Todd Allen

Comic wants it more up close
and personal

Guy MacPherson , Special to The Province
Published: Thursday, August 28, 2008

Pity the lot of the working stand-up comics. Out in the trenches
killing people with laughter from town to town, working their
way up to theatres and national television exposure. Do they
get stopped on the street? Does anyone remember their name?
Not so much.

Todd Allen knows this all too well. The 29-year-old comedian
has played the prestigious Just For Laughs comedy festival in
Montreal, had his own Comedy Now! TV special, and earlier
this year became the first Vancouver-based comic to appear on
a U.S. late night talk show when he guested on The Late Late
Show with Craig Ferguson. "I'm no different than any other
comedian in Canada trying to carve out a career," he says. "Some of my credits are pretty fancy-dancy but nobody knows who the hell I am."

He got the idea when he started experimenting with using no microphone doing his act. As subtle as that may seem, he felt he was able to better communicate with the crowd. And the idea
cemented when he saw Henry Rollins perform. "I was blown away," he recalls. "His stories are very engaging and very funny. And he's obviously trying to communicate his thoughts and feelings to an audience as opposed to just trying to get a reaction out of them like stereotypical stand-up comedy does. I still like stand-up, obviously, but I find that there's some meaning in
trying to communicate with people." It's all part of his love-hate relationship with his chosen profession. In his eight years of stand-up, he says he's quit probably 17 times. What keeps him
coming back? "It's just better than everything else, you know?"



- The Province, Vancouver