On the outside looking in
This evening, the humour community of (the province of) Quebec is holding its award program on TV, and frankly I feel like someone on the outside looking in. Admitting that I am not apt to “go to a show” or watch anything but Juste Pour Rire reruns doesn’t give me much background for such a program, but I don’t know who half these performers are. I could as well be watching something via satellite from another country.
Worse, I’m not sure that the studio audience knows all the “players” either. The laughter isn’t lively, and the jokes seem to fly a little to the left of the landing strip far too often. Could it be simply that these people only work together at this time of year. By profession, comedians tend to hang together in small groups. Their sense of inter-personal timing is a finely honed instrument. They all live on the response given to their material by an audience that has chosen to attend. This show is different. The need to pat each other on the back is lost on people like me.
Why don’t I change the channel? Well, I live in a community (that is a synonym for family, isn’t it?). If I were to pry the remote from the locked fingers of another, the reponse might be deadly force, just like in a Bruce Willis movie. I am able to restrain myself for this evening, ever hopeful that the program will “pick up” as we go along. Meanwhile the dog is only too happy to beg for grapes. Cheap entertainment in the cheap seats.
And here we go: a former student, Michael Ward, will be on stage for a few moments. A familiar face in a sea of strange strangers.
