In his near 30-year career, comedian Dave Nystrom can attest to the fact that people are people, no matter where you go.
“I think the differences that we perceive between each other are much bigger than the actuality of our differences amongst ourselves because I think we all are a lot more similar than we think,” he said.
Although his material anecdotally covers being married with children and his personal life, he said a lot of what he shares is simply part of the human experience.
A tour across the United Kingdom in the mid-2000s proved that, especially since beforehand he was uncertain whether or not some of his cultural perspectives and references would land.
“I try to make myself not so, as they say, ‘inside baseball,’ where people are like, ‘What are you talking about?’” Nystrom said. “I think for any group, people are people, it doesn’t really matter where you go.”
That being said, as an advocate for free speech, Nystrom believes no topic should ever be off-limits in comedy, even if it’s a topic he disagrees with. As a performer, though, he acknowledges that free speech doesn’t give him “free rein to go on stage and attack certain groups of people.”
“If you’re going to talk about a delicate subject matter, you have to be very skillful in the way that you do it.”
With hecklers, the comedian said it usually boils down to two types of people: those who are genuinely trying to disrupt the show – which is extremely rare – and those who are just having a good time and “maybe a few too many drinks.” And although he never seeks out to do so, he is more then willing to “burn” people seemingly asking for it.
“At the end of the day … Everybody’s there, almost always, to have a good time,” he said.
Nystrom will cruise the central Island in the Big Beast Stand-Up Comedy tour with Ty Lemmon, a regular feature in the Yuk-Yuks Top Talent Showcase in Vancouver who has opened for Ed the Sock and Kenny Versus Spenny.
According to a release for the tour, Nystrom is “a tall drink of funny” and has appeared at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, on Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham, and was a writer for CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes – during which he won a Canadian Comedy Award and Writers Guild of Canada Award.
The Nanaimo Bar on Jan. 26 will be the first stop of the tour, followed by the Rainbow Room in Port Alberni on Jan. 27, the Riverside Inn in Lake Cowichan on Jan. 28, and the Rod and Gun Bar and Grill in Parksville on Jan. 29.
READ MORE: Three stand-up comedians cruise through Nanaimo as part of Island tour
mandy.moraes@nanaimobulletin.com
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