The baby-faced assassin is coming back to the cradle.
Chris Gaskin got that nickname from Brielle Magazine for "his innocent looks and sharp tongue" on the comedy stage. The Vancouver-based standup comedian has been pacing the nation's comedy cage like a cougar in the last few years, getting to the finals of the Stand Up & Bite Me competition on Bite TV, getting down to the finalists in the SiriusXM Satellite Radio Top Comic tournament, as well as prime gigs at some of Canada's best clubs and festivals.
Gaskin is coming back to Prince George for a rare local performance. On Valentine's Day,he'll be live and quippin' at St. Michael's Anglican Church and he wants you there for dinner and performance.
It'll be An Evening of Laugher & Love but Gaskin said he won't poke fun at Valentine's Day itself. There's plenty in life to by sarcastic and cynical about so why would anyone want to take pokes at the institution of love?
Gaskin has more material than most comedians, in fact. He has launched a unique project where fans can go to his website blog or Facebook page and feed him funny scenarios. Actually, they just have to be potentially funny. You give him a kernel of an idea and he'll feed and water it into a fully grown joke.
He got the idea from a couple of root sources. One, he loved the input from his friends, family and fans so he wanted to get more of that. Two, people at comedy shows often like to "chirp" or "heckle" the person speaking from the stage, and it would be better for all involved if helpful suggestions from the "peanut gallery" had a more productive route to travel.
"Some people think 'oh, I'm helping out.' No, you're really not. You're actually interfering with the entire process," Gaskin said. "You might not realize it, but a comedian might be testing material. I'm like that. I write on stage. I'm saying things to see how it works, and I'll change it around and change it around until I get it finalized. If someone's stepping on my flow, it's hurting my writing process. That's also why you'll often be told that there's no filming or recording allowed at an open mic or an amateur night. It's not because people are full of themselves, it's because they're working on their act and they don't want unfinished material floating around the internet."
He's hoping to gather all this input from fans in a file he's calling The Chris Gaskin Crowd-Sourced Comedy Experiment and develop a whole album's worth of material from it. That way, the fans will always have a little spiritual stake in that final show, forever.
It's just a twist on a comedy game that already exists. Go to any improv show or theatre sports event and the crowd is asked to chime in with small ideas the on-stage talent will then spontaneously work with. That's what Gaskin loves the most. He walks on stage to be in the moment.
"It's not the same as acting. It's its own art form," he said. "I never really liked the process of pretending to be someone other than me. I don't have those (theatre or film) aspirations. I'd just rather do comedy. That, or pro wrestling. But when you're five-foot-two with a congenital heart defect, that's dangerous."
He's had his blood flow problem since infancy. It has limited his life aspirations in the sense that he can't ever become a military test pilot or an astronaut, but in a place that most people find terrifying - a public speaking platform - his pulse is less intense.
It's cosmically funny that Gaskin is performing in his beloved hometown on Valentine's Day, what with his befuddled heart. It was broken, though not by sadness, and was surgically enhanced more than a dozen years ago.
"I got a pig's valve implanted in my heart. So it's a good thing my girlfriend isn't Jewish," he said.
Another person close to his heart is fellow Prince George comedian Brian Majore. For this homecoming show, Majore will be front and centre as master of ceremonies. Jon White and Mwanasi Loongo will also perform.
Tickets to see Gaskin and company are available for $40 (or $75 per couple), on sale now at Studio 2880 (located at 2880 15th Ave.). Doors open at 8:15, dinner happens soon after, and the comedians serve up the jokes at 9:15 p.m.
