BY DIANE L.W. BARNES Afunny thing happened on the way to the United States. David Steinberg left Winnipeg, Canada for theology school in Chicago and ended up at The Second City comedy troupe instead. Quite a leap. Or was it? Despite Canada’s disproportionately small population compared to that south of the border, the American comedy industry is filled with big names from the north. Since the mid-60s, there’s been a steady stream of Canadian comics exported south — a fact that many Americans like to keep secret. In fact, some of the biggest comedy names in Hollywood have been Canadian: Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Jim Carrey, Tommy Chong, Howie Mandel, Dave Foley, Michael J. Fox, Phil Hartman, Eugene Levy, Rich Little, Lorne Michaels, Rick Moranis, Mike Myers, Leslie Nielsen, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, comedy duo John Wayne and Frank Shuster, Dave Thomas, and of course, David Steinberg, head counselor of the all-Canadian Camp HaHa. In the late 1950s, Steinberg was one of the earliest imports to the U.S. Where he went, many followed. Steinberg described the critical role that Chicago’s Second City has played: “It was Second City that started all of it. Mike Myers started there and almost everyone from Second City TV (SCTV) came from Second City. Dan Aykroyd had huge involvement with Second City. He was a big star in Toronto for a long time and then in Chicago. Basically when I was putting together The David Steinberg Showin the 70s, I gathered everyone I knew from Second City. John Candy was the first big hit and when he came to the States, he lived in my guesthouse for a year and a half. John was such an adorable person and funny all day long... just the way he was, warm and wonderful.” It was on Steinberg’s show where many Canadian comedians honed their unique impersonation style, a style that remains prevalent in today’s hit shows such as Saturday Night Live . As Steinberg related, “We didn’t start using makeup or prosthetics to identify ourselves as others but one day I remember coming to work and everyone was laughing hysterically. It was Marty Short with this big hair and white teeth just being a really bizarre character and I didn’t know who he was playing. He was doing an impression of me! He got me down so great. He used to impersonate me endlessly — they all did — but that was the first time I saw the value of something like that. They had caught the essence — it was satirically and comedically right. It was remarkable. You just got the feeling of the person and it sort of changed the way that impressionists worked after that. They were just comedians. They weren’t trying to do great impressions. They were just approach for which Steinberg has been well known, particularly during his time with the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late 60s just prior to the cancellation of the show. Perhaps Canadian comedians feel that not being American gives them more latitude to be a little saucier. It’s about having the vantage point of an outsider. As Steinberg put it, “as Canadians we get the American culture, yet we’re still Canadian. I always told everyone I was Canadian. In fact, when I was doing The Tonight Showduring Watergate, I was sort of vehement and negative. Early on, as a comedian, I was against Nixon and the audience would always be polarized. Carson would tease me at the commercial saying, ‘You know, you’re a Canuck, you don’t even vote in this country and you’re putting down Nixon!’ And it was always his little arrow he was going to stab me with.” Then there’s the notion that Canadians are naturally comical. Steinberg described his hometown friends in Winnipeg as having always been very funny. Or perhaps it has to do with their need for self-definition. “In the 50s, I always thought that Canada somehow got the worst of Britain and the worst of the States and at some point, in terms of the culture, they essentially had to create their own, and this started to come from these comedians and actors who came from Canada.” All of this, however, would be for nothing if the American industry and audiences did not welcome Canadian talent. “The States is very aware of Canadian comedians and their influence on the culture here,” said Steinberg. “If you’re Canadian, all you have to do is be good and you’re accepted. Most of these people, especially the SCTVgroup who really established the Canadian comedy culture in the States, are as good as it gets.” V I D E O • A G E AP R I L 2 0 0 8 16 C a n a d a ’ s F u n n y B o n e Comedy Tracks Link Toronto To Hollywood Two of the six comedians interviewed in the first year were fellow Canadians Mike Myers and Martin Short. While Short was brilliant, he also shared a heartfelt story of how instrumental Steinberg had been in helping to launch his career. Myers, on the other hand, saw no need for any reverence to be bestowed upon his fellow countryman. The interview had just begun when Myers asked Steinberg, “Was that your idea of a question, dickhead?” The audience roared. It was at that moment when Steinberg reflected, “This is exactly the “ If you’re Canadian, all you have to do is be good and you’re accepted. Most of these people, especially the SCTV group who really established the Canadian comedy culture in the States, are as good as it gets. Canadian comedian David Steinberg trying to satirize the culture.” Today, Steinberg is producing and hosting his third season of Sit-Down Comedy with David Steinberg, a show that gets the laughs. “The guests are like musicians — their chops are in, they’re ready to go, they’re good. I just love that it’s two comedians talking. There’s a shorthand and the audience gets to listen in. And, because the audience is there, it’s always funny. You get enough information and you get the sense of the comedy craft in action. It’s totally spontaneous.” show I want!” Despite the fact that Canadians help other Canadians get established in the U.S., a puzzling question remains: why are there so many remarkably funny people in Canada? Is it something in the snow? Has it got something to do with the canoes they paddle to work? Maybe it’s related to all that skiing they do 12 months of the year. Or in which province they were born. Curious. Another factor may have something to do with an irreverent style, an
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