They’re on the road again. Canada’s biggest comedy tour, The Snowed in Comedy Tour is back for its 12th consecutive year, bringing a blizzard of laughs to Canadians from coast to coast.
Among the record 70 shows in 63 cities is SilverStar Feb. 13 and the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre Feb. 14. Comedian Dan Quinn is still living the dream of snowboarding during the day and making guests laugh at night.
“We’ll go up Thursday and ski all day (at SilverStar) and then hit the show,” said Quinn, while in Canmore following three nights in Revelstoke.
That’s how it all started. Quinn wanted to go on a snowboarding vacation with his comedian buddies, but he couldn’t afford to take time off work. He scheduled comedy tour dates strategically around what ski hills he could hit during the day, and paid for his lift tickets and rentals by doing comedy shows at night.
“Vernon was on the very first year,” said Quinn, adding that they get a lot of love from the North Okanagan.
“There’s people that have been all 12 years. In Vernon especially, we get people that are like ‘hey it’s in our stockings, every year we look forward to it.'”
Quinn even remembers meeting then Mayor Akbal Mund in the old Checkers Pub a few years ago.
“He was pretty awesome,” said Quinn.
Quinn is joined by three very different, very funny performers. Three-time female Comedian of the year Debra DiGiovanni, five-time Canadian Comedian of the year nominee Pete Zedlacher and the $25,000 Great Canadian Laugh off winner Paul Myrehaug, along with special guest appearances.
Despite a dozen years together, the friends still get along really well.
This year fans will have access to the antics that go on in transit through Truck Jokes, a comedy webseries. The series focuses on the riffing that goes on during the long car rides from gig to gig.
“We do a different show every year,” said Quinn.
The grassroots Canadian comedy tour has proven to be a winning equation. In a market still dominated by American acts, the homegrown tour has won fans over one performance at a time, and become the largest comedy tour in Canada with over $2 million in ticket sales, and performed internationally for audiences in Australia, U.S.A., France, and Switzerland.
The tour continues to grow this year. The B.C. leg of the tour kicked off Jan. 3 and features dates provincewide until Feb. 15. The Snowed in Comedy Tour will then travel through Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, before winding down in PEI in April.
When he’s not busy during the four-month tour, Quinn is already working on the 2021 tour – in between golf games in his hometown of Vancouver.
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