Two Canadian comedians are promising a million laughs when Middle Raged returns to the Roxy on Friday.
The sketch comedy show is the brainchild of Geri Hall and Gary Pearson, who are the creators and stars of the show, which will be presented similarly to Second City or Saturday Night Live.
Both Hall and Pearson have made careers of writing comedy for television.
Hall, who hails from Oakville, appeared on This Hour Has 22 Minutes from 2004-2011, as well as appearing on The Ron James Show and The Rick Mercer Report.
Pearson, meanwhile, also wrote for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, as well as Corner Gas and Mad TV.
Although they’ve both worked in television, they say that being on stage is their favourite.
“Stage work gives the performer an instant response. There’s nothing that beats the feeling of saying a joke, floating it out into the rafters, and then having that wave of laughter hit you back,” says Hall, adding with a chuckle “Actors are very frail creatures, so we need constant approval.”
The inspiration for Middle Raged came from a very real place — when Hall was telling Pearson about the experience of her and her husband trying to complete their wills after welcoming twins.
“We thought we’d get one of those kits from Chapters, and we’d have it done and be off to the movies before seven o’clock,” she recalls. “An hour later, I was weeping, he was halfway through a bottle of wine. We were crying about all of the horrible possibilities of how we might leave this world. And I told Gary this story and he burst out laughing, and said ‘I’m going to go home and write this out as a sketch.’ Sure enough, the very next day he emailed me the first sketch of what would become Middle Raged, which is about a couple just trying to bang out their will kits so they can get on with a date night at Kelsey’s.”
When the original idea was starting to come to fruition, Hall was also dealing with the reality of being a parent — tired, stressed, and trying to dress a new body after giving birth to her children, and they built on common experiences to craft their 90-minute show.
They also say they’ve been fortunate to get the response they’ve gotten from every audience they’ve performed for.
Pearson, who is originally from the municipality of Lakeshore, Ontario says that one of the most gratifying things is being able to make people across Ontario and across Canada laugh together about the common experience of becoming middle-aged as the revue tackles topics common to everyone between the ages of 30 and 65.
“That’s one thing we were worried about a little bit. The themes are so universal that we’ve done this show in places like Sioux Lookout and Red Lake, we’ve done it in St John’s, Newfoundland, and Creston, BC, and people are the same wherever you go, which is kind of encouraging in a way. It makes me feel good that we’re hitting on those universal themes. People are just people even if they have different geographic situations and they all relate to it.”
Hall also says that with their shared experience of working on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, they found that being able to make fun of yourself in a lighthearted way is also what makes their work appealing. “Being able to make fun of yourself is such a huge part of the Canadian identity. And as Gary and I have toured this show, a show that’s very self-deprecating but in a universal way and people laugh with us. It’s that reminder that we’re all so very similar.”
Middle Raged graced the Roxy stage last year, and the pair say it was one of their favourite shows to perform, and they’re happy that another crowd of people is buying tickets to see them.
Hall has also wrapped filming a workplace comedy for the CBC called One More Time which will debut in January 2024.
Middle Raged will be on the Roxy stage on Friday, September 29th at 8 p.m.