Ann Pornel Wants To Know Why You’re Doing This

Ann Pornel is a Canadian comedy powerhouse with a heart of gold and unparalleled style. As she ventures into hosting The Great Canadian Baking Show amidst a pandemic, she’s been taking stock of her career, and how she’s approaching performing and comedy.

Ann Pornel. Photo by LV Imagery

What keeps you motivated?

Being a TV host that has a face and body like me hasn’t been seen before, certainly not in Canada. Things like that keep me going, because I didn’t have that when I was growing up. I want to do that for someone else or give someone else the opportunity to do something else that I couldn’t do. 

We also live in a world where everyone’s minds seem to keep getting closed and smaller and smaller, and I want to open that up. Because I see how good it can be when things are inclusive, and people feel worthy. I have a lot of love and I want to give that back. I’ll do it through whatever it is I’m trying to do, and that’s what it is in terms of always re-evaluating. In comedy, we constantly have to re-evaluate what it is we’re doing. Comedy is a hard and unforgiving industry. As opportunities are also harder to come by, you really have to figure out why you’re doing comedy.

I used to write all the time, but I don’t do that so much anymore because I don’t like it. It was one of those things I had to do to maintain work. Unfortunately, in Canada, you kind of have to be good at a lot of different things so that you keep getting hired, and then maybe something will allow you to do what you really want to do. But I kind of got to this point during the pandemic where writing doesn’t make me happy. So, I started to say no to writing jobs, and I got Great Canadian Baking Show. 

What went into developing your comedic voice?

It goes back to what am I doing this for; I want to spread love and to let people know they can be included. My voice came out of my want to normalize bigger bodies came, normalizing women of colour, normalizing Asian women not being the quiet, docile, submissive stereotypes we are often portrayed as in the media. The less I saw of myself, the more I knew I deserved to be there. I want people to know there is a need for you, especially if you are marginalized.

What’s the best piece of advice that you have?

You are owed nothing. The more we internalize nothing is ever going to come to us in the ways we thought, the more we fun can have. Or at least not feel so crushed when we get so rejected, because it’s a daily feeling in this industry. That’s a hard pill to swallow but taking it enough times and you get used to it. 

That’s why you have to ask yourself why you’re doing this. Because if you’re doing it for any other reason than for yourself, you’re going to be so disappointed. If you’re happy with what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, then you’ve already won, and you haven’t failed. I was a Sketcherson, and no one talks about it. Any time I traveled and told someone I worked at The Second City, no one cared about 'Second City.' Both these things were and are so important to me, but to people outside of the industry, it means nothing. Nobody cares about anything anyone does except the people doing it. We can’t take it seriously or be precious. If we do, then we’re miserable. My god, our jobs are hard enough, and don’t make it harder by being a miserable person.

The Great Canadian Baking Show airs Sundays on CBC Television.
Watch it here.