Comedian Lorne Elliott returns to Lake Country this month.
“I started going on stage at a time when hair like mine was fashionable,” Elliott confessed in a press release for his latest tour he’s dubbed The Upside of the Downturn.
“I hung a guitar around my neck to complete the look,” he said. “Somewhere around that time people started laughing at me, and I saw no reason why I shouldn’t join them.
Canadian born, Elliott started performing in 1974 as a folk musician on the East Coast of Canada.
At the same time he kept writing fiction as well as songs, monologues and one-liners. The outcome of such training is a very special show of comedy and music—totally original, entertaining, up-lifting and foolish enough to make everybody laugh.
Along with his unique and wacky performance style, it is the timelessness of his material, joined with keen observations of today’s trends that make Elliott’s work so special.
Elliott has performed his one-man show in theatres, universities and clubs. He has performed from Newfoundland to New York City, from Los Angeles to Australia and points in between.
He has opened concerts for Rodney Dangerfield in New York City and Jay Leno in Montreal.
He has made regular appearances at the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival since it started in 1986: each time his segments were selected for TV Specials, thanks to their universal quality.
In Canada and the U.S. he has appeared on numerous talk and variety shows.
As well as being a humourist, storyteller and musician, Elliott is also a playwright. One of his plays The Night the Racoons Went Berserk won the Best New Play award at the Quebec Drama Festival in 1983. It was produced by the Charlottetown Theatre Festival in 1986, along with Culture Shock, another comedy which has been presented regularly since then across the country and, in 1989 it was staged and filmed by CBC-TV.
Part of The Pelley Papers, a new cycle of plays he wrote was premiered at Upper Canada Playhouse in Morrisburg, Ont. in 1995.
Two recent works are A Pitiful Ambition, and How I Broke Into Showbiz.
He also writes screenplays and TV comedies, skits, revues, comedy variety shows such as What Else Is On and Lorne Elliott’s Really Rather Quite Half-Decent TV Special for CBC-TV.
Madly Off In All Directions is Elliott’s own weekly CBC Radio comedy series. Taped in concerts across Canada it started airing in January 1996 and continued for 11 seasons.
“I’ve made a living off the products of my imagination for 30 years,” he said, “so if you’re wondering if that’s possible I am here to tell you it is.”
Elliott brings his latest thoughts on The Upside of the Downturn to the Creekside Theatre in Lake Country on Saturday Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $23 general admission and $22 for students and seniors. Groups of four tickets go for $80 from the Creekside box office. Call 250-766-5669 or visit www.creeksidetheater.com.