Before he even spoke comedian Lorne Elliott had set the atmosphere with his wild hair, energetic grin and small guitar at the Kinsmen Community Centre on April 6.
Elliott warmed up the audience with an upbeat song about road rage and being chased by the RCMP.
Entertaining a crowd of approximately 200 people Elliott introduced himself by telling hilarious stories about growing up on a farm near Montreal, mentioning that the two cows his family had were named Steak and Kidney.
His early childhood experiences included a day at school where the teacher told the class that today was the first day of the rest of their lives; to which Elliott responded, ‘that must have been why it was so impossible for me to get my homework done last night’.
Elliott connected with the audience by allowing them a look into his experiences coming to Alberta. He went on to say that he enjoyed rodeo and understood everything except for bull riding. No one in the history of humanity has ever successfully ridden a bull, he said. As soon as they’re out of the pen they’re in the dirt. They might as well just catapult them out of the pen.
He went on to say that he was told the reason that the bulls buck so hard is because the cinch around them is tightened. Why stop there, he said, and suggested that a cinch be tightened around the cowboy too.
Elliott interspersed creative songs and political humour throughout his stories and kept a good variety throughout his performance.
Elliott continued with a poem that he wrote about a Ponoka man that couldn’t rhyme and informed the audience that his pen name was B.S. Elliott.
Elliott’s performance also touched on the issues of the environment and reducing your ecological footprint. He told a story about his encounter with a man who was depressed about the rising of the oceans and thought he would cheer him up with a funny solution, ‘well...if you got rid of all the whales...”
A song about Morris the Moose, complete with a chorus sung in the moose language, was well received by the audience as well as Elliott’s song about a grandmother with a drinking problem.
Elliott’s imitations of French people and the absurdity of counting to 100 in the French language had the crowd roaring with laughter.
He kept the audience entertained with his creative wine label ideas and gardening stories with his ‘gangrene thumb.’
After the show ended the audience asked for more and Elliott took the stage again to give a rendition of the Irish folk song Danny Boy, which he decided to sing in the traditional Gaelic language that had the crowd doubled over in laughter.
Elliott enjoyed performing in front of the Ponoka audience and was pleased with the response of the crowd.
“I really like Ponoka, they were a very nice audience,” said Elliott. “They come to enjoy themselves and that’s nice to see.”
Elliott gained his high energy from the audience and had a great time entertaining Ponoka.
“I love being on stage,” he said. “I love the attention. It’s a bit nerve-wracking at times but once you get up there and get into it, then it’s great.”
Marko Jopp had seen Elliott on the popular Canadian television show Just For Laughs and was pleased to see him perform in person.
“I thought he was excellent,” Jopp said. “He’s really funny and his songs are extremely humourous. He made me laugh and was very entertaining.”
The performance was put on by the Ponoka Performing Arts Society and was a huge success.
Karen Duke president of the Ponoka Performing Arts Society was happy with the performance and enjoyed seeing the response of the audience.
“You look around the room and you see a lot of people laughing and wiping their eyes,” she said. “I thoroughly enjoyed him. I’ve seen him a couple of times and each time is entertaining.”
Lori Cook a member of the Ponoka Performing Arts Society was very amused with Elliott and happy with that the night was a success.
“It was excellent,” she said. “I loved the songs and his humour was wonderful. It was two hours of good entertainment.”
The Ponoka Performing Arts Society’s 2008 and 2009 season will include performances from entertainer, songwriter and guitarist Todd Butler, humourists and musical couple Bottomline Duo and west coast music by the Mark Atkinson Trio.
