The Human Condition Comedy Tour brings laughs for Charity
By Troy Hasselman, January 31 2020 —
In March, three comedians are taking off on a stand-up tour of the prairies to benefit local charities from each city they will be stopping in, including the Hospitals of Regina Foundation, the Brandon Humane Society and the Airdrie Food Bank amongst others. This will be the second edition of the Human Condition Comedy Tour, which includes comedians Scott Porteous, Scott Belford and Andy Mac. The inaugural tour took place this past Autumn to great success with over $4,500 raised throughout the tour.
“I considered an idea for a tour involving charities and it worked out,” Scott Porteous says. “It’s just me being selfish in the most selfless way. I love to travel and perform and if I can help out in the meantime — awesome. We’re not trying to get rich, we’re just trying to be able to do what we do and love what we do and not go broke. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while and we’re really excited to pull this off.”
The name of the Human Condition Comedy Tour gets at the themes of what the three comedians are looking to do with the tour. It comes from the human condition we all share, despite the firm differences between people and their backgrounds.
“It’s the Human Condition Comedy tour, or THC tour, only by coincidence,” Porteous says. “It’s a standout name. There are a lot of tours that are raising money for a great cause but I don’t think there are any tours that involve multiple charities. With the name itself, I like the side of a connection. With the idea of the human condition, regardless of someone’s beliefs, there’s certain things that bring them together as people. Regardless of if someone’s together or if they don’t agree in certain situations there’s always something that bonds them together.”
On Feb. 26, there will be a fundraiser show at Calgary’s Yuk Yuk’s comedy club, with all three comedians from the tour participating.
“We will be doing a fundraiser of sorts to help cover all travelling expenses such as gas, food and accommodations,” Porteous says. “Yuk Yuk’s were kind enough to let us do the show there. We have the very funny Scott Belford headlining the show. All proceeds will help us fund the tour. We’re not sponsored, we’re totally independent so everything is on our dollar. Everything we can acquire to do what we do would be incredibly helpful.”
The three comedians all have different styles and sources of their material, which Porteous says adds to the appeal of the tour and the comedians featured.
“We try to have different styles to contrast and cater to different people,” Porteous says. “If I’m not for one crowd then another one would like me. We have Scott Belford who has been doing it for a while. I consider him Canada’s funniest sweetheart, he’s very endearing. He has a lot of jokes about nostalgia and growing up, stuff like that. It’s hard not to like him. As for Adam Mac, he’s new to the scene but he’s one of Red Deer’s fastest rising comics and a very funny gentleman. He recently became a Dad so he has a lot of material on the concerns of fatherhood and what to do and not to do which I’m sure a lot of people can relate to. Then there’s me who’s had a lot of failures and I try to put a positive and funny spin on it. There’s a lot of one-liners, I just try to blend my life with a bit of corniness if you will, I’m very punny. It’s a different rhythm for everyone. If one person doesn’t appeal to you, I can guarantee two of them will.”
Tickets for the fundraising show at Yuk-Yuks are available at the Yuk Yuks box office and will be available soon through the events’ page on Facebook. More information about the tour can be found on its Facebook page.
