Artistic director Jay Reid tells us what makes a great comedy show
It’s hard to talk about the Guelph Comedy Festival without talking about The Making-Box. Since 2014, the local comedy company has been intimately involved in organizing the festival, which has grown from a handful of shows to a five-night extravaganza. This year’s festival, which runs Oct. 18-22, features some of Canada’s finest improv, sketch, and stand-up performers. It also includes a set of first-time comedians, a LGBTQ+ showcase, and Songbuster, an improvised musical.
I asked Jay Reid, co-founder of The Making-Box and artistic director of the Guelph Comedy Festival, about running the festival and putting on great shows.
This interview includes material from a couple different conversations.
Will Wellington: What goes into putting together a sick comedy festival lineup?
Jay Reid: The Guelph Comedy Festival has been lucky to have a glowing and growing reputation in the world of Canadian comedy, which has made booking talent easier and easier over the last few years. We’re a little different than other festivals in that we don’t have a formal submission process. We see a lot of comedy as a collective, [and] we reach out to comedians that have impressed us. We operate in small venues, so we don’t attract massive names that the average person would know, [but] the festival often catches rising stars, and it’s not uncommon for a GCF performer to then be starring in a network show a year later.
Historically comedy has been plagued by a lack of unique and diverse voices. We believe comedy is a vehicle to create community and a vehicle to reflect on adversity through a positive lens. This year, like every year, [our] top priority is to have a wide range of interesting perspectives on stage.
WW: I was talking to [Guelph Comedy Festival founder] Andrew Seagram during last year’s festival, and he said the difference between the festival when he ran it and when The Making-Box took over was just night and day. What is the difference between the festival before and after The Making-Box got involved?
JR: I think there are two things. One is that we’re very well-practiced in what we do. We have a lot of experience creating comedy shows that feel special every time. Anyone could ask a comedian to put on a show in a venue. [When we took over], all that intelligence, things that go unnoticed in putting on great content and particularly comedy, was now put toward the festival.
Secondly, comedy has become a very accessible art form for the average person now in Guelph. There’s not that much difference now between someone saying “I play guitar” and “I do comedy” in Guelph. That type of attitude towards comedy was impossible four years ago, five years ago. Guelph now has a very large comedy community. The festival is elevated because there are just that many more people talking about and doing comedy — because we’ve laid the foundation.
The corporate work that The Making-Box does really helps the festival. We’ve created a network of all the people that could support the festival year round. Companies like Royal City Brewery and Intrigue Media that sponsor [the festival] have a long-term relationship with The Making-Box.
WW: What’s the key to a great show?
JR: The key to a great show is acknowledging mistakes and incorporating them into the performance. We’re all in the same room together — I can hear that the audience is not laughing. Some of the funniest moments come when a comedian says a joke, they hear dead silence, and then they acknowledge it. And that’s what we do. We listen very well to the show and make a point of acknowledging the accidents and highlighting them as important things. Watching a comedy show where someone isn’t acknowledging the audience would be like having a conversation with a friend that isn’t listening to you.
WW: What do you think is really going to blow people’s socks off at this year’s festival?
JR: It’s a rock-solid line up. In addition to headliners, local Guelph folks are on every show and you’ll be impressed by them too. I’m excited for all acts — but who wouldn’t want to see a fully-improvised musical? So, Songbuster.
Illustration by Barbara Salsberg Mathews