, I’ve had to take a nap between sets during the show. It’s a good thing we are each up there for 25 minutes,” he laughed. “Still, you have to bring your A game.”
Besides going up on stage, Quinn’s usually the one who organizes the whole tour, so by the time it’s done, he’s ready to put his legs up and relax.
“I get a lot of joy out of it, but I usually need to take a break after the tour with no work or plans for two weeks after. I just got a PS3 (Playstation 3) so I’ll probably sit around and play video games.”
And hopefully by then, Nichol’s Eskimo song will be out of his head.
The Snowed In Comedy Tour comes to Vernon Saturday, Feb. 5 at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $40 at the Ticket Seller box office in the Performing Arts Centre. Call 549-7469 or order online at www.ticketseller.ca.
