 SAINT JOHN - About a year after formally retiring from the standup comedy circuit, Shane Ogden was named the Funniest Person in New Brunswick.
Matthew Sherwood/Telegraph-Journal
Shane Ogden was named the Funniest Person in New Brunswick after winning The Funniest Person in New Brunswick contest as part of the Canadian Comedy Awards and Festival.
Ogden, now living in Welsford, travelled the country for about 10 years as a comic, making thousands of people laugh, but stopped touring professionally in 2008 when he opted to focus more on family.
But he hasn't hung up the microphone for good and his wit is alive and well.
"I don't think you can grow up in an economically depressed place like the Maritimes and not have a sense of humour," Ogden said.
"I'm that guy at Value Village on pay day with every one else. I'm that guy who says, 'let's go have a yard sale so we can get some gas money'."
Ogden, 33, was named the funniest person in the province in a contest at Cougars Lounge on Wednesday, held by the Canadian Comedy Awards and Festival.
He said he found out about the contest on his Facebook page one day and called an organizer to sign up.
"I said to him, well I used to do comedy. My name is Shane Ogden. He goes, 'oh yes, I've heard of you'. He said, 'I heard your material too; you're not very funny.'"
Turns out, the organizer was an old friend and was only joking around. Soon after, Ogden won the contest.
A native of Grand Bay-Westfield, Ogden said he draws most of his humour from being a father.
"Being a parent just leads you into these situations that you don't necessarily want to be a part of, like when the school sells cheese or popcorn and you have to kick in 50 bucks for it," he said.
"Then you're like, why did I just spend 50 bucks on cheese? Oh yeah, because I got a girl pregnant seven years ago.
"There are situations where you have to look at another human being in the face and say, 'no, no, honey, fish don't eat peanut butter'. I think that's where I draw most of my comedy from."
Ogden started his comedy career in Calgary, where he was performing at a dinner theatre. One night, the cast went to a Yuk-Yuks performance where he saw standup comedians live for the first time and knew he wanted to be one.
He started with amateur nights and worked his way up to perform out of town, opening up for other acts. He released his first CD, called What's So Funny? in 2004 and performed at a number of comedy festivals on the east coast.
By that time, though, he had a family. His son, Casey, was born in 2002.
"Hotels are cool when you're 20; it's really fun, it's a blast," Ogden said. "But when you're away from your children it's hard, too hard for me, anyway."
Ogden said he knew he had to stop touring after he took the stage at the Halifax Comedy Festival in April 2007. He performed for an hour, but only 11 seconds of his act were aired on CBC television.
"It was one more time I had to explain to my son why I wasn't home and I figured, I was in it for 10 years, I made thousands of people laugh, and I got on TV for 11 seconds. Cool," he said.
Ogden ultimately left comedy behind as a career after he had his own headlining tour in Ontario last year.
Now, he is training to be an electrician and performing on the stage every now and then, just for fun.
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/city/article/810994
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