Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Napanee’s own comedian Luke Bawn will be hosting a sold-out night of laughs at Ellena’s Café on Jan. 26.
This will mark the second comedy show hosted at Ellena’s, both of which will have been sold out. That’s an encouraging sign for Bawn as he looks to bring a new form of entertainment to his hometown.
He’ll open the show with a set of his own material.
“I wish I had like a scientific experiment like a personality test to find out I’m actually a B Type with some C in me,” Bawn, who began his comedy career at age 18 and has now been at it for five years, says when asked to describe his comedic style. “I’m pretty young so I talk about the things that I know. I’m not trying to tackle these huge topics like religion and politics. There are comedians out there that tackle that stuff but my intention is just to make people laugh…if it’s an observation that I noticed or something that happened in my life that I can relate it into a joke. I just like the idea that I can use something that I made to make people laugh.”
His goal is not to offend or push any envelopes, rather to just make people have a good time and enjoy a night out.
He hopes the event will not only invoke chuckles from the audience, but also maybe inspire others to try their hand at stand-up comedy.
“I had to go searching to find a community,” said Bawn. “You have to go to the comedy shows and see who is performing. That was my generation. Kingston has had two comedy clubs in the past decade. There was A Time To Laugh, which was a comedy club located in downtown Kingston and then Absolute Comedy which just closed this year just due to COVID.”
As with all facets of the entertainment industry, live comedy was hit hard by the pandemic and is slowly recovering. Given the popularity of the first comedy show at Ellena’s followed by the second upcoming sold-out show, there’s reason to believe this could be the start of something big in Napanee.
“If I didn’t grow up idolizing Ryan Malcolm and Avril Lavigne, I don’t know where I’d be,” Bawn jokes about growing up in Napanee. “It’s got so much character in it. You don’t see some of the characters and the people situations that you would see in a city. People will come down and visit from the city and they’ll see someone driving hay bales down the middle of town. And they’re like ‘what are you guys doing? What is happening here?’ It’s Napanee, that’s what you grow up with…coming in on it it’s like someone is trying to do a bit on you.”
Inspiring others to conquer their fears and get up on stage to tell a few jokes is what will keep the scene alive.
“It’s genuinely the best feeling in the world when someone comes out and has never done comedy and they come up and they’ll talk to you and ask you a few questions about it, then you’ll see them a month later doing comedy and trying it. It’s amazing,” said Bawn.
Joining Bawn for the Jan. 26 show will be veteran comedians Ange Stever and headliner Jeff Elliott, both well known on the Kingston comedy scene. On the chance more tickets may become available, there’s a waiting list at https://www.ticketscene.ca/events/43295/.
Though the Jan. 26 show is sold out, there are plans to do more at Ellena’s in the future. In the meantime Bawn will be taking part in Kingston’s Ice Cold Comedy Festival, which returns next month after a two-year hiatus. The dates and venues are expected to be announced next week.