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Laughter and bagpipes at comedy night

The twelfth annual Kinsmen Comedy Night saw three comedians take the stage, Jordan Welwood, Dean Jenkinson and Johnny “Bagpipes” Johnston. Welwood was the first one to take the stage, and the emcee for the evening.

The twelfth annual Kinsmen Comedy Night saw three comedians take the stage, Jordan Welwood, Dean Jenkinson and Johnny “Bagpipes” Johnston.

Welwood was the first one to take the stage, and the emcee for the evening. Coming off of his first Just for Laughs festival, Welwood is enjoying the chance to tour around western Canada.

As the first of three, Welwood was there to warm up the crowd and get people ready for the night. While both the youngest and the first on stage, he felt as though his job was the easiest of the three.

“I have the least amount of pressure because I’m doing the least amount of time.”

Second on stage was Jenkinson, who has been doing comedy for 26 years. Jenkins splits his time writing comedy for programs such as 22 Minutes and Just for Laughs Galas, producing the Winnipeg Comedy Festival and performing.

Appreciative of the Yorkton Kinsmen and the night they put on, Jenkinson admits that before he took the stage he was a bit nervous, something he believes is natural no matter how many years someone has been performing.

“You learn early on, you see people who have been doing it for decades and decades, and are amazingly funny and get standing ovations, but nobody’s immune to a bad show, it can happen at any time. The good news is you get to the point where you’re ‘alright, it’s going to be a bad show tonight,’ you can enjoy yourself on stage and try to relax now that you know it’s going to be bad. You can just go ahead, do your best and win them over the best you can.”

Splitting his time between writing and performing, Jenkinson likes having the balance between the two.

“Writing’s harder. It’s just you with a blank screen in front of you, and it’s a lot more time consuming. I like the balance of performing live and writing for other people... I like having my free time filled up with productive work, not having idle hands, and the gratification of an audience is wonderful.”

Two of the three comedians were from Winnipeg – Welwood and Jenkinson – and Jenkinson believes that, aside from close proximity to Yorkton, it’s because of a unique aspect of the city’s comedy scene. It’s possible to get a lot of stage time and fail without anyone important seeing you.

“If you start in Toronto and somebody sees you when you’re not funny yet, that might stick in their head that you’re not funny. You can suck anonymously in Winnipeg for a while, and then when you’re good you can go and be seen by the right people.”

The final comedian of the night was Johnston, a Victoria comedian who combines stand-up comedy with “rock and roll bagpipes,” taking the instrument into areas where pipes otherwise fear to tread.

“I play rock and roll bagpipes, which got me in a lot of trouble with a lot of traditional bagpipers when I was growing up. They were ‘what the hell are you playing?’ I was playing Van Halen and stuff just by ear, because I figure there’s no limit to an instrument, and I wanted to play guitar.”

The stand-up began at 18, though Johnston admits that his early material was “lame impressions,” and he had to be encouraged to include the bagpipes in the show.

“My big opening was ‘Have you ever woke up in the morning and you’ve slept on your arm and you can’t find it, isn’t that weird?’ I threw in the bagpipes, I come in marching with the bagpipes, the crowd gets going, I put down the bagpipes, and went ‘Have you ever woke up...’ People went ‘what’s with the bagpipes?’ So I expanded it more.”

Johnston’s bagpipes have given him rare opportunities, such as playing for James Doohan as his personal piper for four nights when he received his star on the Walk of Fame.

“I’ll never forget, Neil Armstrong is standing next to me, and he goes ‘You play the bagpipes really good.’ I’m standing there, so star struck, I go ‘You landed on the moon really good.’”

Johnston admits that bagpipes can be a somber instrument, and that most people think there are two songs for the instrument – the “one in the parade” and Amazing Grace. He wants to show that there’s more to the instrument.

“I do a lot of shows for firefighters and police, and the only time they hear bagpipes is when they’re bearing a brother. They want to see bagpipes in a different light where they’re fun.”

Johnston also believes in what the Kinsmen are doing in the community. He notes that he’s a Rotarian in Victoria and has a registered charity building schools in Africa, and he sees that groups like the Kinsmen are doing valuable work, and in this case comedy is a way to help them do that work.

“Community service groups are wonderful, because they keep the money in the community.”