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Looking for some quality comedy entertainment to check out?
Who better to turn to for under-the-radar comedy recommendations than comedians?
Bruce McCulloch sees himself as the workhorse ofThe Kids in the Hall.
Perhaps it makes sense, then, that he admires the work ethic of a YouTuber.
The weekly release schedule, the DIY production it all taps into McCullochs punk teens.
Nolke has been making YouTube videos since 2015 albeit starting in the FoodTube space.
And I said, What YouTube stuff?
So I looked at all her YouTube stuff, and it was so amazing to me.
That is one of the reasons I wanted to talk to her after seeing her stuff.
How do you technically do that?
She makes everything herself.
She writes it herself.
She shoots it herself.
She makes her own posters.
I love that shes a do-it-yourself person.
The technology may change, but the DIY spirit is forever.Its the amazing thing that punk music taught us.
You dont need to have a go at get a record deal just bash it out.
It has never gone away.
I have other friends who have done YouTube stuff, and they make money.
Thats their livelihood now, and they control their art.
And she thought,Fuck you!She was trying forever auditioning foryears.
She couldnt even afford acting lessons.
She actually did a cooking channel first, then started writing these funny things and doing them.
I thought it was a real playful way that she was dealing with our collective grief.
For me, my oeuvre, and my troupe, its that kind of humor that gets us through.
That really hit me.
They were nastier and nastier as she went.
She wasnt afraid to look dirty.
I dont mean dirty (Im sex-positive).
Just that shes ferocious.
The pandemic videos are interesting from a structural standpoint too.
Somehow, her future self is always more jaded than in the last video.
How do you know when a sketch is repeatable?Thats a tough one.
I worked onSaturday Night Live,writing The Liar many times in a row.
The troupe we were very careful of repeating.
It can become like youre competing with yourself.
You probably know that we just did another season.
[Laughs] Yes.We had some characters that came up, and we wanted to do them.
And we had some others that we just did not want to do.
Its about the point of view.
Julies got a good point of view.
Thats actually how she sees the world as a sarcastic well get through, not perfect person.
That way, its always repeatable, always refillable for her.
All the things that are important to him he can put that in.
But on another level, we like to do Fran and Gordon, because we just like those people.
Then some become kind of a jail.
Once you make the point ofCabbage Head, you dont want to do him nine times.
Do you think there is a uniquely Canadian sense of humor or key in of comedy?There is.
Canadians are gentle people who are kind of sneering at Americans when they leave the room.
But they never show it.
We dont like to be mean.
Were watchers; were not people who jump up and down going, Look at me!
For that reason, there is a Canadian sense of humor that is closer to satire.
Satire is a hard thing.
Not everyone is included, because what youre saying is more complicated.
Theres a slightly satirical sense to much of the good Canadian comedy.
Another thing I didnt say I loved about her: Shes a workhorse.
She makes one of these a week.
I asked her, Why dont you take weeks off?
And she said, Its my creative meditation.
I have to flex that muscle; I have to do it every week.
That connected for me and to the troupe.
Were always going to venture to play.
Its that work ethic; its fire for me.
What do you get from working that hard?Well, its why Im here.
I want to communicate with the world.
I love the sheer act of creation.
Not necessarily making a thing on set that can be draining once you get there but the idea phase.
I have to keep following and pushing my ideas around.
Why does one get feverish about one thing and not something else?
The dumb question people ask sometimes is Where do you get your ideas?
I think them up; theyre from my brain.
Who knows why were obsessed with things?
People would go, Oh whats that one about?
And Id say, I dont know yet.
Finally, this time around, I figured out what it was.
I took forever to get it, but I got it.
Tell me more about the revival.Its OG.
They recorded new music for it.
We had doneDeath Comes to Town,which was a miniseries, about nine years ago.
But we hadnt done any sketches, and we wanted to do that again.
How long do you think a sketch should be?
Because Im mostly shorter equals better even though I wrote Love and Sausages.
I want sketches to move at the pace at which I move through the earth, which is fast.
I get things done.
I dont write very long.
I want sketches to be fast too.
Do you think that you were drawn to punk because it has the same bpm as you?
Or did punk form that tempo inside you?I was formed by it.
A Ramones song is a minute long.
I do think that there is something about punk music.
And that I was a competitive weight lifter when I was young.
All that testosterone, perhaps?
Sadness turned into anger formed itself in a very jangly way.
That was that pace.
How thick-skinned would you say you are compared to Julie?
You sound in awe of her resilience.Im pretty thick-skinned.
And I go, Oh, okay, Ill go away now.
I have learned from my friends that one should fail a lot.
I fail a lot.
My son, for a while, called me Mr. One Season.
And I did a lot of stuff that worked.
A lot of fun things.
As you were saying, its more about the process of following the idea.Oh yeah.
I just want to have fun.
Im at that age where Ive lost good friends, you know?
They cant do it anymore, so we have to.
That was part of the fire to do the show.
Tell me more about the show in New York.
How did it come together?My favorite thing is doing shows for people.
I did some shows just before the pandemic shutdown.
All those great cities: Portland, Seattle, L.A., San Francisco, a few others.
Then everything shut down, and I was like, I wanna do it again.
Its about my worldview through music and comedy.
Ive always been something of a closet humanist, and that is in this show.
We all compete over whose dad was drunker.
It opened up my humanity.
Perhaps it was having children and a wonderful wife.
We didnt think you had to be.
Because the Replacements I dont think were kind to work with.
Is Julie kind to work with?Shes great.
Shes a person whos never three days late.
Always has an idea.
But if you have an idea, she doesnt mind it.
She does it all herself.
They hand them back.
They add to them.
Thats what I like, and thats what I like about the troupe too.
Other people can take things and help and give them back to you.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
