There are so many quality comedians in Prince George, picking the two best would be quite the debate.
But a short one. It ended abruptly when Mike McGuire and Kaitlin Shuvera were named to the cast of The Debaters when the popular CBC Radio program comes to town for a live taping on Tuesday night.
McGuire has been one of the city's leaders of the burgeoning standup community for years. Shuvera's place has been more understated, but anyone who's seen her work will attest to the snort-laugh inducing talents she possesses and soon the nation will know.
Comedians need an experienced life to draw on for their material. Shuvera is a young encyclopedia. She was born in Winnipeg, grew up in Ontario, moved to Nova Scotia, spent time in Kelowna before moving to Prince George and bounced from a post-secondary degree in psychology to studying accounting. Now she's in a whole other educational stream at Humber College in Ontario but while she's home in P.G. she's in the school of hard knocks - as in, knock knock: who's there?
"Comedy is one thing that is consistent," she said. "It's like I feel I'm not good with people in any other situation, but on the comedy stage, that's where I can relate. And other comedians are people comedians can identify with, I think we share a lot of similar personality traits, so we form a good community off-stage. Not a lot of people want to get up there in front of the microphone. Public speaking is a fear people have, in some cases more than dying, so if you get up there on a regular basis, the other comedians get you and support you."
Shuvera is a budding master of the short-joke. To be clear, those of lesser height are in no danger of ridicule. She likes to hit the audience with a slow flurry of one-liners and quick zingers. She likes to play with language, and whip out the witty surprise. The half-hour ambling story joke is not her forte. It's the kind of presentation style that fits The Debaters format perfectly.
"I haven't seen or heard of anything else like The Debaters. It's a huge platform for comedians and I love that it's Canadian," she said.
Since her application was successful to be one of the local combatants in the battle of wits, she has been working with the show's production staff and the other comedians coming for this episode. There are ways of getting some of the material ready in advance, ways of focusing the mind on the moments the show is prone to, but there is also an inextricable spontaneity and improvisational element to the program. The only way to prepare for that is by getting up on stage to deliver a lot of comedy over time.
"I'm kind of nervous about the improv," she admitted.
"But those moments are often the best parts of the show, and the best part of comedy, so I'm also looking forward to that. There's a risk. It's awesome. And scary."
Not as scary as her first comedy experience. She remembers it well, the terror of it all. It was in Kelowna at an amateur try-out night. She tried it out. Did she mention she isn't one of those socially easygoing people?
"I couldn't really believe it was me, getting up there," she said. It took some convincing. "Once you tell a joke and get a laugh, you are in. There's no way to describe that feeling. I was excited, that night, nervous, and only a few days later I was back for more."
It's been on-and-off comedy performance for the past seven years. She broke into Prince George comedy at an amateur night at Nancy O's and fell in with local stalwarts like Brian Majore and McGuire quickly.
They led her into regular appearances around the city, as they are wont to do with eager young comics.
She's not sure where all this laughter is leading, but she likes the idea of joining a sketch comedy group to add to her comedic abilities, which is similar but different than standup. And she is always interested in working on new material, which requires both writing talent and presentation talent that must be honed together but separately.
"I have about 20 minutes of what I think would be good material, and I could do 45 minutes of material that wouldn't all be good," she said.
She will be a kid in a comedy candy shop when The Debaters show happens. Tickets are available now for the Vanier Hall event.
In addition to star host Steve Patterson, the other comedians in the series of debates includes TV star Lorne Cardinal (Corner Gas) and Craig Lauzon (Royal Canadian Air Farce), and notable comedians Kyle Bottom, Darcy Michael, Pete Zedlacher, Ivan Decker, Graham Clark, Lori Gibbs, Katie-Ellen Humphries, Sean Lecomber and other special guests.
They will debate comical topics like Introverts vs. Extroverts and Prince George (the city) vs. Prince George (the royal heir).
The recordings will then flow out into the radio program's series of broadcasts throughout the coming months.
