In Thru the Out Door is a Canadian comedy special, which aired on CBC Television on June 22, 1998. [1] Created by Andy Nulman and billed as "network television's first-ever all-queer, all-star sketch comedy show", the special was a sketch comedy program highlighting LGBT comedians who had performed in the Queer Comics program at the Just for Laughs festival. [2]
Comedians appearing on the special included Maggie Cassella, Jaffe Cohen, Lea DeLaria, Craig Francis, Robin Greenspan, Elvira Kurt, Bob Smith, Suzanne Westenhoefer and Jonathan Wilson. [3] Sketches included a game show where people with HIV/AIDS had to gamble their medications to get health coverage, a parody of The Honeymooners that recast the show's main characters as Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and Pablo Picasso, a "House Straighteners" service that helped LGBT people "de-gay" their homes when their parents were about to visit, and a sports bar for people who were not good at sports. [1]
The special received two Gemini Award nominations at the 14th Gemini Awards in 1999, for Best Direction in a Variety, or Performing Arts Program or Series (Michael McNamara) and Best Music in a Variety Program or Series (Carole Pope). [4]
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy troupe formed in 1984 in Calgary and Toronto, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1989 to 1995, on CBC, in Canada. It also appeared on CBS, HBO, and Comedy Central in the United States.
Just for Laughs was a comedy festival that was held every July in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1983, it was the largest international comedy festival in the world. In addition to the festivals themselves, Just for Laughs also developed, produced, and distributed other forms of comedy entertainment, such as television programming.
Jessica Holmes is a Canadian comedian and actress. She is best known for her work with the show Royal Canadian Air Farce, which she joined in 2003, after starring in her own show, The Holmes Show in 2002. She is also an advocate for mental health issues and is married to actor Scott Yaphe.
Kevin Hamilton McDonald is a Canadian actor and comedian. He is a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, who have appeared together in a number of stage, television and film productions, most notably the 1988–1995 TV series The Kids in the Hall. He played Pastor Dave in That '70s Show, and starred as a co-pilot in the 2011 web comedy series Papillon. He also does voice work in animation, most notably as Agent Wendy Pleakley in the Lilo & Stitch franchise, Waffle in Catscratch, and the Almighty Tallest Purple in Invader Zim.
Seán Cullen is a Canadian actor and stand-up comedian. He is known for combining improvisation with mimicry and music. He is known for providing voices of characters in shows like Best Ed, Seven Little Monsters, and Almost Naked Animals.
Elvira Kurt is a Canadian comedian, and was the host of the game show Spin Off. She hosted the entertainment satire/talk show PopCultured with Elvira Kurt, which began on The Comedy Network in Canada in 2005. That show's style was similar to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It was cancelled due to poor ratings in early 2006. She is of Jewish Hungarian descent. She performed a 22 minute set on toothbrush advancement and family culture on the American show Comedy Central Presents 2nd season, May 30th, 1991.
Suzanne Westenhoefer is an American out lesbian stand-up comedian. She starred as a panelist on GSN's 2006 remake of I've Got a Secret, which featured a panel of gay celebrities who had to guess the various guests' 'secrets' through a series of timed questions. Her comedy special and documentary, A Bottom on Top, aired on LOGO Television in the fall of 2007. In 2004 she was featured in the film Laughing Matters along with Kate Clinton, Marga Gomez and Karen Williams.
The Canadian Comedy Awards (CCA) is an annual ceremony that awards the Beaver for achievements in Canadian comedy in live performance, radio, film, television, and Internet media. The awards were founded and produced by Tim Progosh in 2000.
Peter James Edward Oldring is a Canadian actor and comedian.
Andy Nulman, is a Montreal-based businessman best known for his activities in co-founding and promoting the Just For Laughs comedy festival; under Nulman's stewardship, the festival grew from a two-day show to a month-long event drawing international audiences. Nulman also sold multimillion-dollar corporate sponsorships and creator and/or executive producer of more than 150 Festival TV shows, in a variety of languages, all over the world. He wrote, produced and hosted the 1997 CBC production of "The Worst of Just For Laughs," created the Gemini-award nominated gay sketch comedy show In Thru the Out Door for CBC and Showtime in 1998, and won a "Best Variety Series" Gemini Award for "The Best of Just For Laughs" in 1993.
Bob Smith was an American comedian and author. Born in Buffalo, New York, Smith was the first openly gay comedian to appear on The Tonight Show and the first openly gay comedian to have his own HBO half-hour comedy special. Smith, along with fellow comedians Jaffe Cohen and Danny McWilliams, formed the comedy troupe Funny Gay Males in 1988.
We're Funny That Way began as an annual charity comedy festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1996. Launched in 1996 by Maggie Cassella, the festival featured stand-up and sketch comedy shows by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender comedians. It ran until 2012 when it took a five-year hiatus, returning in 2017. The festival has grown to a broader performance festival and now includes musicians, story-tellers, burlesque artists, plays, drag performances, generally following the genres associated with live cabaret.
Jonathan Wilson is a Canadian actor, comedian and playwright, who is best known for his 1996 play My Own Private Oshawa. The play, a semi-autobiographical comedy about growing up gay in Oshawa, Ontario, was also optioned by Sandra Faire's SFA Productions for production as a film, which won an award at the Columbus International Film & Video Festival in 2002 until being broadcast as a television film on CTV in 2005.
The Vestibules, formerly known as Radio Free Vestibule, is a Canadian comedy troupe composed of Terence Bowman, Paul Paré, and Bernard Deniger.
Martha Chaves is a Nicaraguan-Canadian comedian, actress, activist and playwright. She performs standup in English, Spanish, French and Italian. She is a regular in the comedy circuits in Canada, the United States and Latin America, at Just for Laughs and other major festivals, and on CBC Radio.
Robby Hoffman is an American-Canadian writer, comedian, and talk show host. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she began her career as a writer and is known for her work on The Chris Gethard Show, Baroness Von Sketch Show, Workin' Moms, and Odd Squad, the latter of which won a Children's & Family Emmy Award for outstanding writing in 2019. Hoffman released her first stand-up special, I'm Nervous, in 2019. She was named one of Comedy Central's Up Next comedians in 2018, appeared on Conan O'Brien's Comics to Watch list, as well as on Vulture's The Comedians You Should and Will Know in 2020.
Humour Resources is a Canadian television comedy series, which premiered on CBC Television in January 2021. The series stars Jon Dore as a fictionalized version of himself, in the role of a retired comedian turned human resources manager who is conducting performance evaluation interviews with other real comedians about their strengths, weaknesses and performance benchmarks as "employees" of comedy. The series is also interspersed with scenes from his personal life, including his family life with his wife Christina Love, and his recurring interactions with a fast-food clerk at the local drive-thru whom he considers his only real friend.
The Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Comedy Program or Series (Individual or Ensemble) is a defunct award category, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television from 1992 to 2000 as part of its Gemini Awards program.
Jaffe Cohen is an American television writer and producer, most noted as a co-creator with Ryan Murphy and Michael Zam of the television series Feud.
Michael McNamara is a Canadian film and television director and producer from Windsor, Ontario, who was cofounder with Judy Holm of the Markham Street Films studio.