Steve Patterson prepares to host The Debaters Live on Tour Holiday Special
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2019 19:00:55 +0000
When: Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Abbotsford Arts Centre, 2329 Crescent Wy.
Tickets and info: From $45 at ticketmaster.ca
The concept behind The Debaters is deceptively simple. Take a pair of comics, give them a topic such as “conditioning shampoo doesn’t do either” to debate and set them loose. Created by actor Richard Side and broadcast weekly on CBC Radio One since 2006, each show features the incredibly catchy theme song, comic Steve Patterson’s puns and a pair of debates. Since 2011, it also airs on CBC-TV.
Recorded across the country in front of live audiences, each season of the show has 33 episodes and almost all are winners. Broadcast on Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. and Wednesdays at 11:30 a.m., The Debaters has become a Canadian comedy staple.
Part of the credit for the show’s success lies with its host, Patterson, who keeps the jokes flying and the punning painful. As well as the regular broadcast productions, The Debaters has embarked on cross-Canada theatre tours. This year, The Debaters hits the road for its inaugural holiday special tour. Featuring “comic all-stars” Graham Chittenden (Brantford, Ont.) and Canadian-American DeAnne Smith (Endicott, N.Y.), the event isn’t being recorded for CBC. Nor is the broadcaster involved in the tour.
“When we tape for CBC, we have 12 comics who come for every taping that we do and the theatres generally purchase the taping for the night and the CBC pays to bring the talent in,” said Patterson. “Economies of scale dictate you can’t take that on the road, so this Debaters Live is a hybrid where we take two of our most highly requested comics who know the format really well and each night they each do a standup set and two debates. I do a standup set as well.”
He notes that one thing you don’t get to hear on The Debaters’ broadcast is any of the standup that most of the guests on the program perform. Canada being the size it is, Patterson notes that many of those who debate on the program are often people who don’t get around the circuit that often. The Debaters gives the rest of the country a chance to appreciate both regional humour, and the show exposes new talent. This tour presents two performers who are top-tier international acts.
“I like that we’ve asked them to do new holiday-themed sets and we’ll do holiday-themed debates, which is a little different,” said Patterson. “But I like that audiences get to see more of the comedy, still do the debates and also do my own standup, which people don’t get too often.”
Unlike his MCing the debates, Patterson’s brand of standup is more cerebral and less zany. His signature puns hosting the debates are nowhere to be found in his own act either.
“I actually fought the pun thing pretty hard at the start, but the writing team really wanted to test it out,” he said. “We really do labour over those things, as I’ve learned that a pun can’t be half-bad. It has to be so bad, that it goes full circle and becomes good again. Nothing less will do.”
There have been some great debates and some truly ridiculous topics. Two award-winners were the Monotheism versus Polytheism with Ron Sparks and Sean Cullen, which won a 2010 Canadian Comedy Award for best program or clip. And the William Shatner is Canada’s Greatest Actor episode with Cullen and Eric Peterson, which scored the same award in 2015. The Shatner episode is one of the only double-length debates, because talking the merits of TJ Hooker vs. Captain Kirk vs. Denny Crane takes time.
One of the funniest recent episodes had Albertan Peter Brown and Quebecer Derek Seguin debating “Alberta should secede from the rest of Canada.”
“People still ask if the comics get the topics in advance, which amazes me,” said Patterson. “Who could come up with material that organized on a moment’s notice? Still, they do go up and present it in front of a live audience with no rehearsal and, although you wouldn’t know it from any of the recent political debates, there is only so much preparing you can do for what direction it’s going to go.”
Hosting The Debaters has translated into a lot of other hosting for Patterson. He admits that he finds himself writing material to go along with hosting gigs more than for performing standup sets and these are very different creatures, creatively speaking. He doesn’t get to do individual standup sets as often as he would like.
“That said, I am fully aware that I have the one gig in Canada where I get to travel and share the stage with guaranteed funny people and packed houses,” he said. “Nobody wants to be on the road with a comic who is a dud offstage or one that is on constantly all the time, you strike a happy medium and it makes for a very enjoyable work experience. Graham, DeAnne and I know each other well and get along, so this is going to be fun for us too.”
All of which translates into a night of laughs, raucous debates and holiday cheering and jeering. Visit debaterslive.com for tour dates and information.