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Snowed In Comedy Tour kicks off in Canmore

“We always enjoyed Canmore and the crowd is fantastic. It is a really smart crowd, a bit older crowd, and it is a great tester for us.”
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Paul Myrehaug, Dan Quinn, Erica Sigurdson and Pete Zedlacher. SUBMITTED PHOTO

CANMORE – For 14 years, The Snowed In Comedy Tour has been growing. What started as a way to enjoy a skiing vacation for a few comic friends has evolved into the biggest comedy tour in Canada.

This year, the 70-city tour kicks off in Canmore at artsPlace.

“Myself and a few other friends wanted to go skiing and snowboarding and we didn’t want to pay for it,” Dan Quinn said. “We thought what we would do is go do shows near ski hills, do the show at night to cover our hotels, and make some money, then go skiing.”

The first iteration of the Snowed In Comedy Tour did quite well, and from there, a yearly tradition was born.

“We felt it went pretty good and we went back the next year and even more people showed up,” Quinn said. “We kept adding shows and every time there would be more people.”

On the tour this year are Quinn, Paul Myrehaug, Pete Zedlacher and Erica Sigurdson.

Each tour has different material, and many people have seen the tour in their city up to 10 times.

“We do a brand new show every year and it is a really good show,” Quinn said.

With COVID-19, the tour was cut short in 2020 as preparations were made to visit Ontario for the first time. Last year, the tour was finally able to visit Ontario but overall there were many challenges. Along with COVID, there were highways washed out in British Columbia, flights that were cancelled and even bursting pipes at one venue.

Restrictions often changed on a dime as well.

“We would have the shows sold out and then we were back to 50 per cent capacity and we had to move everybody and do two shows a night,” Quinn said. “It was tricky but we got through it. We had fun and we had a lot of laughs behind the scenes. It was worth it. We are glad we did it.”

The decision to kick the tour off in Canmore for the first time came about not only because of logistics, but the quality of the audience in the community.

“We always enjoyed Canmore and the crowd is fantastic,” Quinn said. “It is a really smart crowd, a bit older crowd, and it is a great tester for us.”

The four comics will get together in Calgary and begin to work their way around the country. The Canmore show will be the first time they will see each other’s set as well.

This will also be the second year for the tour in Ontario.

“It is a tough market and the sales are way better than last year already,” Quinn said.

While Canada is known for producing world-famous comedic talent, tours such as the Snowed In Comedy Tour are important to see the homegrown talent of our country firsthand.

“If we don’t support comedy, those comics don’t get a chance to ever be big,” Quinn said.

The Canmore show opens at artsPlace on Jan. 3 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale at www.snowedincomedytour.com/tour

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