Ron James talks return to live gigs, new book ahead of Okanagan dates

For Ron James, returning to live performances after nearly two years of digital shows is like coming home to family.

That is in stark contrast to how the Canadian stand-up comic describes the bizarre nature of digital shows.

“It was like I was in a space capsule orbiting the Nebulon galaxy sending bits back to fellow Earthlings.”

James is in the middle of a West Coast swing on his Back Where I Belong tour. It comes after a whirlwind of dates in Atlantic Canada. He takes the stage in the Okanagan on Nov. 29, 30, and Dec. 1, in Vernon, Kelowna, and Oliver, respectively.

For James, bringing people together, sitting shoulder to shoulder, masked and fully vaxed, of course, is the “personification of social solidarity,” he told Kelowna10.

“We are making sense of the chaos. We are walking through it in the language of laughs, which has always been my mandate, but seems more so these days,” he said.

His thoughts went out to those dealing with flooding in British Columbia, as his own home province, Nova Scotia, and other parts of the Maritimes face similar devastating damage.

“You feel for the everyman struggling through life at these times,” he said. “All of these are places in the country where I’ve hung my hat for the last 22, 23 years. It is all very familiar."

Glad to be back

So far on tour, he said the crowds have been electric. Audiences are hungry to be back in theatres laughing with others. The mood, almost celebratory in nature.

The reward for James is equally energizing and acts as a sort of validation.

He said his two-plus decades of touring has been challenging, hair raising and at times life threatening – such as when he was caught in a “blizzard a Yeti wouldn’t wander through” – but rewarding, more so in the current climate.

“It feels more important than just the cheque at the end of the tour, which by the way is helping replenish my credit line which I lived on for the last two years as live performance took a deadly torpedo to the bow.”

James welcomed the opportunity to return to B.C., as many marks on the map resonate with him. The province is where he put together his first demanding tour in the winter of February 2001.

“B.C. is five countries in one province, right? I made the mistake, sitting in Victoria that February afternoon, looking at the cherry blossoms, having a beer on the patio, enjoying my day off thinking, ‘man, I am in utopia,’” he said. “Little do I know, 11 hours later, I’m stuck on a snow crusted goat path a Taliban refugee with a winning lottery ticket wouldn’t cross … outside 100 Mile House.”

Taking jabs at and incorporating regionalisms into his shows, he lets audiences knows he cares about what makes them tick and is a good-natured way to topple some of their sacred cows.

Okanagan show goers can expect a hardy ribbing from James about the area’s California-bliss lifestyle and involvement in a Dionysian wine cult.

James often gets quite political in his comedy, something he believes is an obligation of his craft.

He learned the fundamentals of comedy at the renowned Second City, an institution that prides itself on holding power to account. He believes few, if any, in Canada are carrying the torch of political satire.

That’s a role James eagerly takes on, speaking truth to power, yet remaining mindful of the importance of being an equal opportunity offender – barbing Liberals, Tories, socialists, and Greens alike.

“It is important for comedy to punch up, not down,” he said. “You want to topple the man in the golden throne, not the disenfranchised. … I think it is comedy’s job to move the world to the right side of history.”

New book

James has recently published a book, All Over the Map: Rambles and Ruminations from the Canadian Road. It covers his career and documents the people and places he encountered along the way. He described it as a “love letter to the country, to people and place, to family, to relations gone, to a world that was.”

“Some of the stories have an emotional depth, but I also knew why people were picking up my book. I wanted to find a balance between the evocative, the humorist and the emotional authenticity of lives shared with me,” he said.

Among the many tales, a time when he soaked up the fruit bellied farmlands of the Okanagan Valley, hoping to see the Ogopogo, which he said, “has only been seen by some magic mushroom eating claimant during an afternoon folk fest vision quest.”

James said the tour is likely a penultimate adventure before perhaps sitting down and typing out another book. He said the writing process allowed him to reflect and follow his bliss.

“That’s what’s great about getting older. You see the line in the sand a hell-of-a-lot clearer. I just wanted to lead a life of substance and provide for my daughters,” he said. “I am a working-class kid, and you work for your living, and I feel like I have.”