When it comes to stand-up comedy, I find that the
lesser-known comedians in Canada bring the best laughs.
No offence to Russell Peters, of course, but it’s not like he should care as
one of the top earning comedians in the world.
It’s actually because of the fiscal imbalance that I plug one of my favourite small-time comedians:
Jeremy Hotz. He tours internationally and is a Just For Laughs favourite — so he does well for himself — but
if it were up to me, he’d be a top-10 earner.
Now, slowly but surely, we can help him do that. He has a new live DVD, What a Miserable DVD This Is, on sale
from a Just For Laughs show he did in Montreal in 2008. I can personally vouch for the hilariousness of the
DVD because I was at that show. I feel like that means I should be entitled to a free copy, but
that’s another story.
Hotz unashamedly brings meaner Canadian quirks to the table in the funniest PG-13 way possible. He’s polite
upfront, but stingingly cynical in our quiet won’t-say-this-to-your-face kind of way. Everything grandiose
and miniscule registers on the scale of frustration, from American politics to the earthworm. Hotz is also a
skilled improviser with his audience, seamlessly running off jokes about strangers’ professions and even
their heights. He hits joke after joke after joke.
So if you’re any sort of stand-up fan, this DVD is a must-have. Hotz has a truly unique, native brilliance
about him. When we’re laughing at him, we’re laughing at our awesome (but a little mean) Canadian selves.
— Josh Bailie