Tom Green is in the midst of his first stand-up comedy tour, and will be performing at Yuk Yuk’s in Toronto tomorrow and Wednesday.
Why did you want to go on tour?
It’s something that I’ve been meaning to do, and I’d never really got around to doing it. It’s been about two years that I’ve been doing stand-up non-stop and I’m just having a great time.
Where does your material come from? Your inspiration for your act?
It’s basically anything that strikes me as funny. Anytime I think of something that I find ridiculous or something that needs to be talked about I’ll jot it down in my phone and then every couple of weeks I’ll sit down and actually start crafting it all into stand up joke, story material.
What’s your favourite thing about being on tour?
It’s definitely doing the shows, and I’ve been enjoying writing new jokes and really putting together this tour. Plus, it’s cool getting to all the different cities around the country and the world.
How has the reception been so far?
It’s been amazing. I just did a show in Toronto a few months ago, and we had an awesome night. Normally I wouldn’t be doing another show right away in the same city — but because the Canadian military had asked me to do this trip to Afghanistan, I just happen to be coming back to Ottawa and Toronto.
What have you been doing in Afghanistan?
I’m just over here visiting with the Canadian troops and U.S. troops, doing stand-up comedy here. The Canadian military flew myself down, with a bunch of different people — NHL hockey players and a few others, and we’re doing some shows down here, and watching an MMA fight today and just having a party here in Afghanistan. It’s been an awesome week, I’ve got to tell you, one of the more exciting weeks I’ve ever really had as far as performance – you know, I had a show last night in front of all the U.S. and Canadian forces here in Kandahar and it went off great and we had a great time and a great show.
Are you doing anything new?
I’m starting up (on the online comedy network) this year, it’s sort of an extension of what I’ve been doing on my website for the last two years. I’ve really been enjoying doing the web show, but I think it’s time that I want to do my show not in my living room anymore. So we are going to move it into a little studio and I’m going to begin doing shows with a whole bunch of different comedians and stuff like that. I’ve been writing a lot, because I’m doing so much stand up in the last year or so. It’s going to be a good night at Yuk Yuk’s I’m looking forward to getting to Toronto, T Dot, rock and roll T Dot.
