Tim Nutt's long-running comedy career has a (tenuous, but real) Whistler connection.
Decades ago, Nutt was living in Vancouver working in the kitchen of a Japanese restaurant when he fell down the stairs and hurt his back.
"I fractured my spine in two places," he says, over the phone from New Brunswick, minutes before taking the stage at a festival. "There was no spinal cord damage, but it was very painful."
As a result of the injury, he had nine months of workers' compensation to recover during which he couldn't lift heavy items in the kitchen.
Now, here comes the Whistler connection.
During that time, his childhood friend, Tammy Tanner, who now calls Whistler home, decided to sign him up for an amateur stand-up comedy night. "I was the life-of-the-party, kitchen-yapper at shindigs. Tammy said, 'You should do this.' She signed me up for amateur night and it went OK—well enough to try again," he says.
By the time he was ready to return to work, Nutt was already finding some success in stand-up. "I did well enough in that nine months to figure it was something I wanted to pursue," he says.
Since then, he's made appearances on Just for Laughs, Comedy Now, and CBC's The Debaters—alongside travelling the world over to perform.
His talent has been tapping into daily irritants we all feel—and magnifying them. "I get upset about fairly mundane things people can relate to a little bit," he says.
One example? In one bit, he rails against how social media has given everyone a platform to share their opinions—maybe when it's not necessary or deserved.
"My philosophy was, 'I thought this was funny and I'm sharing it with people,'" he adds. "I've been lucky people relate."
After a stint in Toronto, Nutt now lives with his family in Kelowna, which has offered a much more peaceful way of life—and new comedy inspiration.
"Living somewhere that's not Toronto is terrific," he says. "It never felt like home ... We moved to get away from traffic and nonsense. It's a better place."
As a result, his jokes now focus more on "the idea of bringing a little bit more peace and calm to things," he says. "[I'm] trying to find things people are riled up about and going, 'It's not that bad.' It's what I'm working on now; being incrementally better."
Perhaps part of that laidback persona has to do with spending time on his home mountain of Big White. "I'm a skier," he says. "This is part of the scheme to get up to Whistler."
When Tanner recently encouraged him to come visit Whistler and ski the resort, he was keen—but only if he could also perform.
"I said, 'I can't come up for free, so let's do a show," he says.
To that end, Nutt will be performing at the Maury Young Arts Centre on Thursday, Feb. 20 with doors at 6 p.m. and the show at 7 p.m. Comedian Stuart Jones, also from Kelowna, will open up the show.
"I'm excited," Nutt says. "I'm looking forward to this."
Tickets for the show are $25. Get them at showpass.com/tim-nutt-whistler/.
