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Shane Ogden's 1st Radio Interview: April 21st/06 / Saint John, New Brunswick Announcer: The Saint John Comedy Festival ahh, has attracted all kinds of big name funny people... one local boy is in the group... Shane Ogden comes from Grand Bay/Westfield.. he's been criss cross..criss crossing the country excuse me doing stand up comedy on the Yuk Yuk's circuit for the last seven years and he joins us now.. Hi Shane.. Shane: Hi how ya doin'? Announcer: Not too bad how are you? Shane: This is my first time on the radio.. I just want to say I love the radio.. I've always listened to the radio, and I'm so happy to be sharing this moment with you, Steve. Announcer: So how does a guy from Grand Bay/Westfield end up on the Yuk Yuk's circuit? Shane: Well basically you grow up in Grand Bay/Westfield and you get as far away as possible from that area... and ahh you start to try to make people laugh, you know you start on the street corners, and eventually you get in front of people with a microphone and sometimes, ahh, you end up making them laugh, and you record that in your brain, in your mind, and you then you try to do that more... and that will take you across the country if you do it long enough and you don't give up. Announcer: What made you want to do it? Shane: Saturday Night Live, ahh, I dunno, my teachers, you know, my parents, just, I've always loved making people laugh, I've always appreciated.. ahhh, people digging what I say. So I've always been craving that attention and that ahh, led me into doing standup. Announcer: You've gotta kind of be driven for it though, right? Because obviously it's not easy, obviously you're going to fail alot, when it happens early on you're not going to have good nights..how do you get through that? Shane: Yeah, well like, all the comics will tell you, you know, you gotta eat it..before you're going to be good. I remember my very first show, it was eleven minutes of pure hell... it was just, it was so quiet you could actually hear a guy in the back row sniff. Like it (sniff) and it was like... drinks clanging together...and like.. the headliners were like pacing back and forth looking at their watch like "oh my god when is this kid gonna die". I mean, not even die in the sense that I didn't make people laugh, but actually when is he going to die? So ahh yeah but you keep going at it and you just keep getting back up, you get back on the horse, you try again and again, you try harder, you try things in a different way, always try it in a different way 'cause you can't try the same thing and expect a different result. So that's been ahh, a big part of it, is resiliance, for sure. Announcer: How tough is it to convince your family that, that what you're doing is a real job? Shane: Umm, at first, because there's no money, umm, it's very hard to convince them... but once you're a part of ahh programs like cbc's information morning... they start to realize that this is the real deal.. you know they start to go "wow.. maybe he's, kid's got something here, you know, so we should support him." Announcer: So you came back for the festival, you're back to your home town, this is your first festival, or....? Shane: This is my very first comedy festival, and I'm so happy to be doing it with Wayne Flemming, Andrew Grose and Kenny Robinson. Announcer: What was it like to be on stage last night? Shane: It was amazing... I.. ahh.. I didn't know what a theatre was really like until I hit the imperial because there, there are lions and gothic things that you don't expect when you look up you feel like you're in some kind of old vampire movie... and, ahh, it's unbelievable being in a theatre and, and it's just so much different than, ahh, being in college campuses, and umm, the shows that I'm used to. Announcer: And you, you know, you're doing a show with a heck of alot of headliners. Shane: Oh, yeah, this is intimidating, man... it's like the last supper and I'm the guy at the very end of the painting with his arm sticking in, like, who is that guy? He's passing the wine, but I can't see him... you know like.. (laughs).. and I'm like, ohh, great, I'm with Andrew Grose and Wayne Flemming.. that's normal... no. It's ahh, yeah, it's playing with the big boys, for sure... you know... but they've been really good to me, and, ahh, they've allowed me to sort of step in and, and do my time, and, and be there, so it's been great. Announcer: They go easy on you a little bit. Shane: No. Actually they're very hard on me, but, ahh, I deserve it, and they want me to pay my dues, so it's alot of fun. Announcer: And, ahh, you managed to partake of the pizza and the beer that was in the green room last night I hope? Shane: No. I never drink alcohol and I want to say to anybody that does...ahh... you know, there are support programs and friends out there if you have a drinking problem please, please, ahh, get, get, get some attention, get some help. We don't, we don't need to drink to be funny, eh? I guess that's a big rumour. Not all comedians, not all comedians drink and get high. That's not true. That's not true. Ok.. I lied... it's completely true.. we all have to drink and get high to be funny, it's absolutely true... I wanna ki-bosh the rumour. \Announcer: (Awkwardly laughs) You, you, you have a few people to say hello to I understand? Shane: I do, I'd like to say a special hello to my art teacher that's in the room right now, Mrs. Underwood, thank you very much... I hope my dragon painting satisfied you.. I'd also like to say, ahh, I'd also like to say hello to my little son Casey, he's 4 today, so that's wicked, he had a Sponge Bob birthday cake yesterday, and hello to Mrs. Foote, I'm going to marry your daughter. Alright. That's it I'm done. Announcer: So Shane, you're going to be in the bar shows throughout the weekend? Shane: Uhh, yes, I will be the show opposite the trailer park boys, so I will be entertaining all the people that couldn't quite get to see the good show. Ahh, you can come to my show... ahh, which of course I'll be opening up for Wayne Flemming at the ahh, Saint John Ale House.. so I have the sweet spot of the festival. It's gonna be great. Announcer: Great, thanks so much Shane for coming in. Shane: Thank you very much. Announcer: Shane Ogden is a stand up comedian who, ahh, hales from Grand Bay/Westfield.
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