Paul Myrehaug is looking forward to returning to Moose Jaw with the cross-Canadian Snowed In Comedy Tour, which will take the stage at the historic Mae Wilson Theatre on Feb. 27.
The Snowed In tour features four Canadian comics on a tour of 65 cities across the country, hitting the mic with new material and plenty of talent. Various legs of the tour feature a different lineup, and Moose Jaw’s show will see Myrehaug joined by Dan Quinn, Debra DiGiovanni, and Pete Zedlacher.
“All four of us I think combined, there's probably I'd say maybe 90 years of standup comedy experience at least,” said Myrehaug. “We're all veterans in the craft and we're all more theater acts than club acts.”
All four comedians are no strangers to the Snowed In tour, especially since the annual show has been touring for over 10 years. Myrehaug is excited to get started on another year of Snowed In, and even more excited to have DiGiovanni join the prairie leg of the tour for the first time.
“Debra is a world-class talent, she's worked with Conan O'Brien and she had a web series with Comedy Central, down in Los Angeles this year,” said Myrehaug. “So, we're very excited to bring that to Moose Jaw, for a little bit of a change for you guys.”
Snowed In features a completely new set of material from each comedian, which they’ve been working on during the past year to debut on the tour. Myrehaug describes his set as relatable, pulling from the experiences he’s had in the past year — including the woes of house renovations and medical discoveries.
Myrehaug and his fellow comedians are all aimed for a theatre-type act, forgoing the really raunchy content — although that’s not to say it will be PG-13 either.
“It's not going to be like a smutty comedy show in a pub, but also it's not going to be a mom-and-pop show either. So I think we're not afraid to push the limits a little bit,” said Myrehaug.
This year, the Snowed In tour is expanding with 11 shows in Ontario, officially making it a cross-country tour.
Breaking into new venues in new cities can be tough, said Myrehaug, but he hopes Ontario welcomes the tour as well as the prairies did a few years ago.
“We're really looking forward to it being a true coast-to-coast tour now and getting in there. That's a very exciting thing, to go national,” said Myrehaug. “When you go into new markets like the prairies or Ontario, it can take a little while for word of mouth to catch on, but Moose Jaw has always sort of been great from the first time we came through.”
Myrehaug looks forward to revisiting Moose Jaw on the tour each year, making sure to hit a different tourist attraction each year.
“It's like an Island, in the middle of the tour. The whole experience in Moose Jaw for me, I really look forward to it. It's one of the ones I have checked off, of the 65 cities across the country, where I'm excited to hit — not to take anything away from Swift Current, but you know,” joked Myrehaug.
The Moose Jaw Cultural Centre has been seeing Moose Jaw’s interest in comedy shows, especially after booking a few more than usual in the last year — confirming Myerhaug’s experience with Moose Jaw’s support of the Snowed In tour.
“I think that it's great to kind of diversify our lineup in terms of what we're doing, both with concerts and with other programming like comedians and that sort of thing,” said Cronan. “It's great for the community and it often brings people that don't always come to the other shows that we do here.”
Tickets for the Snowed In Comedy Tour are available either on the Cultural Centre’s website or at the Box Office, either in person or by calling 1 (306) 693-4700.
