Amy Schumer at the Air Canada Centre
You can’t fault Amy Schumer for playing a giant, intimacy-challenged, sports stadium like the Air Canada Centre, where many of us in her audience Thursday night really depended on those massive flat screens on either side of her stage.
Much of Schumer’s act relies on her facial expressions, which she marries nicely with careful timing and a willingness to leave those looks hanging to carry a joke. And those screens came in handy during a very clever bit wherein she illustrated men’s over-the-top “mirror face.”
“That James Dean, superhero stare guys make in the mirror before heading out.” Pause to demonstrate, then, “Who are you kidding? You work in software!”
But I also found those screens taking me out of the moment.
Standup, you see, really is best experienced in the raw closeness of a comedy club. It’s where gesticulations, mannerisms and even funny faces — as integral to a standup’s act as pyrotechnics are to an arena rock concert — are on close, personal display for the crowd. It’s where you become part of the show, not just a witness to it. Even a soft-seat theatre such as the Queen Elizabeth, Massey Hall or The Sony Centre are comedy-cozy, by comparison. But those venues can’t offer a comic what the ACC can: almost 20,000 fans in one night, paying upwards of $100 per ticket.
So, it’s wise to cash in while your star is still rising — and commands giant screens that can also play a trailer for an upcoming movie — in a business where fame can be fleeting.
Even Schumer who joked onstage that “I’m not good at being famous,” while mocking her wardrobe choice — “substitute art teacher outfit” — acknowledged as much. “I know this isn’t going to last forever.”
It’s not that Schumer didn’t acquit herself admirably and with aplomb. She clearly cares deeply about her craft — “my favourite thing in the world,” she said, sounding sincere — and regaled her near sold-out audience for more than an hour with, mostly, the kind of material that got her to stadium status: sex, sexual organs, sexual hookups and booze-and-drug-induced blackouts.
On the latter, “Nothing good ever happens (following a blackout). No one asks, ‘Hey, where did this Pilates mat come from? And who cleaned?’ ”
A nicely-worded and acted bit about paddleboarding proved she can also step outside her standard fodder. “Can we stop pretending we enjoy something without the comfort of a seat or the safety of sides?”
But I expect I’d have laughed louder had my eyes been more drawn to Schumer on stage than to Schumer on screen. At times, it felt like I was at home watching TV, which kinda isn’t the point of any live performance — especially standup.
Denis Grignon is freelance writer and standup comic.
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