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Described by Ingrid Turk.
Running time is 70 minutes with no intermission.
Born in 1980, between the elections of Thatcher and Reagan, comedian Charlie Demers emerged from that reactionary era a proud socialist. How much have things improved since the 80s? The answer is as obvious as it is infuriating: not much. In this comic show, created with Marcus Youssef of Neworld Theatre, Demers is asking why. This is stand-up as storytelling tour de force: a complex and moving story about Demers and personal loss, about ideology, about the dreams of millions and why they’ve gone unfulfilled.
Sound serious? You bet it is. It’s also hilarious. Mostly. In the best tradition of political comedy, Demers uses humour as a pointed weapon, cutting through decades of bullshit into the core of malaise, and the many questions it raises. Chief among them is one we’ve all asked: why are we so accepting of the world as it is? Cursing the darkness and lighting a candle, Leftovers makes us laugh through gritted teeth while shaking our fists at the neoliberal order. It’s funny because it’s true.
Charles Demers is an author, stand-up comedian and adjunct professor of creative writing at The University of British Columbia. His collection of essays, Vancouver Special, was shortlisted for the Hubert Evans BC Book Prize for Non-Fiction. He is also the author of a novel, The Prescription Errors. His newest book (2015) is The Horrors: An A to Z of Funny Thoughts on Awful Things. He has performed for national television and radio audiences and at the Just for Laughs Festival. He is one of the most frequently returning stars of CBC Radio’s smash-hit comedy show The Debaters.
“If you’re not a socialist at 20 you have no heart, and if you’re still a socialist at 40 you have no brain.” … At 35 and still a socialist, Charles Demers regularly exercises both of those organs in his job as standup comic, prize-winning writer, regular guest on CBC’s The Debaters, and exceedingly proud dad. But he’s frosty enough to know that the traditional left is under siege in ways that he never could have imagined as a teenage member of the Communist League’s youth wing—a time he hilariously recounts in the very first chapter of his 2015 book, The Horrors—and that he’s now forced to confront in his one-man show, Leftovers.” –The Georgia Straight
“The show is … basically a hybridized stand-up comedy and one person theatrical piece about political despair in one way or another. It’s about me, a socialist born at pretty much the worst time in modern history for someone to be of that political bent.” -The Province
“The way that my mother enters the world of the piece is through her two expectations for my life,” Demers says [who was born on July 1, Canada Day] “that I would be a comedian, and I would be the prime minister of Canada.” -The WestEnder
A co-presentation with Neworld Theatre and the PuSh Festival.
This is VocalEye’s first described performance at The York Theatre.
