Yukon comedian George Rivard was in his early twenties, accustomed to cracking weird jokes, when an older colleague gave him some career-changing advice. “You’re from the Yukon, you’re adopted, your dad is French — talk about yourself on stage,” the comedian told him. George Rivard listened to him, and his career took off. Since then, he has told his unique story in the largest city in the country. He will be on stage in Montreal for the first time in his career on February 19, at the Comedy Nest club.
René Rivard, George’s father, is well known in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon, where the comedian grew up. “If I mention ‘my father’ on stage there, the public knows who I’m talking about,” says the man who has lived in Toronto for a few years. In the 1980s, René Rivard, a native of Causapscal, in Gaspésie, set sail for Western Canada, where he worked for a long time as a wildlife technician. “I came to the Yukon for work and adventure,” he says in a video from the territory’s tourist office.
Years later, his story serves as an inspiration to his adopted son, who performs weekly in the comedy clubs Toronto’s busiest. The increasing number of conversations he had with his father over the course of his career made him see that his sense of humor had not fallen from the sky, but also better understood the challenges that René faced. moving across the country 40 years ago. “It was like moving to another country at the time,” says George Rivard.
“Telling my family’s stories allows me to connect with the public,” explains the Sierra Leone-born comedian. All I want is for people to say to themselves while listening to me, “I’ve had this feeling before.” »
active comedian
Like many comedians, George Rivard is not idle. His week begins on Sunday and ends… the following Sunday. From Wednesday to Friday, he participates in comedy evenings. The rest of the time, he takes part in “open mike” evenings or animates them. With the exception of a gardening job in the summer, the 30-something devotes himself entirely to humor. “Two years ago I was doing my tax return and I thought, ‘OK, this is really happening’,” he says.
The comedian would like to one day participate in the Just for Laughs “New Faces” gala, but he does not get lost in his dreams. “Goals are like mountains: you climb one, you think you’ve reached your goals, then you see many more,” he philosophizes in a café in Little Portugal, Toronto. “I want to keep doing humor. I learned to focus only on the process, he continues. You must have fun doing this job. »
His parents and extended family enjoy watching him on stage, even if they don’t understand all of his jokes. George Rivard performs in front of them without embarrassment. His father, who offers him pranks by text message, comes to his shows in Whitehorse camera in hand. “I love when my parents are there, it’s good to show them what I do. They are proud of me, ”says the Torontonian. “I guess my parents told everyone I’ll be in Montreal,” he says.
Limits
The parent-son relationship benefits from George’s transparency and respect for French speakers. “I don’t put people down,” he explains. In Whitehorse, in March 2022, he took on the Quebec accent for a Just for Laughs production. “My father is a real French Canadian: he says ‘ouin’,” he said during the show. “I had spoken to him about it before”, specifies George Rivard, embarrassed to admit that he imitated his father when he was a “bad teenager”.
The public of Whitehorse — the capital of the third region in the country in terms of the rate of bilingualism — had a good laugh at this joke. “And the joke would have worked even if I hadn’t done the accent,” notes George Rivard. As a comedian, the Yukoner reproduces the accent with repartee. “Sometimes I’ll allude to it and say, ‘Imagine a French accent’, but I won’t take it. If I make fun of Francophones, I want Francophones to laugh about it,” he summarizes.
Goals are like mountains: you climb one, you think you’ve reached your goals, then you see many more
George Rivard lives 5500 kilometers from the house where he grew up, but he is not about to run out of stories. “I have lots of stories from my childhood and my teenage years, and I have new ones every time I come home,” he says. “I was back home lately, and I’m asking my dad, ‘Why is there a shotgun in the closet?’ He answers me quite naturally: “There is a bear in the area”, says the humorist, laughing. In Toronto, this kind of situation is unlikely. »
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.