Edmonton

Last week I trundled off to Edmonton for a handful of shows. I like going there. It’s a city that generally gets a bit of a bad rap. The hated Oilers exist there, and that’s definitely a knock against them, but the city seems to have a sense of humility, and a pretty great sense of humour. (If not a pithy understanding of irony.) Truthfully, I feel almost at home there.

Rexall - Home of The Hated Oilers

Edmonton and Calgary are as close to Cain and Able as two cities can be. Calgary has the brains, Edmonton the brawn. Together they are the titans that rule western Canada.  While there is certainly a rivalry, they appear to have reached a Mexican standoff. In truth, they need each other, partially in a yin and yong fashion, and partly because they fuel each other’s civic neurosis.

The folks I know in Edmonton are truly fantastic people. Some of my longest held and most cherished relationships are with Edmontonians. I think if you live in Alberta’s capital city, you’re generally made from the salt of the earth. Coming from Newfoundland, I think I just sort of “get them”. I like the no bullshit mentality, and Edmonton has that in spades.

While Calgary emboldens a real “can be done” attitude, Edmonton has historically shown its moxie in a more metered approach. Edmontonians are much better at “should it be done?” There is no sense of paralysis here, just a willingness to provide sobriety to decision making processes. (With perhaps the exception of that new hockey edifice…)

The typical comedy audience in Edmonton, can be a little on the rowdy side. I like that a lot. Rowdy is my group of people. I know how to conduct them. Getting a big rowdy group whipped into a percolating frenzy is just about the most fun I can think of. I want to shake the walls, and Edmonton never lets me down. I feel like Samson in that town.

The Comedy club is located in a casino in a rougher part of the city. I find that lends well to the rowdiness, although, I find it a curious trend that casinos are cropping up in rougher neighborhoods. I would hate to think it’s by design. Seems like a cynical way to vacuum cash from the pockets from people who likely need it most.

As far as cities go, it’s a clumsily constructed, often meandering mess; as if someone just kind of heaved it into being. Edmonton seems to have evolved (perhaps mutated) rather than been planned. It can be maddening to try and navigate. Triangle intersections, weirdly dangerous traffic circles, and a seemingly almost bigoted aversion to left turns leave me cursing at every visit.

But I digress…

I had sometime to kill before knuckling in to some jokes, so I decided to head to K-Days, and happily waste the afternoon on Edmonton’s answer to Stampede. I discovered Its a much smaller affair, less of the nauseating food, and significantly fewer of the equally nauseating “over the top” trappings it’s southern cousin insists on revelling in.

Me - Tweeting to the masses while waiting for a lunch companion at K-Days

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of local businesses participating in K-Days. It’s a refreshing change. It gave the event a community festival feel. I liked that a lot. I have always preferred spending my money locally. I like knowing it goes into the pockets of real people.  I like my capitalism homespun, and not rigged into filling the coffers of some shady multinational monolith.

At the end of the day though, it’s still a giant carnival, complete with shifty games of chance, and even shiftier carnies. It’s funny how we’ll pay money to knowingly get fucked over.

I got there just as the gates opened. It's weird seeing a near vacant midway.

Sure there was a stabbing or two, but that’s hardly an Edmonton thing.

These days, you can’t have a mass social gathering without the odd random act of violence. (Which is a sad comment, best left for another post I suppose…)           

Midway goodies