Life hasn’t changed all that much for standout standup comic Harland Williams.
“It’s harder for a comedian to grow up than anybody else. Even in your 40s, you live like you’re still in high school,” says Williams. “You get to stay up late, sleep in and spend your day doing whatever you want. It’s only when you get a real job, you have to grow up and be miserable.”
I don’t think Williams, who brings his wacky humour to Centrepointe Theatre on Friday night, is lying awake at night scanning the classifieds for an office job.
After spending almost 10 years in La La Land, the Toronto native and regular on the Just For Laughs circuit, is pumped about doing his first solo tour in Canada.
Describing his Tasty Treats show as “a bizarre 90-minute comedy concept,” Williams mixes jokes with music and poems with his cousin, Barenaked Ladies keyboard player Kevin Hearn.
The pair have been performing off and on together for the past few years, even releasing a CD, The Cousins, in 2004, which he markets on his website www.harlandwilliams.com.
“We have good chemistry together,” Williams says of his cuz. “He loves doing comedy with me. We’ve been very close since we were kids, doing songs and skits together.”
Yeah, he’s been doing his shtick since he was a kid. So it doesn’t come as a big surprise his routine is still 100% doofus. Williams doesn’t do sharp, smart and satirical that goes for the jugular, preferring instead to focus on having fun.
“People say I look like I’m having a laugh on stage,” he says seriously. “I don’t like comedy that opens wounds.
“My comedy is sillier, more escapist. I don’t want to hear some comedian’s trenchant opinions about the prime minister or the president. I’d rather see a guy make a goofy face or tell a silly story. Anything that has a nutty twist.”
It’s that off-the-wall sense of humour and willingness to take chances that have kept Williams busy, and not just on stage. In 1994 he got his break in films with another Torontonian, Jim Carrey, in Dumb and Dumber. Since then he’s appeared in 20 movies, including Freddy Got Fingered, the cult favourite Half Baked, Something About Mary and Rocket Man.
As if that wasn’t enough, he recently started a new job writing and directing his animated feature Route 66 for DreamWorks.
Williams, who’s written a series of children’s books, showed the film treatment to studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, who commissioned it on the spot. Route 66 is scheduled for release sometime in 2007.
Now, Williams has an A-list office in Hollywood.
“I work just down the hall from Katzenberg,” Williams mentions, I think a little too casually, as if he’s trying to be funny and impress at the same time.
And then I realize I don’t know when he’s being serious and when he’s being funny, which is sometimes the best humour of all.
More Artists
