Comedy at The Cornerstone
Jordan Foisy is a stand-up comedian from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. He’s been doing stand-up for the last six years and has performed at NXNE, JFL42, Field Trip, and Hamilton’s SuperCrawl.
Over nine days in January, Foisy performed seven shows in seven cities across Ontario.
On Friday, Jan. 29, 2016, The Making-Box produced the second last show of Jordan Foisy’s Hazy Ontario Stand-Up Tour at The Cornerstone in Guelph.
On a cold night, nothing warms a room up faster than laughter.The snug space filled up quickly, and the staff worked like a well-oiled machine, making sure patrons had beverages. The owner, Mark Rodford, was welcoming; you can feel that he supports local comedy because he genuinely enjoys it. The audience was intimate in size, but enthusiastic in volume.
Hosted by Matt Collins—who warmed up the crowd with material about parenting a toddler—the opening acts were Ian Gordon, Zoë Barrett-Wood, and Jackie Pirico. Gordon’s focus on meat and animal by-products created an amusing incongruity in the vegan/vegetarian restaurant, while Barrett-Wood nailed her quirky set as she contemplated the [pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…nothing warms a room up faster than laughter…[/pullquote]
gloriously awkward fun one can have when living alone. Pirico had the crowd doubling over as she epitomized the stand-up posture of “the Kid.” Whether she was talking about summer camp or being intimate with her boyfriend, Pirico’s tone was child-like, while her delivery and timing were expert.
The crowd was in a great mood for their headliner and Foisy did not disappoint. He kept his audience on board whether he was talking about silly things like karaoke or heavy topics like addiction. His stage presence was unassuming and down-to-earth but his jokes were polished.
At one point, a man interrupted Foisy’s performance. He walked into The Cornerstone, went to the back of the restaurant, and then walked into the night—all while talking on his phone. Without missing a beat, Foisy addressed the interruption. He made the audience laugh without belittling the mysterious interrupting man, and then smoothly returned the audience back to his set.
The Ontarion talked to Foisy before the show. His response to his favourite tour moment captured the comedian’s unique perspective.
“So there was this moment in the Sault Ste. Marie show. My parents are divorced and then my dad was there on one side, my mom was there on one side. And then my mom’s boyfriend showed up. And I was like, ‘Oh there’s my mom’s boyfriend, after the show him and my dad are going to fight outside, if anybody wants to put bets on or something.’ […] I found out after […] no one had told him that she had a boyfriend, so that’s how he found out. It’s kind of my favourite horrible moment.”
Foisy’s favourite thing about stand-up is being in the zone.
“It’s just the most fun thing to do when you’re locked into the zone; when your set’s just going. Sometimes you’re having sets where there’s like a through line from your brain, directly into the audience’s brain. It’s almost like mind-control.”
Foisy also told The Ontarion what he enjoyed about performing in Guelph.
“The guys [at] The Making-Box do such an awesome job of two things. They are just so awesome I always feel like a schlub because it’s always so nice and professional and they do such a great job at it. […] You wish it would be the standard but it’s actually the exception. […] And then with that, the audience that they’ve built is the best, the most fun to perform in front of, like super savvy and chill.”
Foisy wrapped up his talk with The Ontarion with kind words about Guelph’s comedy scene.
“Guelph should be really proud of the comedy scene here and the work. I would love to see a model like this spread throughout Ontario and Canada because I think people want to see good, smart comedy. It’s nice to see an alternative [to comedy clubs] actually developing that’s successful.”