Martha Chaves

Martha was born and raised in Nicaragua. At the age of 17 her parents shipped her off to Montreal and she eventually became a Canadian citizen.  She has lived in Canada most of her life, feeling uprooted, cold and confused about her identity, which, incidentally, is what makes her a true Canadian, eh?

She began her stand-up career in 1993 in Montreal and since the first time on stage nothing has been able to take away the desire to be on stage, not even scurvy! She never had scurvy but you know what we mean.  Considering her background and her existential angst, stand-up was the only career in which she could thrive!

 Now based between Toronto and Ottawa, Chaves is one of the top headliners at Yuk Yuk´s (www.yukyuks.com) and also a favorite at The Comedy Nest in Montreal. She won a Soul’d Award and has been nominated for six Canadian Comedy Awards in the category of Best Female Stand-up.

Her success is based on her charming non-threatening yet brassy, sassy and yes… classy demeanor. The moment she steps on stage the audience feels in the company of a confident, a great jail cell mate, an eccentric aunt, sometimes the three rolled into one. Whether she is telling you about her adventures as an immigrant, as an Anglophone in Quebec or what is to tell about an orgasm in Esperanto ,  you’ll be enthralled  thrilled and tickled to death by her performance and wit.

Martha has appeared in numerous festivals around North America and countless humanitarian fundraising events. Her stand-up TV credits include her gala appearances in the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival, and her own national comedy specials: COMICS!  on the CBC and “Something about Martha” on CTV.  She has appeared on CBC’s Madly off in All Directions, Accent on Toronto and is a regular on The Debaters.

Chaves is fluent in four languages (five when intoxicated or praying) and one of the few comics in the world who has the rare gift of doing comedy in a second language…and a third…and a fourth. She has performed on stages around the world, including for the U.N. Peacekeeping Troops in the Middle East, Germany and Alert.

Martha has been the opening act for such Latin luminaries as Gloria Estefan at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto (1997) and Tito Puente at the club Metropolis in Montreal (1996) and the award-winning poet-novelist, her compatriot Gioconda Belli at the Teatro Nacional de Nicaragua (2005). She has shared the stage with Brett Butler, Margaret Cho, Wendy Liebman, Chris Rock and Wanda Sykes, among others.

In her film and TV career she has worked with directors of the caliber of Nick Cassavetes (John Q) and Jim Sheridan (Get Rich or Die trying).

 

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