Derek Edwards Tickets

Derek Edwards
A professional comedian for the past 15 years Edwards has amassed an impressive string of credits. An only Canadian winner of the prestigious Vail, Colorado, Invitational Comedy Competition, as well as four-time nominee and the 2004/05 winner of Best Standup Comic at the Canadian Comedy Awards, Derek Edwards is a stand up comedian from Canada who creates charming tales based on everyday subjects. I

n 1996, he won the stage at the Molson Canadian Comedy Festival in Toronto and then in 1997, he took the pot at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal and was featured on the 2003 Just For Laughs Comedy Tour across Canada with Rick Mercer.

Belonging from a tiny town himself, Chapleau, a community of 2900 thats 840 km north of Toronto, Derek took an English degree at the University of Western Ontario. It was there that he saw comedy legend George Carlin perform. The show stuck with him inspiring him in later life.

He remembers leaving the hall soar from laughing and noticed happy audience members wiping tears from their eyes. After graduating university he had to endure years of blue collar jobs. He took a series of a dead end jobs unloading trucks at a warehouse, driving a giant forklift, wielding a brush for College pro Painters etc.

During that time he was afflicted with alopecia (hair loss). One of those days he tried out at a Yuk Yuk Comedy club in Toronto. It was his first time on a comedy stage, he was 28. Not so long afterwards, he performed at a Red Deer Roadhouse frequented by the Grim Reapers gang.

The good news was that he was the headliner there. The bad news was that in the club (which was a stripers club originally), the beer guzzling crowd detested him and his pal. That was in the past, now things are better infact they are great.

Edwards has played his countrys biggest festival, Montreal Just for Laughs, for 9 years and has a lot to his credit. Now he has also forayed into theaters - a distinct step up from night clubs. Part of his charm is his self deprecating style.

There's nothing he does better than entertaining audiences with his incredulous musings on life. Calling himself an ordinary working guy, Edward Derek is all about making the ordinary extraordinary.

Northern Ontario and small town life lays a big part in his comedy. But, like any resident of North Ontario, Its Toronto he likes to take aim at.

Called Sleepless in Gorgama, his show delved into the strangeness of every day life, the oddity of Toronto and the quaint reality of living in and hailing from a small town. It is quite refreshing to hear comedy without racial slurs, sarcasm or curses as is done by most of todays comedians.

A 10-year vet of the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal - which included a cross-Canada tour with fellow comedian Rick Mercer - Edwards is universally considered to be among the top comics in the country.

His brand of humour has been showcased on A&Es Comedy Hits the Road, CTVs Comedy Now, CBC TVs Comics (garnering him another Gemini nomination for best comedy) and CBC Radios Madly Off In All Directions.

Performing live to audiences from Boston to Minneapolis to New York to Los Angeles, Edwards has appeared on The Multi-Cultural Show, The Prime Ministers Show, Sleeping With The Elephant and The Halifax Comedy Festival (resulting in another Gemini nomination).

Additionally, he was also a regular guest on the Red Green Show. Two new television projects are happening, both involving friend and fellow standup Wilmot. The first project is a summer-replacement golf show The second idea is a regionally based sitcom, set in his hometown of Timmins, Ontario, featuring Edwards and Wilmot playing DJs.

The acclaimed comic now resides in Toronto with his wife and family. Derek Edwards is a member of ACTRA and is currently touring his new one-man comedy show, The Other Shoe Drops.

This show is a riotously funny 90-minute unguarded moment with a Canadian comic icon in which Edwards probes the myth of maturity, peeling back the fa?ade of adult behavior. Working the trenches in Canada keeps Edwards sharp as according to him Canada's comedy crowds are among the toughest.