It's official

The comedy fest has released the names of the performers, shows and venues on their website. I missed a couple. And no doubt there will be further additions and subtractions as we get closer to the date. Two I missed were Trevor Boris and Hollywood Harv.

I'm always hesitant to offer an opinion on performers I've never seen live, but from what I've seen of Boris, I'm not a fan. Nor does he seem capable yet of hosting his own show at the Cultch. I could see bringing him in as one of many performers on a few shows, but his own show? Hey, but I've been wrong before. One thing I've learned over the years is that live is a completely different entity than recorded. Brent Butt never did anything for me when I saw him doing standup on TV, but live he was one of the best ever. I always hated Sinbad from his years on the telly, yet I quite enjoyed his live set. Ditto Elaine Boosler. And Nikki Payne. So I always go into a live show with as open a mind as possible. Still... his own show?!

Hollywood Harv I've never heard of. But a quick search online tells me he's a Vancouver Punjabi hip-hop comedy dude. In other words, right up my alley. Can't wait.

Now let me respond to a few of the commenters from the last post:

• To Anonymous 1: Yes, you can drop by the station to pick up goodies.
• To Anonymous 2: Yes, Too Far TV is from Vancouver. But so are lots of comics. The organizers can't include every local act. I know there's always griping, but I actually think they do a good job of getting the best local comics involved. No doubt there will be more than the three I listed.
• To Anonymous 3: Yeah, there are a lot of repeats. I'm of two minds on this. Selfishly, I'd love to see different comics, preferably those who haven't played here before. Then again, they're here for only a couple of days once a year. You can't go wrong with Paul F. Tompkins or Todd Barry. You just can't. If they were here year round, I'd go see them dozens of times, if not more. And you gotta admit, there are lots of new (old) faces, too. They seem to have gone a bit more mainstream this year than in years past, although you have to wonder about The Champions of Last Comic Standing series running over three weekends. Do people even remember that show? Will Dat Phan be there? But I also think it's a good fit for Lafflines.
• To Anonymous 4: I agree, although not as strongly with Bamford. To me, she wears down on repeat viewings more than Tompkins, who is always fresh and new.
• To Anonymous 5: Near perfect? Hardly. But still pretty good.