Lögberg-Heimskringla - 09.09.2005, Síða 7

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 9. september 2005 • 7
PHOTO COURTESY OF NANCY BEAVEN/FUNNY BUSINESS
David Jón FuIIer
Erica Sigurdson is go-
ing places. Her standup
comedy has recently
taken her to such cultural hot-
beds as Montreal, Vancouver
and... Alert, Nunavut?
“We went up to Alert,
which is the northernmost point
in the globe that is inhabited by
humans, to perform for the mil-
itary that’s stationed there over
Christmas,” she says. Though
the darkness is similar to what
her Icelandic ancestors lived
with generalions ago, it was a
new experience for her. “Basi-
cally it was just dark and ice as
far you could see.”
Born in Goderich, ON,
Sigurdson is of Icelandic and
Scottish descent. She and her
family — parents Ronald and
Lyn Sigurdson, and older sis-
ter, Inga — moved to Vancou-
ver when she was six.
Sigurdson has been per-
forming comedy since 1999.
She has been on CBC’s Madly
Off ln All Directions, Zed TV
and the nalionally broadcast
Prairie Crop, filmed live at the
Winnipeg Comedy Festival.
This past summer she was
chosen for the Home Grown
Competition at the prestigious
Just For Laughs comedy festi-
val in Montreal.
“They usually pick nine or
10 of the young, hottest comics
— not necessarily ‘young,’ but
young in terms of their career,
and bring them to Montreal
then showcase them in front of
some casting agents who are
judges, and they pick a winner
and a runner-up,” she says.
Despite a strong competi-
tive streak, Sigurdson says she
tried to “gear myself up to go
and just do the best I could and
really enjoy the festival for ev-
erything it had to offer.”
Though she didn’t win, she
was glad for the opportunity. It
certainly wasn’t the only per-
formance for her lately. Recent
gigs have included the Vancou-
ver International Comedy Fes-
tival and the Halifax Comedy
Fest.
She’s also been able to play
to a wide variety of audiences.
“What I like about the festival
audiences is that they have the
festival bug, they pay anywhere
between 15 to 50 dollars for
their tickets, so they’re really
there to enjoy the experience,”
she says. “As for festival au-
diences over club audiénces
— well, you don’t have a fam-
ily that goes out to a festival
and gets absolutely hammered
before the show, and starts
screaming at you.”
Clubs aren’t the only tough
audience. “Corporate gigs are
notorious for being the best paid
but the most painful on your
ego,” she says. “Everybody’s
out with their work friends and
nobody really wants to laugh
too hard at certain things, be-
cause they’re like ‘oh, what
will they think of me?’ I did
one show and the premier [of
BC] Gordon Campbell was in
the front row. As I was onstage
I was just thinking of all the
comics that would be better
suited to this audience.”
Sigurdson’s ideal audi-
ence is somewhere between 25
and 50. If it’s a young college
crowd, she says, “That’s when
I have to pull out some sex
jokes that I generally don’t talk
about...”
Though not married her-
self, Sigurdson is currently in
a long-term relationship —
“for all intents and purposes,
without the jeweller, I guess,
I’m married,” she says with a
laugh.
Sigurdson’s Icelandic
grandparents were Thor Sig-
urdson, from Lundar, MB and
her biological grandmother
was Inga Isfeld of Glenboro.
MB, who died when her father
was a child. “My family real-
ly has that sardonic wit,” she
says, “which I think is true of
a lot of Icelanders — in all my
uncles, and my father, and my
grandfather — that seemed to
really shape my comedy.”
Though things are going
well for her standup comedy,
it’s not her only source of in-
come. “I worked at a bank; I
was nannying for a while; right
now I work at Starbucks part
time.”
She tours for five weeks at
a time, but doesn’t like to do
more than that. “I don’t think it
inakes you into a better comic.
You end up becoming what
we'call a ‘road warrior,’ which
means you can kill in a bar in
Medicine Hat, but your com-
edy isn’t necessarily the smart-
est, or as grounded in everyday
life. You just get lost doing all
these little bar gigs.”
Her next tour starts in Sep-
tember, but she says, “I’m also
looking at doing writing as
well.” In addition to writing
for the Cornedy Network this
fall, she’s developing a sitcom
she plans to pitch to a Canadian
broadcaster this winter.
“I love doing standup —
it’s just I can’t piclure myself
just doing standup when I’m
50,” she says. “It’s a difficult
thing to be on the road all the
time. I’d like to develop other
areas of getting my comedy out
thefe as well.”
“Basically I just want to do
it all,” she laughs. “Screenplay,
novel, my own show — noth-
ing too big.”
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