ON STAGE
What: Sophie Buddle
Where: Hecklers Bar & Grill, 123 Gorge Rd E.
When: Friday and Saturday, 9 p.m.
Tickets: 250-386-9207
Stand-up comedy presents all sorts of hurdles for its practitioners — from constant travel to unmerciful audiences — and has long been considered one of the most nerve-frying ways in which to make a living.
For the majority of comics, the rewards rarely outweigh the effort. But when a joke lands, there’s nothing that compares. That’s the motivating factor for comedian Sophie Buddle, who has had her share of tough gigs in nine years as a comic.
“This is the first year I’ve ever made any money from stand-up,” Buddle said this week from her home in Vancouver.
“But I would honestly rather not make money and do this than have a real job.”
Not only does a successful day job pale in comparison to that rare club gig where everything goes right; once you’re bitten by the stand-up bug, the lure of the stage never diminishes.
It’s why multimillionaires such as Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Adam Sandler continue to create sets for the stage. And it’s why Buddle remains so committed to her craft.
“I have a real love for stand-up comedy as an art form. I think it’s the purest way of getting your ideas across. People can do that with every form of art, but stand-up, because of the instant response — getting laughs — is the easiest way to convey information and opinions.”
The 24-year-old Ottawa native got her start at 15. Buddle attended a performing arts school “as a regular, uncreative person, so I had to swing something,” which is how she explains her entry into the comedy circuit.
Her first stand-up routine was during amateur night at the Ottawa club Absolute Comedy.
“It was pretty early to get my start,” she said of her first gig. “But there’s not a lot to do in Ottawa.”
Buddle said she “struggled with attendance” during high school. Few of her friends knew that she had comedy aspirations; it was her mother who eventually pushed her into doing stand-up. “Funny story, my high school has a picture of me in the lobby now, as one of their ‘successful alumni’ — even though I didn’t learn anything because I never went,” she said with a laugh.
“There are people from my grade who are doctors now, but it’s my picture that is up, so the joke’s on them.”
She moved to Vancouver when she was 18, after enrolling in fashion design school. Buddle dropped out before the first year was up, and has been on a steady upward trajectory in the years since, with appearances on several Just For Laughs tours and regular stints on CBC’s The Debaters.
Buddle developed her skills as a writer with This Hour Has 22 Minutes. She has flourished during her time with the legendary CBC program, and has a new comedy album, A Lil Bit of Buddle, that she is celebrating with tour dates across Canada.
The run brings her to Victoria for performances Friday and Saturday at Hecklers Bar & Grill, her first as a headliner in the market.
The atmosphere surrounding stand-up comedy has undergone a dramatic shift in recent years, especially for women, Buddle said. More women are telling the jokes and more women are paying to hear them.
“There is a huge demand for female comedy, all of a sudden. I don’t really know when the switch happened, but it was some time during the last four or five years. People realize that women are a huge market for stand-up, because women want to see someone on stage who they relate to, and hear jokes that are for them.”
The soft-spoken Canadian Comedy Award nominee punctuates her thoughts with a giggle that is misleading: Buddle is prone to dropping a profane reference or sexual non sequitur at the unlikeliest of times. She enjoys the fact people don’t always get what they expect from her comedy.
“I’m not a Doug Stanhope, who looks like the things that he says. But I think because comedy has been so male-dominated that it’s why we have those ideas.”
Her comedy isn’t written exclusively for women, but her bits about body image, tanning beds and relationships have less appeal for men, she admitted.
Men aren’t given enough credit for being able to laugh at themselves, however, and she believes the work of comics such as Sarah Silverman has helped men develop a sense of humour about their own toxic masculinity.
“Women know how to laugh at male jokes, because that is all we’ve ever been given, entertainment-wise. But I like creating stuff for women. Sometimes female comics don’t want to do that. But I don’t think there’s any shame in trying to make stuff that appeals to me.”
