The Edgy Existence of Courtney Gilmour

Courtney Gilmour is a gem in the crown of Canadian comedy. She’s performed at Just For Laughs, on CBC, and her podcast Rated Ex is a great time. Courtney’s a comedian I slide back into the room to watch and for good reason. She’s hilarious. Keep up with her, she’s got great things coming. 

Courtney Gilmour (Photo by Carlyle Routh)

Mike Carrozza: How long have you been doing stand-up for?

Courtney Gilmour: Officially, 8 years. My first show was 10 years ago. My first foray into stand-up was clumsily putting together a set for a fundraiser in college. From there, I realized I have a performative quality to me, which I didn’t know. I’d always been more writerly.

Most of the people who know me growing up wouldn’t have suspected I’d go into stand-up. I wasn’t a class clown or outgoing whatsoever. I would make snarky comments in the corner. But once I tried it… 

I realized I wasn’t in a city with a comedy scene. Once I’d moved to Toronto, I spent a year going to more shows than performing. This will resonate with you too - just watching people in their element is so motivating. You go home like “Okay, I’m going back out there.” Watching people master their craft is the best motivation. 

Have you always seen it as a craft?

Once I started, but before that I wasn’t a stand-up watcher. My family loves comedy. We’d watch funny movies or - we were a MadTV household!

Carrozza: Curveball!

I know It’s strange! My family seems like the type of people who’d watch SNL. It’s more clean-cut sketch whereas MadTV was wacky and explored more weirdness. We loved that. I watched Conan religiously in college.

I wasn’t a partier - very religious at the time. I would go into the party room - everyone else was out actually partying. I would watch Conan. I pulled from different influences, but I never considered stand-up until later. Once I started doing it, I started paying attention to comedy specials. I had to do my research.

MadTV and Conan. Would you consider them influences?

Oh yeah. I’ve always liked a little absurd comedy. Conan was a weirdo and a writer. Very cutting. On the spot. Sharp humour, but really innovative. Really dumb, too. Ideas like having Jesus in a Nascar. I love it!

Carrozza: When I think absurdist comics, Courtney Gilmour isn’t who comes to mind. You’re anecdotal, opinions, stories, with curveballs. Like the cab driver bits.

Those are people and influences in comedy that I respect and admire, but not necessarily duplicate in my work. I’m drawn to it. Watching Conan for years stirred something up in me to have the courage to try. The more I think about all the people I find funny and influential, none of them are styles I emulate at all. (Laughs)

I can’t think of a comedian I am more akin to who has been influential to me. I’m sure there's someone. When I think of my influences, it never seems to be people who are in line with what I actually do. Sometimes you see comics and you’re like “okay, that guy loves Mulaney.” I don’t know if I have that.

Carrozza: It’s not “Courtney Gilmour reminds me of ‘blank’”, but “That’s Courtney Gilmour”.

I love sharp writers. It’s something I’ve wanted to improve on.

What does it mean to you to be a Canadian stand-up?

Hmm. Specifically a Canadian stand-up comic. Great question I don’t have an answer to. (Laughs) I’ve never thought of my relationship to Canada. I’m very proud to be a Canadian comic. I’ve gotten to witness the astronomical level of talents that are overlooked here. I feel lucky to have been at shows that are straight fire. It’s mind blowing. You have all-star lineups of comedians at Comedy Bar in Toronto - this audience is paying $10! 

Maybe the work ethic that we Canadian comics have. Something engrained in us where we feel like we constantly need to prove ourselves to stand out with Americans, in order to meet certain benchmarks and milestones.

Carrozza: It’s not something I thought going into it. I assumed it would be the same as the podcasts I listened to! Realizing that Canadian comics have to work harder to get a fraction of the opportunity that American comics have. When Debra DiGiovanni went to the States, immediately every American comic I knew  asked “Mike, do you know Deb? She just came outta nowhere!” She didn’t come out of nowhere, she’s been a big deal out here for over a decade.

The climb is so frustrating at times. Sometimes, you’ll be on a lineup with American comics. They had more stardom than me though. I had a realization - It wasn’t one of jealousy. It was “that’s interesting, they have confidence that I should have.” I’d become used to undervaluing myself. I was in the company of touring American comics who are at their same level of career as me, feeling like I shouldn’t consider myself as one of them. I’m not at the bottom of the ladder just because I don’t have that stardom.

Carrozza: Can’t talk about what it means to be a Canadian comic without realizing that the emblematic thing we all share is the struggle with lack of recognition within an industry paying us no attention, an industry that’s created so many barriers and how the American comedy industry has cannibalized our spaces and audiences. The goal of this series is to highlight talented Canadian comedians. 

I’ve noticed Canadians have tougher skin. I’ve been on shows with Americans - very funny -  but so used to things going a certain way. In Toronto, it’s very competitive. If you’re doing a bunch of sets, you deal with it when it doesn’t go well. I’ve been on shows with Americans visiting, we’ll do a regular alt room show at a bar, they’ll bomb and have this identity crisis. “I thought I was untouchable.”

Carrozza: Americans who’ve visited Montreal for the first time, during Just For Laughs or something - it’s not the same rolling laughter here. Audiences kind of laugh and stop so you can continue. Inevitably, Americans are like “you guys are weird, you stop with a joke instead of having an aftershock." We head down to the States like “What is this, fish in a barrel? Shut up so I can do the next joke.”

Yeah!

Carrozza: I was with a Canadian comic headlining here a while back. I just got back from the States. I felt like hot stuff. I said “I feel like I crushed down there” and he said “it’s different up here. It feels like you’re running a marathon deep in mud here, but then you’re hitting pavement with audiences in the States so you’re outrunning everybody. But the mud is still laughing. It’s good mud. Appreciate the mud.”

I enjoy being part of this Canadian comedy community. There’s an interesting quality to our comedy. There’s a niche pocket of Canadian comedy only we know. We talked about Deb. I grew up watching her on Video on Trial. Sara Hennessey, Hunter Collins, Eddie Della Siepe. It wasn’t a worldwide sensation but it felt like it should be! It’s so cool to be in that realm with these people now.

Carrozza: You meet like Sarah or Eddie for the first time and you’re like “holy shit, you’re a celebrity, a household name” only to find out that they’ve had to like start over in the States because they don’t know us or our good stuff. Like if Jak Knight moves to Canada, people go “I’ve seen Big Mouth and Netflix Standups”, but we go down there and nobody’s seen Losing It, you know?

You see people get a different reception from America.

Carrozza: Performing in the States is so different. They come to see YOU perform. If they like you, they want to talk to you, they want to buy your merch, they want to support you. I had a guy offer me $15 for this tiny book I use as a prop in one of my bits! It’s strange that Americans are so eager to support financially. To us. To them it’s normal and I think it should be, too!

My podcast listenership is 15% more American than Canadian and Americans are usually the more engaged audience on social media.

How would you describe your comedy? I’m “fun silly boy” which is absurd, upbeat, naive. 

This is a loaded question to ask someone whose influences don’t reflect their comedy. (Laughs) I like yours, it’s succinct. When I started, because I’m very candid about being an amputee, people were shocked by how cavalier I am. To me, it isn’t cavalier. I have a joke about surviving an abortion. To me, that joke isn’t about abortion, it’s about an absurd visual of this baby fighting its way out like a gladiator. It’s a little dark, but it’s absurd. For a while, I was booked on lots of dark comedy shows. “XXX dark comedy!” When I talk about sex, for some reason it’s interpreted as dark because it was coming from me. People would come up to me after shows like “whoa you’re so edgy!”

Carrozza: Your existence is dark?

It’s edgy to them. It says more about their perceptions of someone like me. “Someone who doesn’t have hands or a leg doesn’t have sex, because disabled people are asexual. We’re not sexy or hot. We don’t have sex, we just exist to inspire people.” Me talking about a normal relationship and dating life was edgy.

Carrozza: So edgy!

Normcore edgy.  Mundane was translating very dark.

Carrozza: A bit of yours that came to mind - “I don’t wish I had hands, I wish none of you had hands.” It’s evocative!

Ouh, I’ll use evocative! I think people consider me a fun and optimistic person. I have a sweet and salty vibe. Sweetness delivered with some roughness.

Carrozza: You’ve got bite.

I yell a lot on stage. 

Carrozza: Yeah, you do!

(Both laugh) Yells a lot, evocative, sweet & salty. 

How do you know when there’s something missing from a Courtney Gilmour bit?

A Courtney Gilmour bit starts with something that almost isn’t even a joke. A lot of my best jokes are the ones that feel true to me. I need to be fired up. Even if it’s just a straight joke that’s not layered. I’d say 90% or more of my comedy is me just feeling an impulse of “if I don’t get this out, I’m going to die.”

Carrozza: You’re very expressive! “I’m a real hand-talker for someone who doesn’t have hands.”

Very emphatic. If I were to write a joke on paper and I don’t feel that way, that’s not my joke. I need to feel it.

Carrozza: Take a Mitch Hedberg joke - how would you turn it into a Courtney Gilmour?

I love Mitch Hedberg - I could never. Okay, that is a good kind of example. I would need to expand. He does one liners. I used to - when I started I thought I was a one-liner comic. I’m not. I would elaborate more.

Carrozza: We’ve all tried one-liners, though! It’s seen as like the tightest, cleanest a joke can be.

I like exposition afterwards. I have jokes that have curveballs at the end, but then I have to elaborate more.

What’s something about your comedy that people don’t notice immediately?

People take a sec to realize that I use my disability to be relatable rather than distance myself. I have jokes that are “I’m just like you”. Instead of “my life is so different than yours”, I’m one of you.

Carrozza: Your stories are your stories. (Context - Courtney’s Bit: Cab driver as Courtney enters cab notices she has no hands, panics and asks “Are you okay?!”)

A lot of the time, people realize THEY’VE been the cab driver before. Obviously, the takeaway is don’t do this. (Laughs) Think before you speak.

Do you ever feel pressure to immediately address your disability?

There’s a new layer to this. The pandemic has completely transformed things for me. As excited as I am to get back to live comedy, I’ve been able to explore the luxury of seven whole minutes shoulders up. Then, bust out the nubs - IF I WANT TO!

I’ve done sets not addressing it at all. It’s been liberating. On a stage, it’s right there in front of you. Immense pressure to immediately address it. Sometimes, I second guess myself. I’m at a point in my career at least in Canada where I’m starting to have more freedom in my material. Not that I don’t value that material, I just have other things to say. It’s been this amazing opportunity to play around with different openers, deciding whether or not I want to talk about it!

Carrozza: The nubs never in frame?

It’s so hard, because I’m such a hand talker. But what do I expect? People to recoil? 

Carrozza: Somebody puts up their Zoom hand emoji.

Rude, very triggering for me. (Both laugh)

I’ve been able to just be myself and talk about what I want. I’ve had jokes work when I don’t talk about being an amputee and I’m reminded “Oh yeah! I’m funny outside of this, too.” It’s really transformed things for me.

What does that mean for you?

It’s made me realize that I’ve been selling myself short. It’s one thing to have jokes about being an amputee, but I don’t get to leave the stage and stop being an amputee. It’s also my life, right? Before I started comedy, I wasn’t talking about this at all. My friends and I maybe made a joke about it every two weeks or something. I used to think, if I had an 8 minute set and wanted to try material, I’d have to spend 5 minutes talking about my disability. But I can get that out of the way in 30 seconds and move on. People aren’t as fixated as I think they have been. I’m also at the point in my career where people know me a little more. I have that luxury. I guess a weird twist of fate is thank you, COVID.

Courtney Gilmour will perform at Just For Laughs MONTREAL as part of Comedy Night In Canada which will be available to watch online on July 30. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.