One of Vernon’s most popular stand-up comedy events of the year is just around the corner.
I Am Woman, Hear Me Laff 12 returns to the Vernon Performing Arts Tuesday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m.
This year’s headliner is none other than Jen Grant.
Grant made the news last May when she cut her 45-minute set short during an annual corporate awards ceremony for the Ontario Printing & Imaging Association (OPIA) after a man in the audience hurled vulgar, sexual comments at her.
In a blog she posted after the show, Grant said that while she tried to shrug off the comments, the heckler, who was sitting in front of the stage, hurled sexual abuse at her with a “rapey” tone.
“I thought, you can do this, just push through, ignore him. Then I went to speak again and I couldn’t because I had that cry type of voice. It’s like my body didn’t allow me to continue to be abused,” Grant told The Toronto Star at the time. “I was trying to push through, but then I just started crying. I’ve never done that before on stage. It was humiliating.”
Grant will be certain not to have that experience when she performs at the often sold-out I am Woman, Hear me Laff show.
Now in its 12th year in Vernon, the event is in celebration of International Women’s Day and features female comics doing what they do best, making people laugh.
Past headliners have included Elvira Kurt, Nikki Payne, Debra DiGiovanni, Erica Sigurdson, Sabrina Jalees and Mary Walsh.
Based in Toronto, Grant has achieved virtually everything you can in the world of standup comedy in Canada.
Her story telling and observational style of comedy is said to have audiences laughing until they cry tears of joy.
Grant has performed at every major comedy festival in the country, including Just for Laughs, and the Ha!ifax and Winnipeg comedy festivals, all of which have aired on national television.
While living in New York City, she played major comedy clubs with such legends as Jim Bruer, Robert Klein and Louis CK. She can also be heard on CBC‘s The Debaters and has her own TV special on The Comedy Network.
For International Women’s Day 2016, Grant will be joined on the Vernon stage by emcee Michelle Shaughnessy, Amber Harper-Young and Jane Stanton.
In the past few years, Shaughnessy has made an impact on the Canadian comedy scene.
Rising through the ranks of comedy clubs, she is a comic in demand and has landed television appearances on The Comedy Network, W Network, Bite TV, CBC, iChannel, and MTV and is in regular rotation on XM Satellite radio.
Harper-Young recently opened for L.A. comedian Brent Weinbach.
She’s been the feature comedian on The Sunday Service, an improv-comedy group that produces a weekly show held at the Fox Cabaret in Vancouver. She is also a regular on Graham Clark’s Laugh Gallery in Vancouver.
Other performing highlights include The Comics Lounge in Melbourne, Australia, Yuk Yuk’s across Canada, Comedy Works in Montreal, Absolute Comedy in Ottawa and Toronto, The Comedy Mix in Vancouver and Lafflines in New Westminster.
Watching Stanton on stage is like having a late night conversation with your best friend, if your best friend is one of the funniest people you know.
In her short time performing comedy, Stanton has toured across Canada, won Vancouver’s funniest new female comic in 2006, and has been featured on CBC Radio 1, XFM and the Can West Comedy Festival.
Tickets for I Am Woman, Hear Me Laff are $35 for adults, $32 for seniors, and $30 for students. Call the Ticket Seller box office at 250-549-SHOW (7469) or log online to www.ticketseller.ca for tickets and more information.