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Brownstein: Satirist Roy Wood Jr. will win hearts at Just for Laughs

Brownstein: Satirist Roy Wood Jr. will win hearts at Just for Laughs

Festivals
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Roy Wood Jr. should touch all the bases when he hits Just for Laughs — both literally and figuratively.
One of the sharpest satirists on the continent, the former Daily show correspondent and host of CNN's Have I Got News for You news-panel series is equally adept at discoursing on American political buffoonery as he is on baseball. Audiences may even catch him sporting his beloved Expos jacket when he takes to the stage hosting a Gala, July 25 at Théâtre Maisonneuve, or when he does his solo 'experimental talk-show,' Today, Tonight … Tomorrow, July 26 at Théâtre Ste-Catherine.
Though a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, Wood can feel our city's collective pain on the loss of the 'Spos. He makes his living taking shots at the powers-that-be, but baseball remains his holy ground, and little is more sacred to him than the power of a home run as exemplified in his new TV special, Going, Going, Gone: The Magic of the Home Run, now streaming on Roku.
Wood was in suburban Atlanta on Tuesday, both taking in the baseball All-Star Game in suburban Atlanta and commenting on the pure poetry of hitting dingers for the MLB Network. As always, Wood, who played some high-school and college ball, took his glove to the game — just in case.
'I love that old-school Expos logo and I'm also a big Andre Dawson fan,' says Wood in a Zoom interview, referring to the star outfielder known here as the Hawk, who spent most of his career with the Expos and Cubs.
Wood, like many an up-and-coming comic, got his start in the JFL New Faces series in 2006 and came back a decade later to perform in another show. But this is the first time he'll do the fest as a solo artist.
'I felt that an Expos jacket as a non-Canadian would be the safest thing to wear,' he cracks, noting he purchased the jacket in — yikes — Toronto on a JFL tour — that didn't come to Montreal — two years ago.
As a non-Canadian, he is also up to speed on the angst his president is imposing on Canadians with his ever-volatile trade tariffs.
'It's definitely a time now when as an American you're paying the price for someone else's policy,' he says, before jumping in with this chestnut: 'I just almost want that our voting results be made public so I could just go through Customs in the I-Didn't-Vote-for-Him Lane.'
'Regardless of what's happening on the federal level, Americans still have to pay close attention to state and local politics — when you look at the flash flooding that's happening in Texas that's taken over 100 lives. And when it's time to figure out who to blame, it's state and local … But I'm thankful to get up to Canada and argue with you guys about your politics,' he quips.
Anything to get his mind off the current state of affairs back home.
'It's almost surreal what's happening now. You've got one group of Americans who are basically still celebrating the (Trump) win, but still can't really tell you what they won. There's another group of Americans still fighting it. And then there is a third group who are in their own Dystopian let-me-know-when-this-is-over type situation. It's like a roller-coaster … you've got people up front with their heads down and their eyes closed, and you've got people in the back hanging on for dear life.
'People who love Trump still love him, but we will still need more time on blowback of some of his policies. It will be interesting to see what happens with his cuts on Medicaid in the next couple of years, with his spending-bill cuts. I'm not calling it 'a Big Beautiful Bill.' That's part of the problem: Americans want to give everything a title to make everything more glorious than what it is. … Stop it.
'It used to be kick-ass to be an American … now you just have to tuck your head down and go whoops and say 'sorry about that.''
The good news is American political parodists have an abundance of fodder, and Wood's career has been going gangbusters of late.
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that with his carving skills, Wood headlined the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2023 — under Biden as president — to its highest ratings since 2017. He also served as a Daily Show correspondent for eight years and later guest-hosted it for a period.
Apart from his baseball special, he appears in the coming film comedy Outcome, alongside Keanu Reeves and Jonah Hill. And his book memoir, The Man of Many Fathers, will be released in October.
'That book is about all the dads who helped raise me after my father passed when I was 16,' elaborates Wood, the father of a 9-year-old son. 'We all encounter various people from whom we get our values. I don't feel our parents are exclusive instructors of a child's moral core. This is a collection of stories of random people, some of whom I can't even remember their names, and others like high-school coaches and Trevor Noah, all of whom helped me in one capacity or another. I'm just thankful to all these people who saw enough in me to take me under their wing.
'And I just want my son to learn and appreciate failure, because that is the key to success.'
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Canada-Mexico arrangement perfect fit for Pony Corral musician José 'Pepê' Cortes
Canada-Mexico arrangement perfect fit for Pony Corral musician José 'Pepê' Cortes

Winnipeg Free Press

time3 hours ago

  • Winnipeg Free Press

Canada-Mexico arrangement perfect fit for Pony Corral musician José 'Pepê' Cortes

'I usually do this one later on in the night but since I just had a request for it, here we go, off to Mexico!' It's Saturday evening at the Pony Corral Restaurant & Bar on Pembina Highway. Entertainer José 'Pepê' Cortes launches into a rollicking version of La Bamba, diners on the eatery's spacious riverside patio put down their forks and knives to clap along to the Ritchie Valens hit, which Cortes performs on guitar with the assistance of a pre-recorded backing track. Given his high-spirited delivery, one would never guess that Cortes, a summertime fixture at the Fort Garry hotspot since the mid-2000s, has sung the crowd-pleaser 'oh, about a million times,' over the years. Jose (Pepe) Cortes, who is a one-man show, performs on the riverside patio at the Pony Corral Restaurant & Bar three nights a week. 'The thing I try to remind myself is that there's always going to be somebody here for the first time who has never heard me do La Bamba, which, I suppose because I'm from Mexico, people kind of expect,' Cortes remarks later, during a break between sets. That's fine with him, he continues. His job, he feels, is to make guests forget about whatever might be troubling them, if only for an hour or two. So when he spots somebody beaming and raising their glass during La Bamba or Besamé Mucho, another Mexican standard that's part of his act, he tells himself, 'mission accomplished.' Cortes, 66, was born in Mexico City, the second eldest of five siblings. Growing up, he was a big fan of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, he says, casually dressed in sandals, grey shorts and a pale-blue short-sleeve dress shirt . By the time he was 11, he was teaching himself to play popular songs he heard on the radio, on an acoustic guitar borrowed from a relative. Not that he always understood what he was singing about. 'We did take English in school but no, there were lots of times I didn't have a clue what the lyrics meant, I was mostly just pretending,' he says, mentioning he has answered to the nickname Pepê — even his mother calls him that — for as long as he can remember. Before long his older brother Eduardo, Lalo for short, began accompanying him on drums. Cortes guesses he was 12 or 13 when a sign went up in their neighbourhood, advertising for bands to volunteer their services for an outdoor music festival. After talking a pair of classmates into joining them, the foursome made its official debut as El Dilema, covering rock tunes by American groups such as Grand Funk Railroad, with Cortes handling lead vocals. El Dilema was well-received. Before long the group was getting booked for community dances around town, now billed as Children owing to how young they were. The band eventually expanded to seven members and by the mid-1970s, Children had become a popular nightclub draw, not just in Mexico City but in more touristy destinations, as well. Cortes was 21 in 1979 when Children was booked for a weeklong engagement at the Princess Hotel in Acapulco. Also appearing there was a band called Zig Zag, which got its start in Mexico before relocating to Minneapolis. Following one of Children's performances, the members of Zig Zag told Cortes they were impressed with his voice, especially when he sang falsetto on Bee Gees numbers. Also, would he be interested in going with them when they headed back to the States? It seemed like a great opportunity and after discussing it with his bandmates, he made the difficult decision to leave Mexico. Supplied José 'Pepe' Cortes in Mexico with the band Children 'Zig Zag mostly did classic rock — Boston, Kansas, that kind of stuff — and we used to get standing ovations for our version of Bohemian Rhapsody,' Cortes says with a laugh, adding besides the Twin Cities, they were also getting booked for shows in North and South Dakota, and, later on, in Canada. In August 1984 Zig Zag was hired for a social being held at the Canadian Forces Base in Shilo. In attendance was a pharmaceuticals rep originally from Deloraine who had relocated to Brandon. Cortes struck up a conversation with her between sets. Within a year, they were married and living in Winnipeg. Cortes continued his musical career after moving to the city. He started off with a country-rock outfit called Raven before being introduced in 1987 to Wayne Hlady, founder of the Beatles tribute act Free Ride. For the next 18 years, Cortes-as-George Harrison played guitar and sang with Free Ride. It was a lucrative gig, he says, but because the band was often booked as many as six nights a week, it caused a strain in his marriage. 'We had two kids, a boy and girl. I was Mr. Mom during the day, cooking the meals and seeing them off to school, but the minute my wife got home, I'd be out the door,' he says. Free Ride definitely helped pay the bills, he goes on, but still, his wife desired a normal life, one that would enable them to socialize with family and friends on the weekend, instead of him always appearing at this bar or that. He understood her point — he even tried his hand at a 'real' job working for a local landscaping firm — but in the end they had grown too far apart. Following his divorce in 2005, Cortes made the decision to part ways with Free Ride. For a while he'd been writing songs of his own, but because Free Ride was all-Beatles, all-the-time, he knew there would never be an opportunity for him to perform his compositions in front of a live audience. One of the first places that hired him after he struck out on his own was the Pembina Highway Pony Corral. There he was encouraged to mix in original tunes alongside time-tested favourites such as Under the Boardwalk, Imagine and Brown Eyed Girl. He also returned to his roots, by sprinkling in Spanish-style songs popularized by the likes of the Gipsy Kings and Santana. By 2011, Cortes, who did three sets a night, Wednesday through Saturday, had developed a loyal following. That summer he was on Facebook when he spotted a message from a person he'd gone to school with in Mexico City. He remembered she used to be pals with his first girlfriend. Out of curiousity he asked if the two of them were still in touch. They were, she replied. SUPPLIED Free Ride as The Rolling Stones. Jose 'Pepe' Cortes is Keith Richards,, front Five minutes later, he received a second message, this time from his ex, a woman named Gabriela. 'She was like 'hi, how are you.' She told me she was living in Tequisquiapan, about three hours from Mexico City. After messaging back and forth a bit more, she said I should come for a visit, which I ended up doing that winter.' Cortes fell in love with both Gabriela and the town, notable for its quaint cobblestone streets and rustic houses. On the flight back to Winnipeg he thought if he could land a gig there, he'd probably move. Four years later he was preparing to do just that. Ahead of his imminent departure, Peter Ginakes, owner of the Pony Corral, proposed they stage a 'Farewell Pepê' concert in his honour, on the patio. That night the place was jam-packed, with lineups stretching into the parking lot. As Cortes was putting away his guitar for what he thought would be the last time at that locale, Ginakes approached him to say, 'You know, there isn't any reason we can't do this every summer.' Cortes, who has dual citizenship, refers to his current situation, which sees him living and performing in Tequisquiapan for nine months of the years, and spending June through August in Lorette with his daughter Sam and her husband, as the 'best of both worlds.' Not only does he get to see his two adult children as well as a pair of grandchildren, ages five and nine, when he's here he holds down a Las Vegas-style residency at the Pony Corral three nights a week, Thursday to Saturday. Added bonus: his son Matthew occasionally supports him on bongo drums. 'It's funny because couples who used to come see me at the Pony 20 years ago, back when they were dating, now show up with their kids to catch the show,' he says. 'The other night my own grandkids were here and the oldest one spent the whole time in one of the Tiki huts, banging away on the table like he was playing drums.' Cortes, who has recorded four CDs of original material, figures he currently has close to 150 songs in his repertoire, including what he refers to as the calypso medley, which he put the finishing touches to in Mexico, this past winter. Jose (Pepe) Cortes on the patio at the riverside Pony Corral Restaurant & Bar (Pier7) at 1700 Pembina Hwy. 'For that one, I kick off things off with Lionel Richie's All Night Long, then switch to Kokomo by the Beach Boys, September by Earth, Wind and Fire and finally Hot Hot Hot (by Buster Poindexter). If that doesn't get people tapping their toes, nothing will.' And although Gabriela has only come with him to Winnipeg once — she found it too chilly, even in June, he says with a wink — he intends to make the annual trip north for as long as Ginakes and the Pony Corral will have him. 'The only tough part is I'm not as young as I used to be,' he says, polishing off the last of his coffee. 'Lots of times customers will go, 'Pepê, it's so good to see you,' and offer to buy me a drink. I have to tell them thanks, but no thanks… or at least to wait till Saturday night, when I don't have to work the next day.' Monthly What you need to know now about gardening in Winnipeg. An email with advice, ideas and tips to keep your outdoor and indoor plants growing. David Sanderson Dave Sanderson was born in Regina but please, don't hold that against him. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

This Toronto singer-songwriter brings musicians into prisons. Now, a jazz great is coming back for an encore
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This Toronto singer-songwriter brings musicians into prisons. Now, a jazz great is coming back for an encore

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Orchestral expressions
Orchestral expressions

Winnipeg Free Press

time6 hours ago

  • Winnipeg Free Press

Orchestral expressions

Back in 2004, the front page of the Free Press Arts & Life section (then called Entertainment) ran a glowing tribute by Morley Walker to one of the most august careers in Manitoba's arts sector. Rita Menzies was retiring. Some expected she'd make more time for favourite pursuits — cooking, travel, family, opera, art— especially after such an eventful finale to a long career. The year before, Menzies — who'd been with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra for 24 years as its first general manager — had been tapped to take the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's reins in an interim capacity. Jeannette Menzies photo Rita Menzies on a trip to Reykjavik, Iceland. On the face of it, the move may have seemed improbable. The WSO was 10 times the size of the MCO and had a $3-million deficit. But Menzies' reputation — her crack command of budgets and structures, coupled with a soft, deft touch for people and politics — preceded her. 'There were a lot of highfalutin people who came in and absolutely burned out within a month,' recalls violinist and WSO concertmaster Karl Stobbe. 'I really have to give (Rita) credit for saving the WSO in a time when people were not sure it could be saved.' Amazingly, the WSO finished its 2003-4 season with a considerable surplus. Walker playfully cast aspersions on her resolve to retire after this success: 'Oh, did she not tell you? She has accepted an honorarium to run the Agassiz Summer Chamber Music Festival in June … But in July, she plans to take it easy. Honest.' What's that saying about best-laid plans? Before long, the retiree was the annual fest's director, a role she held for a full 11 years. She also returned as the WSO's interim executive director in 2006 and served as Agassiz's board president until her death in June at 83, after a short battle with cancer. 'How fitting that Rita worked in the frontline of Winnipeg's arts community until a few weeks before her passing — she was always keen to contribute and to help others,' says Agassiz artistic director Paul Marleyn. 'She developed (Agassiz) and she worked every day — her famous and proudly Mennonite work ethic. Rita had extraordinary values, values about which she never preached.' Jennifer Menzies Photo At Ponemah Beach, Menzies and granddaughter Olivia work on art projects. Menzies took up drawing and watercolour painting in retirement. Rita Menzies' career charts the rise of a certain type of pillar in Manitoba's arts and cultural life. The late 1960s and early 1970s were a coming-of-age for Canadian culture, with the government using the Centennial to invest heavily in the sector. However, the path to the MCO's emergence was often far from smooth. For seven lively years, the MCO (founded in 1972) was administered as a volunteer-driven passion project, operating out of insurance manager Bill Stewart's office. 'Maybe I was paying more time to the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra than I was to my business,' says Stewart with a chuckle. 'It became apparent … that we would have to get some kind of administrative help.' MCO's early history is hard to separate from Westminster United Church — a stronghold of a broadly liberal Protestantism, known for its deep love of classical music. Its congregation criss-crossed with MCO's audience and with its beautiful acoustics and central location, the church eventually became the organization's primary venue. It had a celebrated organist in Don Menzies, who held the post from 1966 until 2022. Just down the road, his wife Rita — born in Kitchener, Ont., in 1942 — taught math and English at Kelvin High School. She was also an accomplished organist and her musical passion was about to make its way to the centre of things. Jeannette Menzies photo Menzies (right) with her husband Don in France. Though technically retired, Menzies ran the Agassiz Summer Chamber Music Festival for eleven years. By the late 1970s the MCO was operating out of another makeshift office. The hum of a typewriter — clattering out accounting reports, marketing plans and musician contracts — filled the basement. 'I have vivid memories of a filing cabinet and card table propped up in the laundry room,' recalls Jeannette Menzies, a Canadian diplomat, former ambassador to Iceland and Rita's daughter. 'We loved having her around when we were young and hearing the sounds of classical music at home.' But for Menzies, juggling a young family — which included daughters Tanis and Jennifer as well as Jeannette – was only half of it. As well having suddenly traded in English lit for budget sheets, Menzies had to learn and quickly master the art of balancing those budgets. 'She told me once that the first thing she did every morning was read the entire business section of the Winnipeg Free Press,' says Stobbe, who got to know Menzies in the 1990s while playing with the MCO. JOE BRYKSA/FREE PRESS In 2003, Menzies (right) moved from the MCO to the struggling WSO as Interim Director, seen here in 2004 with violinist Claudine St Arnauld. Potential funders, donors and board members — Menzies was, by all accounts, always on the hunt for allies and resources to better the organizations she led. With its footing now secure, the MCO could find a proper office and finally start delegating. By the 1990s, the orchestra had hired Elise Anderson as its office manager, Jon Snidal as its designer and systems manager and violinist Boyd MacKenzie as its concert manager. 'Find(ing) good people. That was a real strength of hers,' says Vicki Young, Menzies' successor at the MCO. 'To bring on people like Elise and Jon and Boyd — I think is pretty incredible.' All of them are still associated with the MCO in some way, while today a new generation of staff and musicians carries the torch, including Sean McManus, executive director since 2023. The original team supported the orchestra through a showing at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, tours across the world and countless commissions of new Canadian music. Supplied Menzies was an accomplished organist, which can be traced back to her early practice sessions at the family piano. The MCO was also earning a rep as a solid stop for famous touring soloists, with Joshua Bell, Marc-André Hamelin and Liona Boyd all sharing the stage with the orchestra in those years. When Young assumed the MCO's reins in 2003, she had a rarity in her hands: a classical ensemble with loyal employees and musicians, a consistent streak of balanced budgets and a deeply engaged, supportive audience base. '(Rita) was always thinking ahead and setting a really good foundation for what was to come,' says Young. Over the next 20 years, the MCO saw a continued streak of balanced budgets, more growth and further professionalization of its board, touring and movement towards more multicultural priorities. It benefited not just from Menzies' foundation but something more ineffable. Menzies was valedictorian at her Grade 12 graduation. Veteran staff will tell you about a cultural throughline at the MCO — a democratic ethos with a strong, trusted leader acting as first among equals — that they trace back to Menzies. 'She was described as kind of having a calming effect on an organization,' says her daughter Jeannette. 'I saw her as a trailblazer. But I think my mom would probably be mortified (to hear that) because she really would give equal credit to Jon, Elise and others.' Though Menzies' so-called retirement was packed with Agassiz commitments and volunteer work, her tireless sense of industry found rhythm in the pastimes she loved most. She was known as an extraordinary cook and a lifelong learner, picking up watercolour painting in retirement. As a consummate hostess and longtime member of the Westminster Concert Organ Series Committee (founded by her husband in 1989 and running until the pandemic), she prepared many dinners for guest organists and the receptions following concerts. The couple sometimes oriented their many trips across the world around performance opportunities for Don and made regular pilgrimages to the Ottawa area to see their granddaughters, Grace and Olivia Kennedy. 'Behind everything was Rita's love of life, her family, music, the arts, of people and of the Winnipeg community,' says Marleyn. Menzies with her daughters Tanis, Jeannette and Jennifer. 'She avoided the stage and public attention, yet somehow quietly lead her workplaces with elegance, industry, effectiveness … Rita gave us all such a magnificent example of what the qualities of honesty, kindness, hard work and love can achieve.' Conrad SweatmanReporter Conrad Sweatman is an arts reporter and feature writer. Before joining the Free Press full-time in 2024, he worked in the U.K. and Canadian cultural sectors, freelanced for outlets including The Walrus, VICE and Prairie Fire. Read more about Conrad. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

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