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The Honest Truth Photos: courtesy of the artist
Comedian Debra DiGiovanni discusses her earliest forays into comedy and the thing that made her career by Alex J MacPherson
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ebra DiGiovanni has built a career in comedy on telling the truth. The unvarnished, unembellished, and often uncomfortable truth. A relative latecomer to the world of stand-up comedy, DiGiovanni quickly made up in laughs what she lacked in experience. Today, the cheerfully obnoxious comic from Tillsonburg, Ontario is renowned not only for her frank discussions of sex, relationships, identity, and gender, but also her biting sarcasm and cutting takedowns — as evidenced by her many appearances on the MuchMusic program Video On Trial. Because DiGiovanni is something of an outsider in comedy, a field traditionally dominated by men, her fearlessness and absolute unwillingness to be anyone but herself have attracted attention across North America. This winter she is embarking on her first-ever headlining tour, which sprang out of her long association with Just For Laughs. Last month, I caught up with the outspoken comedian in Los Angeles, California to learn more about her unusual entrance into comedy, her biting honesty, and who makes her laugh. Alex J MacPherson: I heard a great story about you getting into comedy after cold-calling a television station in Toronto. Can you tell me about that?
Debra DiGiovanni: Absolutely, I did. It was one of those situations where I made my friends laugh. They’d say, you should be a comedian. But I just ignored it. I went to school because that’s the thing I thought I should do, and realized really quickly that it wasn’t going to make me happy. And then after years of my friends saying ‘you should do something.’ I just fell on the idea of the TV station in Toronto. I called CityTV and literally said, ‘Hello, I could answer the phone.’ I didn’t know even what I could offer them, you know? The woman I spoke to, she said, ‘I had a girl quit today. Can you start tomorrow?’ I was like, yes! So it turned out I got to do tours. Kids would come in and I’d walk them through the building. It was like my first audience. I know it was, like, a grade seven class from Mississauga, but it was still an audience. And I loved it. All the other girls were like, ‘Can you do all the tours? You love it and we hate it, so go.’ And my brain’s like, I do enjoy this, this is sort of fun.
just sort of let me do things: filling in on television and doing things on MuchMusic. It just got the seed planted. And from there, that was my last job before starting comedy. I quit CityTV and MuchMusic to start doing comedy, and then it completes the circle because years later, when they start doing Video On Trial, the first thing they say is, ‘Hey, doesn’t Debra do comedy?’ AJM: You spent quite a bit of time doing Video On Trial, among other shows. How important is it to working comics today to branch out, move beyond just playing clubs and theatres? DD: I think in the eighties that was it, that was your career, just standup, being working comics and just constantly touring and constantly travelling. Some, a very small few, would get TV shows. I don’t even think there’s really a choice now, because there’s so much. The internet’s just diluted comedy so much. It’s so wonderful on so many levels, but also it kind of sucks on different levels. When people don’t need to go see stand-up live, they won’t, and that kind of sucks because that’s the truest form of comedy — we want you to come see us live. Comedy’s better live. It’s supposed to be better. So I think that is the only shame. But at the same time, that one little negative has a million other, you know, gorgeous positives.
AJM: And then you somehow wound up on-air, right? DD: At the time, CityTV was really cool about letting people learn other stuff. I don’t know if they do it now, but at that time they really didn’t expect anyone to stay in their original job. So you know, I was like, I think I want to be on-air. They
AJM: The trick seems to be finding a way to cut through all the comedy that’s out there, which you have obviously done. Is that because of the brutal honesty of your comedy? DD: I truly believe — I mean, because you brought it up it sounds a little weird — but that somehow along the line my being truthful, and it never even occurred to me not to be truthful, because in comedy more so than in anything else we have a persona. People onstage are not who they are in real life, you know what I mean? It never occurred to me to be someone else, other than brutally honest. I mean, everything I say is magnified by a thousand onstage, but it still just came out because that’s what struck me, you know? And I think somewhere along the way, it’s a real connection, that’s what it really is. AJM: And now you’re headed out on your first headlining tour. What’s that going to be like? DD: It feels very much like, is this happening? It’s in three weeks and it still feels very dreamlike, you know? Just For Laughs is putting it on; they’re sponsoring, doing the whole tour, which is an unbelievable gift. Just For Laughs has always been a really huge supporter of mine, they just have
always been really good to me. I did the five-person tour, where it’s, like, a whole bunch of us go out. And from that they’re like, we should probably do you next, and I was like, okay! On a practical level, you know, writing. You want comedy, you want to be fresh. But honest to gosh, the whole overwhelming aspect of it, seeing my name on the ticket, I don’t know if it’s hit me yet. AJM: Finally, you crack a lot of people up. Who cracks you up? DD: I love silly. I just love ridiculous. I love Will Ferrell. Oh my god, I cannot wait to see Anchorman 2. His ridiculousness really makes me laugh, because I just love that sort of fearless silliness. There’s a lot of comedians I just love. I love Maria Bamford, I love Jim Gaffigan, oh my gosh, there’s so many. There’s so many really, really funny people around right now. There’s so much to choose from. Debra DiGiovanni January 28 @ Conexus Arts Centre $37.50 @ conexusticket.com Feedback? Text it! (306) 881 8372
@VerbRegina amacpherson@verbnews.com
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