By Dan Lalande
“I want to democratize comedy,” declares Pierre Brault. “Comedians are sometimes perceived as breathing rarified air. But the truth is, everyone can do it because everyone has a sense of humour.”
Putting paid to this contention, 10 years ago, Pierre, along with life partner Jamine Ackert, put together a six-week course aimed at converting everyone from idle teens to restless retirees into master monologists. Pierre’s intensive was, like a well-prepared comic, an instant hit. Over 500 participants and counting have either crossed this long-held fantasy off their bucket lists or gone on to log hundreds of ancillary performances.
Pierre’s own comic instinct took root in his native Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec, after noting his dad’s unabashed appreciation for George Carlin’s iconic Class Clown LP. “I saw the reaction of my father,” he recounts, “and thought to myself, ‘Wow! That is power!”
The 63-year-old promptly appropriated said power to counter jibes about the rare skin disorder that still gives him trouble. It’s one of the many lessons he teaches in his classes, often populated by people with challenges of all kinds. “Think about the things you’re dying to talk about or reveal,” he encourages them. “Here, you can say it—as long as it’s funny.”
Pierre and Jamine teach the rudiments of the practice, from cultivating an authentic persona (“the audience wants to see your unfiltered self,” he advises) to developing original material (a tight six minutes, he insists; a dozen jokes at :30 each). Unlike similar courses, Pierre’s takes place in an actual comedy club, through an arrangement with Ottawa’s Absolute Comedy. There, aspirants can familiarize themselves with the stage, the lights and other tools of the trade.
Once they’re ready, Brault’s students are showcased in front of a live audience on a night devoted to them. Usually, it’s a packed house, stocked with family and friends. It’s an extension of the supportive environment already encouraged by Pierre, who, in his early days, suffered the ignominies of Canada’s burgeoning stand-up scene.
Upon graduating from Sir John Abbott College’s theatre program in the early ‘80s, he headed to Toronto. After a failed initiation into comedy, he settled into a job making in-house demonstration videos for Pizza Pizza. Transferred to Ottawa, he made inroads as an actor. Inspired, he decided to try stand-up a second time. It clicked. Today, the Pierre balances life between critically acclaimed one-man shows, appearances on the comedy circuit and playing elder comic statesman.
Asked if he can make anybody funny, he responds, “It’s like singing. Everyone can sing, though not everyone can sing well. But if you spend six weeks with a singing coach, in the end, you’ll definitely sing a lot better.”
What his students usually end up singing is Pierre’s Brault praises, particularly after they come off stage having inspired the kind of laughter Pierre first heard coming out of his father.
Get details about Pierre Brault’s stand-up comedy course at pierrebrault.com.
