The Comedy Clinic
Sundays, 10pm. Free Fox and the Fiddle, 106 John.
It’s tempting to pin the exact, even strict way that Jason Blanchard runs open mic shows on his military background. Upstairs at the Fox and Fiddle on a Sunday night, it all seems so precise — from the eight-minute warning (not ten, not five, but eight) to the crowd before showtime, to the list of rules the comics are expected to follow.
They’re spelled out on his clipboard, which he shows me once he’s done setting up the small stage and lights. The stand-ups can’t pick on audience members unless they are heckled first, for one, and they’re not allowed to get rough with the microphone, so no head knocks.
He’s got other pet peeves, like when someone opens a set with a lazy line like “How’s everybody doing tonight?” or “Let me tell you something about myself.”
He cringes at that last one. “If you want to tell me something, just say it,” he grumbles.
Blanchard, a beefy fella with a soul patch, was in the army for “four years, one month and 23 days” but by now has done almost twice that time as a comic. He took over the open mic show at the Fox from Daryl Purvis when he moved to L.A., and just started a second room, on Mondays at Gabby’s Bar & Grill on Bloor.
If he’s strict, it’s out of showmanship and wanting to make the Clinic a cut above some of the more slap-dash open mics around town. And it pays off. Even with some of the inevitable flops, Sunday’s show was tight and entertaining —with laughs going to newer names like Dylan Gott, Mike Samuels and Dave Bath — though it’s too bad there can’t be a rule against bar chatter, which wore down a lot of the rookies.
Comics need a big voice to be heard at the Fox, though Hamilton’s Chris Pick made it look easy during his seven-minute ode to hookers, leading up to a solid set about the perils of stupid people by pro Peter Anthony.