Mainstream comedy shows often include, as an act of tokenism, a comic who identifies as part of the LGBTQ community, says queer comic Chantel Marostica. They tend to be overshadowed.
That’s why she put together the all-LGBTQ Queer and Present Danger Tour – a slate of LGBTQ-identified comics dishing unabashedly queer humour. The tour stops in Guelph on Wednesday at The Cornerstone, 1 Wyndham St. N. There are two shows.
Six comics will bring their provocative and hilarious brand of humour to the restaurant and pub. Doors open for the first show at 7:30 p.m., and for the second at 10 p.m. Tickets are $15 and are available at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/queer-and-present-danger-guelph-tickets-29730477659.
The comics having been touring Canada throughout the last weeks of 2016. The tour continues in the New Year, with Guelph being the first stop of 2017. Marostica, Erinn White, Amy Cunningham, Meg MacKay, Brian Millward, and Adrienne Fish are on the bill. Fish and Marostica are co-headliners.
“I produced the tour, and Guelph will be our ninth city, and our eleventh show,” said Marostica by telephone. She is battling a cold and hopes to have her normal voice back by Wednesday.
“Everybody on the roster identifies as on the LGBTQ rainbow, so they are all queer acts,” she said, adding that some of the acts explore queer themes, others not so much.
“The point of doing a queer tour is the fact that there is sometimes just one woman or one gay person in a show,” Marostica added. “I just thought that all my fellow queer comics are so funny, if we could have a show of all gay people in it, it would touch on a range of topics. It’s a show where queer people can come out and basically see themselves represented on stage.”
Fish was nominated in 2015 by NOW Magazine’s as Toronto’s best female stand-up. She recently recorded her first nationally aired CBC gig, and has toured Canada and the US, doing the college and university circuit.
Judging by her performances, which can be seen on YouTube, she has a thing for her outrageously curly and gnarled hair, and can get quite bawdy about her body. She jokingly credits her transition from gymnastics to hockey as the point in her life when she became a lesbian.
Marostica is known for her high energy, physical comedy that combines storytelling, impressions, and pinpoint timing.
She has performed across the country in a host of prestigious comedy festivals, and has been featured on Laugh Out Loud and The Debaters on CBC radio. She was nominated for Best Female Stand Up at the 2015 Winnipeg Comedy Festival.
“I don’t think there is enough LGBTQ content out there, whether in the smaller towns and cities, or even a city like Toronto,” she added.
Queer and Present Danger is a way to show local LGBTQ communities that there is a lot going on in queer comedy that speaks to them.
“You are just going to get a bunch of really great comics,” she said.
