Award-winning comedian and writer, Ron James, will be gifting Guelph with a night of standup comedy this coming weekend.
Over the past 15 years, James has gone from performing at YukYuks to the Canadian Comedy Network, and he continues to make his way into venues such as the River Run Centre, selling out tickets as he goes. James has done two television series, including Blackfly and the famous The Ron James Show, the latter having been aired for five years on CBC. He has also written seven national one-hour specials.
The Ron James Show, one of his most widely-known gigs, got James a nomination for a Canadian Screen Award for ‘Best Performance by an Actor in a Continuing Series.’ He also won a Gemini Award as part of the writing crew for “This Hour Has 22 Minutes.”
In order to prepare for Ron James’ upcoming Guelph appearance, The Ontarion had the opportunity to chat with James about his roots in comedy and his love for standup.
“I started in Second City, way back in the 80s. I graduated from Acadia with a History degree and a minor in poli/sci and English, and I came up to Toronto and I got into [The] Second City organization. I stayed with them for a number of years, and went to Los Angeles in 1990 to do a series for Ron Howard’s company. I’ve been an actor for many years—I’ve done dozens and dozens of commercials. Whatever it took to pay the rent—commercials, corporate gigs, guest-spots on television shows—I did all that as a journeymen actor for about 15 years. Then when I came home, after three years in Los Angeles, I capped out on the audition process and got a little tired of waiting for somebody else to validate my life with an audition or landing something, so I moved into stand-up; I wrote a one-man show about my time in Los Angeles called Up & Down in Shaky Town, which launched the premiere season of the Canadian Comedy Network—and then I never looked back.” James is the father of two daughters that both attended the University of Guelph. He explained that he not only does standup for his love of performing to a live audience, but also as a sole means of providing for his family.
“I continue to pursue standup as a means of expression, and a means of providing for my family and myself. You know, you pick up a corporate gig here and there to help you make rent—keep your kids in shoes, that sort of stuff.”
Though James has extensive experience writing and acting on television, he prefers performing standup for a live audience. He enjoys the authenticity of the experience, and the ability of being able to connect with an audience.
“There’s no lawyers telling you what you can and can’t say, for instance. There’s no commercial breaks, and there’s a live grunting, snorting, weezing audience. It’s a primal experience, and it’s very cathartic. For television, it’s 42-minutes for my hour-specials, broken up with commercials. When I’m on stage, it’s two hours, nonstop without a break, taking everybody in that theatre on a rollercoaster ride. It’s really authentic.”
James also explained that Guelph is one of his favourite cities to perform in due to the city’s unique demographic. “That’s what’s wonderful about Guelph—you’ve got a university component, you’ve got a faculty component, a professional component, a rural component, working-class—it’s a great eclectic mix of people, and I love that. It’s a marvelous feeling getting people from all sorts of different walks of life enjoying the same story and laughing together—in a world that’s increasingly fractured, with microcosms and microcosms of social enclaves and such, it’s just outstanding to know that all age groups—and my demographic goes from 18 to 80, like a Parker Brothers’ game, man—sometimes I’ve looked down and I’ve see three generations of families laughing at the same joke.”