Kaitlin Shuvera has lived in Halifax for less than a year, but after (regularly) performing at three open mics a week, she’s ready to take on the Ha!ifax ComedyFest.
Shuvera got into stand-up comedy because improv comedy wasn’t an option in Kelowna, where she used to live. A few friends said they wanted to start a troupe, but it didn’t materialize. “I kept showing up at this bar, hoping to do improv, but it never happened,” says Shuvera. “So I just decided to get on stage and tell some jokes instead.”
Turns out, she found a new creative outlet in standup comedy. “It’s kind of addicting in the first sense because of the laughter,” says the soft-spoken Shuvera. Being able to share her thoughts on stage is another benefit. “There’s a microphone on stage, so people can hear me, which is nice,” she says.
Although new to the local comedy crew, Shuvera’s found the scene to be a good mix of camaraderie and competition. “Sometimes there are feuds, bickering and things, but I think that’s all part of a group atmosphere. We’re all kind of competitive, but it helps us push each other, we’re all supportive underneath it,” she says.
But at a lot of shows Shuvera performs at, she’s the only woman on the bill. On stage at Gus’, she delivers terse one-liners poking fun at language and cliches, providing a breath of fresh air from the masturbation jokes the (otherwise) all-male lineup delivers. “I always felt like I fit in, but you can’t deny that you’re a different gender,” says Shuvera. “There’s that weird thing where people say ‘Oh, women aren’t funny.’ I see that as a challenge, I say maybe we can change people’s ideas of what makes someone funny.”
Homegrown Show
Thursday, April 24 at 7:30pm, $20
Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club, Westin Nova Scotian
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This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2014.
I love to see the Coast finally taking an interest in something other than Picnicface. They are great, but there is a lot more happening here. Kaitlin is one of my personal favorites. Now all we need to do is get the Coast staff out to see a show more than once or twice a year at one or two specific venues to see that we have a HUGE talent pool of both male and female comics that do a lot more than masturbation jokes. I invite the Coast staff to attend my show at Clay West Bar and Grill that in its 7 months of existence we have had comics who have appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly, the Match Game, Video on Trial, Flashpoint, 22 min, LOCAL comics like Andrew Vaughan, Kaitlin Shuvera, Struhan Sutherland, Ian Black, Edwardo Ramirez, Dan Hendriken, Ryan Fried, Marc Sauve, Chanel Friere, Bryant Thompson, Bill Wood, Zack Trash, Shawn Sampson, and many many many other comics who have a lot more to offer than masturbation jokes. We had the producers from the Halifax Comedy Fest, Just For Laughs Comedy Fest and Hubcap comedy fest bear witness to a full line up of comics who did more than masturbation jokes. I will pay the cab fare or arrange a ride for any Coast Staff that wants to see a show. I don’t even care if you cover it, or give it a bad review, I just want the city to know this scene is amazing. It doesn’t just happen one week a year.
Andrew Evans