Breslin marks roots of Canadian standup
'The edge came from the counterculture'
Last Updated: Friday, November 13, 2009 | 10:33 AM ET
CBC News
Yuk Yuk's founder Mark Breslin, right, is seen with comedian Dave Thomas. (Harper Collins)Canadian standup comedy was a product of the TV age, says comic impresario Mark Breslin, founder of comedy club Yuk Yuk's.
He remembers Canada as strong in sketch comedy in the years before 1976, when he opened the first Yuk Yuk's in Toronto.
Breslin's five-CD box set, The Yuk Yuk's Guide to Canadian Stand-Up, celebrates early one-person-alone-on-stage comedy, with excerpts of acts by greats such as Dave Broadfoot, Mike MacDonald and Elvira Kurt.
"We had no tradition of [standup] but then around 1960 we had a whole new group of people for the first time watching the tradition on American television and sitting there saying 'Hey I'd like to do that,'" Breslin said in an interview with CBC Radio's Q cultural affairs show.
"They came of age in mid-1970s," he said. "The edge came from the counterculture which had been ingested subconsciously by these acts, even without knowing it. They grew up on sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and it does change you."
'Standup comedy allowed me to get on stage, say exactly what I believed, and that was a kind of psychiatry.'—Mark Breslin
Breslin said there was nowhere for comics to present edgy, personal work before he started Yuk Yuk's. The comedy club now has 16 franchises across the country.
He often says that "comedy saved my life," giving him an outlet for personal issues.
"Standup comedy allowed me to get on stage, say exactly what I believed, and that was a kind of psychiatry. I tried other kinds, but nothing works like standup comedy."
Broadfoot was a pioneer, Breslin said. But as standup became entrenched, it became edgier and new possibilities opened up.
'I wanted to make sure that the Canadian comedy business was kept Canadian and there were places for comics to play,' said Yuk Yuk's founder Mark Breslin. (Harper Collins)"Our idea of a great career in 1976 would be to become George Carlin — to be able to sell out big venues, say what you wanted to say, pull in a couple of million dollars a year, that was heaven. We never even conceived of the possibility of becoming a pop star. A movie star, that was something completely different."
Jim Carrey, who started out performing at Yuk Yuk's, and Howie Mandel both went to the U.S. to become film and TV stars. Another pioneer was Kurt, who proved women could handle the rough and tumble of standup.
Breslin has taken criticism over the years for locking comedians into contracts and monopolizing standup in Canada, but he said it has been tough making the comedy club business pay.
Stars like Carrey and Mandel would have made it without Yuk Yuk's, he said, adding that he takes pride in the fact that as many as 150 comedians are making a living because of the comedy franchise.
"From the beginning I had two goals. I wanted to make sure that the Canadian comedy business was kept Canadian and there were places for comics to play … and esthetically, I believed in free speech and comics should never be censored on the stage. The audience censors by laughing or not laughing, and it's a perfect biofeedback loop."
