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Articles

Volume 20, Number 2 (1995)

Carnivalesque Comedians

  • Marta Dvorak
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1995-06-06

Abstract

Auto-performance, scripted or non-scripted, has characterized much Canadian performance in the last decade, especially in alternate venues. Comic monologuists like Karen Hines, Sandra Shamas, and Brigitte Gill explore the humour of the body, low humour, the "life of the belly" (Bakhtin's term), the humour of the carnival. The comedians infringe on taboos and follow the carnival tradition of using words and gestures unfettered by decorum. The laughter invoked is both festive and ambivalent, a fusion of identification and self-mockery.