On the precipice of recording his first standup album, Scott Thompson treated the Thursday night Ottawa audience to a fully formed and fleshed-out set on the first evening of his three-night run. After some terrific support from a portion of the region's best local talent, including the incredibly rubbery and amiable comedy of Greg Schroder and an airtight, cerebral, crowd-pleasing performance from Trevor Thompson, the Kids in the Hall alum rushed the stage, greeting the eclectic Yuk Yuk's crowd an impossibly buoyant surge of energy.
Immediately (and brilliantly) riding a joke delivered by the evening's host regarding a "crooked cock," Thompson quickly gave those in attendance a crash course on his edgy sense of humour, announcing that he once had a lover whose penis shifted to the left, but luckily his orifice shifted to the right.
Continuing with unscripted material, Thompson engaged with the crowd, asking a woman in the front row if she was worried that he might seduce her male friend, before capping off the joke by hilariously quipping, "You should be more worried about me seducing you, I am getting more curious with age."
Thompson then launched into his typically edgy, shocking and often un-PC routine (famously exercised via his KITH alter-ego Buddy Cole), that included material on a fantasy where Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh engage in homosexual sex, getting turned on at a UFC match and the time he turned down Sir Ian McKellen's sexual advances.
But even when Thompson began to talk about his battle with cancer or an encounter with a homophobic junkie, he refused to yield from the edge of tastefulness, telling the crowd that he should have played the victim card and been the next Rose McGowan. Throughout his routine, Thomspon gave the crowd a herculean supply of manic energy, bouncing around the stage, screaming into the mic and, in turn, sweating "like Woody Allen after reading about Harvey Weinstein."
As he closed out his 73-minute set, the audience gave the comedian a round of applause that seemingly found some clapping in adoration and others relieved that the onslaught was finally over. And Scott Thompson would have had wanted it no other way.
Immediately (and brilliantly) riding a joke delivered by the evening's host regarding a "crooked cock," Thompson quickly gave those in attendance a crash course on his edgy sense of humour, announcing that he once had a lover whose penis shifted to the left, but luckily his orifice shifted to the right.
Continuing with unscripted material, Thompson engaged with the crowd, asking a woman in the front row if she was worried that he might seduce her male friend, before capping off the joke by hilariously quipping, "You should be more worried about me seducing you, I am getting more curious with age."
Thompson then launched into his typically edgy, shocking and often un-PC routine (famously exercised via his KITH alter-ego Buddy Cole), that included material on a fantasy where Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh engage in homosexual sex, getting turned on at a UFC match and the time he turned down Sir Ian McKellen's sexual advances.
But even when Thompson began to talk about his battle with cancer or an encounter with a homophobic junkie, he refused to yield from the edge of tastefulness, telling the crowd that he should have played the victim card and been the next Rose McGowan. Throughout his routine, Thomspon gave the crowd a herculean supply of manic energy, bouncing around the stage, screaming into the mic and, in turn, sweating "like Woody Allen after reading about Harvey Weinstein."
As he closed out his 73-minute set, the audience gave the comedian a round of applause that seemingly found some clapping in adoration and others relieved that the onslaught was finally over. And Scott Thompson would have had wanted it no other way.