According to John Beuhler, an award-winning stand-up comedian, the “art of the laugh” is all about tension relief.
“If it doesn’t relieve the tension, it’s not going to work … I can maybe talk about race but then I’d have to bring people together or have me as the butt of the joke in order to pop that balloon and make everybody laugh,” he said.
Beuhler, born and raised in Vancouver, has opened for the likes of Zach Galifianakis, Dennis Miller, Joan Rivers, Martin Short, Craig Ferguson, and his mentor, Brent Butt.
He started stand-up comedy at 19, and in his first few years, starred in a national comedy special, won the Just For Laughs Home Grown Comedy Competition, finished in the finals of the Seattle International Comedy Competition, and completed two more more Canadian stand-up specials for national television.
Although well versed in the art of tension relief, Beuhler said he can sometimes still fall out of “tune” and has wrestled with routine development, especially during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
“If you’re a comedian, you’re like a musician. And the audience is the instrument,” he said. “You can’t practise it by yourself. Sadly, you have to be doing it all the time. You can’t sit on the edge of your bed and play your guitar and master a song – you can’t master a joke without seeing how different crowds react to it.”
The success rate of one in 10 jokes landing is a really good percentage, he said, adding that occasionally he will produce 30 pages of “garbage” with only about five pages of “keepers” – not to say the material isn’t funny, but that it may lack the musicality and language of stand-up comedy.
Beuhler prefers to liken himself to a “joke teller” who leans on philosophies and social critiques, rather than a “storyteller” since he’s “too much of a slave to the truth.”
He returns to Vancouver Island in his Island stand-up tour, and will make stops at the SoCal Restaurant in Campbell River on July 27, the Cobblestone Pub in Cobble Hill on July 28, the Corner Lounge in Nanaimo on July 29 and the Hecklers Bar and Grill in Victoria on July 30.
Tickets for the Nanaimo show can be found at www.showpass.com.
READ MORE: Jim Jefferies brings standup show to Vancouver Island in September
mandy.moraes@nanaimobulletin.com
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