Sunee Dhaliwal’s energetic brand of humour is influenced by his Punjabi background. | Photo by Todd Duncan

Canada has a vibrant comedy scene whose face, both nationally and here in Vancouver, is changing to include an increasing number of comedians from minority communities: many are first generation individuals who primarily identify with their Canadian upbringing, and assume somewhat of an outsider position to their culture of origin, which nevertheless uniquely informs their comedic output.

Though only 27 years old, Sunee Dhaliwal has been a professional standup comedian for seven years, and is a rising star on both the Vancouver and Canadian comedy circuits.

“My background influences my comedy a lot. My parents are so traditionally Indian, and I grew up Canadian, so I notice a lot of differences in how they go about things,” he says.

Though Dhaliwal’s Punjabi-born parents are supportive of his career path, they are not always certain how to describe his profession to relatives and friends.

“Being a comedian is not a sought-out position in Indian culture. In fact, there is no word in Punjabi that means comedian,” he says.

Dhaliwal, who describes his comedic style as energetic and informed by his life experiences, feels that his humour sensibilities are more Canadian than Indian.

He says that East Indian culture is conservative, and that Punjabi humour has a tendency to be light, and not to tolerate crude nor provocative jokes. When he performs for mostly Punjabi audiences, Dhaliwal slightly modifies his act to accommodate those sensibilities.

In front of culturally mixed audiences, he tends not to highlight his heritage heavily because he doesn’t want to be fitted into the ethnic comedian box. However, he doesn’t leave out certain Indian-inspired material regardless of the audience profile. For example, Dhaliwal jokes that though he is only 27, in Punjabi culture – which favours marrying early – he is considered to be 52 years old because he is still unmarried.

The outsider factor
Vancouver-based comedian Paul Bae, 45, moved to Canada from South Korea as a young child.

“[My Korean heritage] informs my comedy in the sense that, to some degree, it has made me an outsider. Most comedians have that perspective which allows them to observe things from a distance and from different points of view,” he says.

In addition to the outsider paradigm, Bae says that Koreans have a strong oral tradition which has fed his own comedic writing talents.

“I’ve had it explained to me that Koreans are like the Irish of Asia: we’ve never colonized, but have been colonized, which has forced us to use humour as a survival technique. And due to this history of subjugation, we’ve become good storytellers,” he says.

After a standup career that has included a Comedy Now television special, and stints on CBC’s The Debaters, Vancouver’s Jeff Yu currently makes a living in the more financially reliable field of web design and internet marketing, and does comedy on a part-time basis.

Yu says that though his cultural background is Chinese, he identifies as Canadian, and avoids including Chinese-specific material in his performances because he says that it feels like an overly predictable comedic choice.

And though he has a rudimentary command of the Chinese language, Yu feels that he would have a hard time translating his material into Chinese.

“My [comedic] strength lies in my command of the English language: all of my tone, cadence, and timing is geared towards English. I wouldn’t have the same mastery over Chinese, so there’s a lot I wouldn’t be able to communicate,” he says.

And even if his Chinese roots do not position him as an outsider within the Canadian culture in which he was born and raised, Yu feels that the outsider mentality is not only a distinguishing component of Canadian national consciousness, but also a vital aspect of national humour.

“As a Canadian, I’m good at being an outsider. I think that’s what makes so many Canadians good at comedy. We are so heavily influenced by American culture through movies and television, yet we aren’t exactly a part of it – we’re still observers,” says Yu.

The layers of comedic distinction

Toby Hargrave’s approachable and identifiable comedic style appeals to both Canadian and American audiences alike. | Photo by Clare Wheeler

39-year-old Vancouver comedian and actor Toby Hargrave whose family, though of Scottish origin, has lived in Canada for many generations, performs frequently in the United States, and can therefore testify to the distinct differences in comedic sensibilities between two countries.

“American comedy can be in-your-face, and though Canadians certainly have opinionated comics, there is an aspect of the Canadian performance style that lends itself to mutual respect: [we] apologize, make allowances for differences, and try to make everyone feel valid,” he says.

The variation in humour identities is not only evident between the two countries, but also between different provinces in Canada.

Julie Kim is a Toronto-born and raised comedian of Korean origins who has recently moved to Vancouver, and finds the regional specificity in Canadian humour to be far more interesting and prominent than the differences in humour between the country’s various ethnic communities.

“I like how easily the audiences in the eastern provinces laugh, and [how they] can laugh at themselves. I find that sometimes audiences in Vancouver can be highly sensitive and easily offended,” says Kim.

When it comes to the issue of comics being able to address in their act ethnic groups other than their own, there seems to be a strong consensus that a comedian should have that license, as long as they are coming from a place of respect, and are comfortable presenting those culturally specific jokes in front of the group they are satirizing.

“Comedy, I feel, is one of the last uncensored art forms…If we start saying that we can’t talk about anybody’s culture but our own, where does it stop?,” says Dhaliwal.

“The wonderful part about a comedy show is the opportunity the performer has to challenge stereotypes…we are not separated by our differences in this world, we are separated by our silences,” says Hargrave.

Yu cautions that jokes with an ethnic focus have the potential to enforce stereotypes when used irresponsibly. Yet, he feels that humour generally puts people at ease, and therefore has an incredible potential to bridge the gaps between cultures.

And even when culturally specific, Yu believes that humour has a strong universal component.

“If you’re sitting around with a group of friends and reminiscing about the time your buddy fell out of a tree while trying to ask a girl out, you’re going to laugh no matter where you were born. The rule of tragedy plus time is universal,” says Yu.

For more information on the comedians in the order they are first mentioned in this article, please visit the following:

www.suneedcomedy.com (headlining at Yuk Yuk’s Vancouver on July 18 & 19), www.yousucksir.com, @JYUonline, www.seetobylive.com (headlining at the Comedy Mix in Vancouver August 14-16) and
www.juliekimcomedy.com