What would you do with $25,000 cash?
“I would love to pay for my rent for three months,” quips North Vancouver comedienne Jane Stanton.
When’s she not making light of the local real estate market, the self-deprecating funny gal is making fun of her obsession with mayonnaise or Hawkins Cheezies. But whatever Stanton says should be taken with a grain of salt.
“You could say a bucket, not even a grain,” she says.
Stanton is currently in the running to become Canada’s top comic, as part of a competition being hosted by SiriusXM. She’s already brought enough laughs to make it to the top 18.
Back in the spring, Stanton submitted an audition video to the SiriusXM judges, who had to sift through hundreds of demos.
What was on Stanton’s tape?
“It was me just at home having a bubble bath,” she quips. “That got me in there.”
What followed was an audition night in Vancouver, which again saw Stanton winning over the judges and advancing to the semifinals.
Now it’s up to Canada to decide if Stanton’s standup is side-splitting enough. Live audition videos from the finalists have been posted online for a nation-wide vote ending today.
In her video, Stanton recounts her experience going to a house party, being tricked into “dabbing” and the events that followed, which sound like some scenes from The Hangover. The redhead, who’s been deemed “a fiery ball of hilarious energy,” gives some serious Aidy Bryant (of SNL fame) vibes with her delivery and facial expressions.
The youngest of four kids growing up in the Seymour area, Stanton was naturally inclined to get attention from her family. She recalls always regaling people with jokes and “just being like an idiot.”
Stanton figures her good sense of humour comes from her dad’s Maritime roots. The first joke she ever told was pretty bad. But, hey, Stanton was only four at the time.
“It made no sense,” she says with a laugh. “Why do people go to the bathroom at McDonald’s? Because they do it all for you.”
While the golden rule of comedy is you shouldn’t have to explain a joke, in this case she does. “We do it all for you” was the fast food giant’s famous slogan in the late 1970s.
Now older and wittier, Stanton has earned her chops as a professional comedienne, with performances at the Halifax Comedy Festival, Montreal’s Just For Laugh’s Festival, Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival, the Global Comedy fest, the Seattle International Comedy Competition and CBC Radio’s The Debaters.
Being on The Debaters was an “amazing” experience for Stanton, who argued in favour of keeping a diary. “I had all of mine (diaries) from high school, which is like the best goldmine ever because you are just so dramatic when you are younger,” says Stanton. “Like your hair got cut too short and the world’s just ending.”
As a teenager, Stanton wore out her Richard Pryor cassette tapes.
“I would listen to it a lot on my Walkman. I just aged myself, that’s fine,” she says.
These days she counts American stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan and Canadian comedic counterpart Darcy Michael among her favourites. Stanton says what makes her laugh is when someone is being funny in the moment.
“Life is funny … stuff happens to you and you’re like: ‘Is there a hidden camera. Did that seriously just happen?’”
Case in point, when people chastise her on the street for wearing Uggs, noting “it’s sheepskin.”
“So to make them feel better, I stomp my feet up and down and I go ‘baaa, baaa,’ like a sheep,” says Stanton.
Stanton’s Facebook page is saturated with humorous short videos, including how she coped after a recent emergency root canal.
Going for the sympathy vote in the SiriusXM competition, Stanton shows her frozen mouth and says: “Vote for me, I need the money.”
The six comedians with the most votes will become finalists, along with two wild cards.
All eight finalists will perform live at the SiriusXM Top Comic Comedy Finale during Toronto’s Comedy Festival JFL42 on Sept. 28, when a panel of judges will select one winner to be crowned SiriusXM’s Top Comic.
The winner will take home $25,000 to support their comedic career development and a guaranteed spot at three of Canada’s biggest comedy festivals in 2018: JFL42 (Toronto), JFL NorthWest (Vancouver), and the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, including JFL: All Access, airing on The Comedy Network.
Asked what it would be like to be featured on Just For Laughs in Montreal, the largest international comedy festival in the world, which this year features Gad Elmaleh and Jerry Seinfeld, Stanton says it would be amazing.
“You’re giving me shivers. Everyone’s grown up on that (Just for Laughs), you know what I mean?”
When she’s not on stage, Stanton is “going for hikes, obviously,” including Quarry Rock.
“I wish it was still a top secret because you’d see people not wearing $500 heels doing it. I’m not fit but I’d beat those people,” says Stanton.
To cast your vote for Canada’s Top Comic visit topcomic.siriusxm.ca.
