WHO: Chris Molineux
WHERE: AlpenRock
WHEN: March 16, 9 p.m.
"I have my degree in Soviet History… it’s funny studying a country that no longer exists. I guess the joke was on me."
The time spent at the University of Victoria may not have impacted comedian Chris Molineux’s career path, but his first summer job after school certainly did. The history major found himself working maintenance on the now defunct Yuk Yuk’s Club in Victoria. After sitting in the audience for several months, Molineux made the jump to the stage at the urging of his boss.
"It was almost a pragmatic decision at the beginning. Talk about the ultimate summer or college job! You get to hang out in a bar. Chat for half an hour. Get paid a hundred bucks, free beer and everyone loves you.
"I had watched a lot of comedians and I’d bumped into a lot of people who had ended up doing pretty well for themselves, Norm MacDonald, Mike MacDonald, Brian Stiles… and after I had got me degree and had been doing (comedy) for two years, I realized I didn’t have to do anything else."
Little did he know, that he would end up sharing the stage with those names as well as the likes of Jim Carrey, Ellen DeGeneres and Jerry Seinfeld.
After years of successful touring, with stops at the world-renowned Montreal Comedy Festival, Molineux decided to take his craft just one step further.
"It was my brilliant wife. The company is totally her thing," says Molineux of Happy Face Productions. "She just said, ‘Why don’t you book comedy as well’. And I said, ‘An agent? Oh no I never could…’. But instead of travelling around and doing stand-up, it gave us the opportunity to be involved in the business and for me not to travel."
Five years, three kids and 60 acts later, Happy Face seems to have been a good decision. Molineux enjoys the control over the flourishing business while staying close to his family. Well, for the most part, anyway. Speaking while en route to Alaska, Molineux explains the business has expanded to include workshops on public speaking and comedy.
"I work with corporations, teaching their staff how to use humour to make the workplace more communicative, more creative. Especially in e-commerce, one of the big things is whether people are happy where they work, as opposed to how they’re getting paid. It’s more a matter of ‘Am I going to be able to hold on to these people for 18 months? Eighteen years would be even better!’ So (humour) can be a valuable tool."
Molineux also offers workshops to the general public and school classes on the value of humour for public speaking. His greatest task though: stand-up comedy classes. How do you teach someone to be funny?
"You open up their head, scoop out their brains, see what they’re all about, and see which direction they’re funny in. Everyone’s got their own sense of humour. It’s more like psychoanalysis, which is odd ’cause my dad’s a psychiatrist. I put them on stage and get them to speak about themselves first in a slightly amusing way. There’s the route. Then you ask what they perceive comedy to be and go from there. You can’t just give out a sheet that says if you follow all these instructions, you’re gonna be a comedian. It doesn’t work that way.
"Everyone is different so the classes have to be small. I usually deal with half a dozen people."
Classes are based out of Vancouver but also conducted across North America. Whistler local, George O’Brien, is one of Molineux’s past students.
"It was a small course, very one on one. It was basically us writing up acts and getting tutored on our comedic abilities. We were offered friendly constructive criticism… Chris was just a lot of fun," says O’Brien.
"It’s not (easy to be funny). It’s kinda scary actually. But Chris warms you up. He got to know us on a personal basis."
The 24 year old hopes to find himself doing stand up in the not too distant future and says Molineux has been particularly supportive of his efforts. O’Brien is working on the script for his act, and even though the workshop is complete, Molineux is still critiquing O’Brien’s work.
"I’ve even hitchhiked down to Vancouver and he’d let me crash at his house because I didn’t have anywhere to stay."
And O’Brien says honing his skills in the comedy class is proving valuable in everyday situations.
"I work in a coffee shop, and it helps me entertain the customers and get more tips. It also helps get me out of sticky situations in that I’ve learned how to be a little more suave instead of sarcastic."
Molineux says his own funny bone seems to change as he grows. However, one thing that stays consistent is his ability to find the silver lining on less-than-funny current events.
"For example, the space program. People think ‘Oh it’s just throwing money away’. But I say, hey, it’s military money though. So instead of them making missiles, they’re sinking money into rocketing military people away from the planet at thousands of miles an hour."
Molineux also speaks in high schools on behalf of Ad Busters Magazine, a group responsible for using the medium of advertising to shoot down other ads. Some will recall the alcohol spoof resembling the Absolut Vodka ads, featuring a wilting bottle with the slogan "Absolut Impotence".
"If you can approach heavy topics with entertainment and with spin, it makes it far more digestible for teens. You can’t tell teens money is bad and consumerism is bad. They hate being told what to do. Whereas, if you can go in and be an entertaining person to begin with, it’s great. And you know, the coolest thing really is the family, that’s what it all revolves around."
