Leeson’s comedy special will be taped live at Guelph Little Theatre
Stand-up comedian Jeff Leeson will be filming his special, My Grandmother Used To Heckle Me, at Guelph Little Theatre on Saturday, April 23, 2016. The show is a tribute to his grandmother who passed away in early 2014. Opening for Leeson are three of his best friends: Al Val, Liam Kelly, and Joshua Elijah.
Leeson has been performing stand-up for the last 17 years and has been featured on Sirius/XM radio, The Bob & Tom Show, MTV, and iChannel. He has hosted London Tonight with Jeff Leeson, The Inside Joke, and most recently, his YouTube web series The Jeff Leeson Show, which he describes as “segments of a late night show that are chopped into individual [three- to five-minute] episodes.”
At the young age of eight, Leeson realized that he enjoyed the yearly speech assignment at school.
“[My speeches] were always humorous in nature. Even if it wasn’t necessarily the most hilarious topic, whatever my direction was, always was with comedy. […] I wasn’t the most confident kid or anything like that. It was just something where when I was on stage I felt even more confident, secure, or comfortable than I did even just at school or in public,” said Leeson.
[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…appreciative that you’re doing a show for them in their town.[/pullquote]Leeson began his career at 14 with his mother’s support.
“What my mom said was, ‘If you can prove that you can do a show in front of an audience a couple of times, then we’ll talk about comedy clubs and actually doing stand-up.’ So my first two or three shows were me and some buddies—who were in a band—put together a thing called Music and Laughs. We used the auditorium at my mom’s work at Canadian National Institute for the Blind. […] Set it up for friends and family. Did about two, maybe three of those, and then thanked my mom and said, ‘Mom, let me do amateur night at Yuk Yuk’s,’” said Leeson.
His age was still an obstacle since stand-up is often performed at venues that serve alcohol, which means that those under 19 are generally denied entry. Again, Leeson shared the significant role his mother played:
“My mom would drive me to the shows because I didn’t have a license [… or] I wasn’t even allowed in the place without a parent or guardian.”
Often called the King of Crowd Work, Leeson was asked to describe his comedy.
“My comedy is very improvisational. I don’t really have material that I do. I make the show up as I go along. It’s a different show every night. It’s all based on the crowd that’s in front of me. […] I literally have no idea what’s about to happen and I’m in control of the whole ship. It’s exhilarating and exciting but it’s also very scary and nerve-wracking. […] I’ve only been doing that as my sole act for the last five years, so that took 12 years to get comfortable enough to even attempt,” said Leeson.
Leeson chose to film his special in Guelph because he has had a number of good experiences performing at events produced by Jay Reid and Ric Mattingley, the co-founders of The Making-Box. Leeson chose Guelph over Toronto “because there’s so much going on in Toronto,” and over his hometown of London because London audiences “can be incredibly tough.”
“I like the vibe of Guelph. I’ve never had a show there that—knock on wood that this isn’t the first one—went badly. And all the audiences I have seen there have been really good. […] They’re so appreciative that you’re doing a show for them in their town. […] So it’s kind of the perfect storm,” added Leeson.
Leeson has dedicated most of his life to pursuing his comedy dreams.
“Sometimes I think that I lost out not experiencing another side of life, but I knew what I wanted to do at a young age and I knew where I wanted to end up, and if you know that then why not go ahead and do that,” said Leeson.
The taping of Leeson’s first special not only marks a milestone for this stand-up comedian but also for the comedy scene in Guelph.