Really Big Deal: A Comedy Show
w/Nick Nemeroff, Heather Macdonald, Clare Belford, Jordan Roberts, Rachael Sheppard and Lindsay Dauphinee
Wednesday, May 8, 7:30pm
The Seahorse Tavern, 2037 Gottingen Street
$15
A fter an uproarious appearance on Conan last fall, Nick Nemeroff comes breezing into town on the rare air of the late night comedy circuit. Nemeroff (and excellent tourmates Clare Belford and Heather Macdonald) are coming to the east coast for a fairly exhaustive run—the Nick Was On Conan Tour. Hitting stages in Dartmouth, Halifax, Truro, Sydney and Charlottetown before heading to Pouzza Fest in Montreal and the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, expect well-honed jokes, some deliberate awkwardness and fake-crying.
"That's played a big part in my comedy—almost crying on stage," Nemeroff says. "When I lived in Toronto I would go for auditions and I realized that being an actor is so much harder than I thought. I can only really do it when I feel like it's funny to make the crowd think I'm going to cry."
Crystal ball emoji time: Now is a great time to see Nemeroff, before ticket prices become a pain in the ass when he's a big name. Inspired by the deadpan humour of Mitch Hedberg, Nemeroff worked for Just for Laughs in Montreal, and realized comedy was it. "I thought, this is exactly what I wanted to do. I found an open mic and I've been doing it every night." After moving to Toronto, Nemeroff performed regularly at Laugh Sabbath at the Comedy Bar. "It's an ongoing show and it's the best comedy show I've ever seen," he says. "That was where people like Chris Locke, Nathan Fielder, Sara Hennessey performed. Watching that was a great mind explosion—like you can do this kind of comedy in Toronto."
Nemeroff is now a very recent transplant to LA, the land of comedy and podcast appearance opportunities. "It definitely is different," he says. "There are way more opportunities but there's a similar ratio of people who are good, who are finding their voice and have found their voice. I feel very fortunate coming from Toronto, from that comedy scene, because comedians don't have the same expectation of becoming a big star, you're doing it because you love it."
