Performer: Tom Stade Photograph by: Trudy Stade Show: I Swear To... Venue: Rose Theatre Promoter: Gilded Balloon Online: Box Office Facebook Website
Tell me about your Edinburgh show.
I feel like I’m talking to a comedy psychiatrist… so tell me about your show Tom… I would like to think it’s a snapshot into the Tom Stade experience… covering controversial topics like microwaved fish to easy shit like how to hire a hitman… does that make me weird?
Tell me about your first gig.
1988 in a awesome little club in Gastown Vancouver called Punchlines. It was an amateur night and I went up a character I called Fish…real grungy guy… ripped jeans and shit like that… I’m kinda laughing right now cause I don’t know why I called him that… I miss being 18 not needing a reason for anything… but I got a couple of good laughs… I seem to recall a joke about farting in an elevator… before it was hack of course… and never looked back..
Do you have any rituals before going on stage?
All I ever think is something’s about to happen and I’m going to deal with it for and hour…
Tell me about your best and worst review.
There all kinda of good because they’re your critics… nobody likes to read a bad one… but let your ego out of the way… see who wrote it… do you respect that reviewer… and if you do see him as a guest director and next night take on board what the reviewer said and if it works thank him… if it sucks we’ll invite your ego back and have a “You were right party”
During this Edinburgh run, do you plan to read reviews of your show?
Not gonna go out of my way but it’s kinda hard not to… hopefully there all awesome and I don’t have to tweak to much 😉
How do you feel about reviewers generally?
They have a tough job as long as there objectives and don’t have an agenda then I’m pretty cool with them… side note I’m also friends with a lot of them.
In April 2018, YouTube comedian, Markus Meechan (aka Count Dankula) was fined £800 for training his girlfriend’s pug dog to do a Nazi salute with its paw, in response to the phrase ‘Gas the Jews’. Do you believe Meechan committed a criminal offence, and why?
I’m not in the business of policing people’s thoughts… plus these guys are just background noise on the internet sea that they mean nothing in the big picture… people know bullshit when they hear it especially in this age of awareness… Stick and Stones and that sort of shit… it’s not like this guy is going to overturn Roe vs Wade… what’s the fine for that? Hmmmmm???
Are there any subjects that are not suitable for comedy?
Unsuitable comedy subjects… well I think racists jokes are on the way out, homophobia jokes don’t really have a place anymore… but I’m pretty sure there a lot funny jokes about race and homophobia… I think as long as your on the right side of the subject… as long as you use difficult or touchy topics to be inclusive not be divisive… and there’s the skill of a great artist..
Have you ever gone too far?
Yep of course I have… what kinda of artist hasn’t crossed the line at one time or another… but the rebel in every artist will always cross lines… because really going too far also sounds like an adventure… and sometimes you got to go too far to know how far you can go…
Looking back over your time as a comedian, tell me about the best gig of your career.
Haven’t had one yet but if all the reports that are coming in I think it’ll be probably one of the ones coming up at this Edinburgh Festival 2018 when I do my new show “I Swear To” at the Rose Theatre 9:15 all of August… I’m pretty sure it’ll happen then..