Podcast episode 559ish: Andrea Jin

What a good time meeting and talking with standup comic Andrea Jin. The only child (by law) tells us about growing up in China eating worms for laughs, peeing her pants in high school not for laughs, her homeless grandfather, learning English through Rachel and Ross, and so much more.

The episode is below. Or you can go download it from iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, all the usual sites.

Feb. 16: Paul Myrehaug & Damonde Tschritter

We've got a dynamic duo on the show tonight. It will mark Paul Myrehaug's third visit with us, but first in nine long years. The former Vancouverite is living now in... well, not Vancouver. We'll find out exactly where tonight. He and Damonde Tschritter, who still lives here, are in town for the annual Snowed In Comedy Tour, which has grown by leaps and bounds over the years. This is Tschritter's sixth time with us, the last coming in 2018.

We're on the air on CFRO at 11 pm here in Vancouver. Livestream us at coopradio.org or find us on the TuneIn Radio app if you don't have a radio or live outside the 604 area code.

Feb. 9: Eddie Ifft

Is it Oscar night? I never know until I skim over tweets or Facebook posts. It's either tonight or soon. Will we talk about it tonight with our guest Eddie Ifft? If he wants to. We're easy. Otherwise, we'll talk about his career and opinions and whatever else we think of. Living in Los Angeles, the podcast king is in the lower mainland performing at the House of Comedy all week. He'll come visit us after his last show of the week.

You can listen tonight on CFRO 100.5 FM, or livestream it on coopradio.org or on the TuneIn Radio app. And of course, it'll be up in podcast format soon, too. Just be patient.

Podcast episode 558ish: Lars Callieou

Here's our episode with old pal Lars Callieou, all the way from Edmonton. He was in our province doing a corporation performance and stopped by to talk about old day jobs, winter long-haul driving conditions, the influence on masters on new comics, touring 50-weeks a year with his parents' bar band, and working with Joan Rivers.

It's all here waiting for you. Click below if you absolutely must listen to it immediately. Or take a minute to go over to iTunes or Stitcher or Spotify or elsewhere and download it.

Podcast episode 557ish: Jon Bryant

This episode is a little late getting to you, but it's timeless so you can still enjoy it, now and forever. Our guest, angelic singer-songwriter Jon Bryant is currently on his cross-Canada tour. Click on his name, which will take you to his website, and see if you're anywhere near him. If so, go see him live. Music, like comedy, is best seen live. On the snowy Sunday night he was with us we talked about his nice jock beginnings, his start in Halifax, the perils of employing the falsetto, meeting James Taylor, his OCD, and flying saucers.

Listen below or find us on your favourite podcast dispensory and download. If you're on iTunes, please leave a ranking and comment. Good or bad. We can take it.

Feb. 2: Ed Hill

It's Super Bowl Sunday! You know what that means? Not a damn thing around these parts. It's comedy as usual tonight on the program. We've got standup comedian Ed Hill on to talk about his upcoming special taping on March 28, entitled Candy & Smiley. Did you know he's the first ever person in his family to record a comedy special? It's true! Tune in tonight to hear all about it.

We're on the air at 11pm in Vancouver. We're off the air at midnight in Vancouver. Tune in to CFRO 100.5 FM or livestream us at coopradio.org or on the TuneIn Radio app.

Jan. 26: Andrea Jin

Tonight on the old program we've got a new guest. Andrea Jin has been all over the Vancouver comedy scene the last little while but this marks her first appearance with us. This Friday she's recording her debut comedy album at Little Mountain Gallery, which is very exciting. We'll talk to her about that, about her early childhood in Shanghai, and loads more.

Tune in to CFRO 100.5 FM at 11 pm tonight. If you're in, say, Shanghai, you can also listen live if you go to coopradio.org. Or find us on one of them radio streaming apps, like TuneIn Radio.

Jan. 19: Lars Callieou

Edmonton's Lars Callieou saw all the snow out here so he grabbed his shorts and headed to our balmy climes. It beats –40, or whatever ungodly temperatures are swallowing up northern Alberta right now. Actually, I don't know why Lars is in town, but we'll find out tonight because he's our guest! The last time he was with us, back in September, he filled in for Sam Tonning, doing the announcing and co-hosting duties. Tonight, Sam isn't here again, but this time Lars will be our guest. He hasn't guested on the show since 2010. So we've got lots to talk about.

Tune in to CFRO 100.5 FM at 11 pm, as you always do... right? If you're in, say, Edmonton, and want to listen to your homeboy live, do the clock math and then livestream us at coopradio.org or find us on one of the many radio streaming apps available to you these days. (I know of just one – TuneIn Radio – but I believe there are others out there, too.)

Podcast episode 556ish: Jimmy Shubert

 Our first episode of 2020 was a real must-listen. Los Angeles-based standup comic Jimmy Shubert graced our studio. He told us about performing in Canada, working with Russell Peters in India, competing on Last Comic Standing, rooming with Marc Maron, his closeted career as a close-up magician, and got in some great rants on hecklers, cancel culture, and politics. As an added bonus, he treats us to a great street-joke.

Listen to the whole thing right here and now. Although you can always go over to Apple Podcasts, or wherever, and download it yourself to your device. That's what I'd recommend.

Podcast episode 555ish: Harry Doupe

Hey, I look the looks of 555. Here we are with our annual year-end episode with guest Harry Doupe. It's his tenth visit to the show, but he's always got lots to talk about. So much so we went overtime in this one. Harry talks about his work on award shows, David Foster's verbosity, his time spent as a standup comic in San Francisco, and gives his opinions on Family Feud Canada and Don Cherry.

You can listen to the episode right here below, or download us on your favourite podcast place. I use Apple, but that's just me.

Jan. 12: Jon Bryant

Occasionally throughout our many years on this show, we branch out and have a musician guest. We've had the likes of Craig Northey (Odds), Ewan Currie (Sheepdogs), David Beckingham (Hey Ocean!), Hawksley Workman (Mounties), Ryan Dahle (Limblifter, Mounties), Joel Plaskett (Thrush Hermit, The Emergency) and of course our good pal Steve Bays (Hot Hot Heat, Mounties). Tonight we welcome another singer: Jon Bryant. No band name. Just Jon Bryant, a dream-pop singer-songwriter. What's the comedy connection? He was with us in studio a few months ago when his pal Dino Archie was booked on the show and we decided he was worth a whole show on his own. Since his first visit with us, he has completed a European tour. We'll talk about that and whatever else we think of. He's playing the Biltmore Cabaret next week on January 18.

We're on the air at 11pm here in Vancouver. If you're listening from Jon's old home in the maritimes, that's 3am your time. And you can stream it live on coopradio.org or on various radio-streaming apps like TuneIn Radio.

Jan. 5: Jimmy Shubert

Oh boy, we've got a great show tonight to kick off 2020. The great Jimmy Shubert will be with us in studio. He's in town opening up the brand new House of Comedy in New West. The LA-based standup vet was a regular on King of Queens for five seasons and has been in a ton of other movies and TV shows. Even more impressive, he was one of Sam Kinison's original Outlaws of Comedy. He's got stories. And hopefully some he'll share with us tonight!

Tune in to CFRO 100.5 FM at 11pm Vancouver time for the conversation. I say "Vancouver time" because the show can be streamed from anywhere in the world, so just do the math and you can listen, too. You can go to coopradio.org for the stream or find us on the TuneIn Radio app or whatever other radio-streaming apps you know of.

2019 in a nutshell (and 2018)

Happy New Year! Going over the records, as we're wont to do at this time of year, I see we weren't so wont to do it last year. I neglected to list our guests from 2018. I'll get to that in a bit. But meanwhile, let's take a look back at 2019. Even though What's So Funny? has been airing since 2004, I didn't start keeping blog records until 2009. Here's how it has looked since then:

• in 2009, we did 42 shows
• in 2010, we slipped to 38 shows
• in 2011, we lept to 44 shows with 53 guests
• in 2012, we did 41 shows with 47 guests
• in 2013, we did 35 shows with 37 guests
• in 2014, we did 36 shows with 39 guests
• in 2015, we did 36 shows with 40 guests
• in 2016, we did 32 shows with 33 guests
• in 2017, we did 36 shows with 37 guests
• in 2018, we did 37 shows with 39 guests

That's an average for those years of 37.7 shows a calendar year. How did 2019 look, you ask? A bit under average, but well within the range.

• in 2019, we clocked in at 35 shows with 37 guests.

Thanks to all our guests from 2019:

• Brittany Lyseng
• Colin Heath
• Ed Hill
• Lisa Frischemeier
• Lady Rizo
• Amy Shostak
• Tom Hill
• Susan Thompson
• Neema Nazeri
• Lauren Mather
• Ryan Williams
• Jason Rowland
• Levi McCachen
• Jacob Samuel
• Chris Gaskin
• Taz VanRassel
• Ari Matti
• Scott Patey
• Angela Galanopoulos
• David Thomas Newham
• Myles Anderson
• Sunee Dhaliwal
• Joey Commisso
• Ola Dada
• Shawn Farquhar
• Kyle Bottom
• Kalvin Olafson
• Lars Callieou
• Travis Watters
• Dino Archie
• Jon Bryant
• Glenn Wool
• Nestor Pistor
• Daniel Chai
• Steve McGowan
• Brigitte May
• Harry Doupe

And a belated thanks to our guests from 2018:

• Mayce Galoni
• Ken Lawson
• Kathleen McGee
• Rod Crawford
• Jo Dworschak
• Chris Gordon
• Simon King
• Tom Green
• Ryan Beil
• Fred Ewanuick
• Myq Kaplan
• Graham Clark
• Larke Miller
• Damonde Tschritter
• Stuart Jones
• Ivan Decker
• Dylan Rhymer
• Ross Dauk
• Colleen Brow
• Chris Griffin
• Harris Anderson
• Andrew Huzar
• Brett Martin
• Steve Allen
• Laura Accili
• Shawn Farquhar
• Wes Barker
• Ivan Decker (again!)
• Travis Bernhardt
• Barry Greenfeld
• Brent Butt
• Ari Matti
• Kevvy
• Kevin Kent
• He Fangzhou
• Melanie Rose
• Steve Bays
• Harry Doupe
• Dave Nystrom