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Western Canadian comedy tour to start in Grand Forks

Show profits, food drive to benefit Boundary Community Food Bank
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Christina Lake’s Andrew Verge performs a 2019 comedy set at a club in Toronto. Photo: Instagram - andrewjverge

B.C. comedians are set to start their long-deferred Canada Comedy Jam tour in Grand Forks Friday, April 1.

Profits from opening night will go to the Boundary Community Food Bank, with organizers hoping to collect canned food from ticket-holders on their way into the show at Market Avenue’s GEM Theatre, according to Christina Lake comic Andrew Verge.

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The tour happens to launch on April Fool’s Day, but Verge said the food bank’s mission to help struggling people was no joke. Kootenay Boundary comedians are well accustomed to the “feast or famine” lifestyle afforded by their on-stage careers.

“We’re people you’ve never heard of,” Verge said, poking fun at himself and tour mates Kate Belton and Jordan Strauss of Kelowna and Randy J, originally from Montreal. “We may not have been to the food bank, ourselves, but we’ve been close to it at times.”

There’s a pressing need for comedy two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, he continued. That goes for Grand Forks as much as the tour’s next stops in Rossland and Nakusp.

“There’s a million things you can look at in life that are depressing and sad, but it depends on what you put your focus on,” Verge noted. “Comedy’s about not taking life too seriously. So give yourself permission to laugh and laugh with us,” he went on.

Doors open at the GEM at 6:30 Friday evening. The tour continues at Rossland’s Miners’ Hall Saturday, April 2, Verge said.

For more information about show-times and ticket prices, check out the Canada Comedy Jam on Instagram and Facebook @canadacomedyjam.


 

@ltritsch1
laurie.tritschler@grandforksgazette.ca

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laurie.tritschler@boundarycreektimes.com

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