Where in the world am I today?: Vancouver, BC, Canada

Prologue: My first awareness of Mike Wood came in the form of his Hawaii Two-O Trading Card during the 2000 ‘Millennium Edition Super Star Performers Trading Card Season. I later met him face to face in Ottawa at the Ottawa Buskers Festival and then kept running into him at other events. One of the things that struck me on one such meeting was Mike’s comment that he was a “Student of the Game” meaning he still got out and watched shows as he felt that everyone could teach him something… I was flattered that he came to my show more than once.

Stats:

Name: Mike Wood (or, if I’m in trouble with my Mom, Michael Edward Wood)
Birthday: I’m a Libra and I like long walks in the woods.
Place of Birth: St.Thomas (In Ontario. Not the tropical island)
Started Performing/Working in the Industry: I started being funny for money in the early 90s, in and around St.Thomas, then across Canada
Discipline: Comic
Website: http://www.mikewood.ca
Venues Worked: wherever will have me

Hot 10 Questions:

1. What’s your favorite color? • Gah! That’s the American spelling of “favourite”. Now I’m all distracted. Anyway. My favourite number is 9.
2. What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream • Mint Chip
3. What makes you laugh? • I love clever wit, self-referential humour and call backs. Both Looney Toons and Futurama do it for me every time. Also: a man, dressed as an old lady, falling down a manhole.
4. Who were your biggest inspirations when you got started? • My comedy heroes are George Carlin, Bill Cosby and Jerry Seinfeld. When I started being funny for money however, I was a juggler; so I looked up to guys like The Passing Zone.
5. If you could describe yourself as a character from Whinnie the Pooh, who would it be? • I don’t really know Winnie the Pooh all that well. But I think I like the Donkey the best. He’s got that awesome bow on his tail, and he’s dark and emo all the time.
6. Apart from the entertainment industry, name one other job you’ve had. • Mining engineer.
7. What’s something you haven’t done yet that you’d like to try? • Twins. [if that’s an inappropriate answer, here’s another] Fatherhood.
8. What’s the best thing about being a performer? • I love making people laugh. It’s an incredible feeling. Better than anything else I’ve found yet.
9. What’s the hardest thing about being a performer? • Finding enough enjoyable work to keep myself busy and solvent.
10. Why do you keep performing? • I don’t have a choice. I love it too much to stop.

The Nugget:

Pick one nugget of wisdom you’ve picked up from your career in Show Business to share with the World.

Mike Wood’s School of Thought –

I subscribe very much to the “less is more” school of thought. My nugget of showbiz wisdom would be

“Do one thing. Do it well, and slowly.”

–Mike Wood, Comic

I’m naturally concise, and as an added bonus I tend to be a little lazy. So when I sit down to create I am guided by my principle pretty easily. However when I’m writing or really concentrating on the show, applying the principle makes it even better. I heard a great anecdote about Jay Leno (whom I don’t really love, but whom you’ve got to respect) and his writing process. When he writes, first he finds a joke that gets the laugh he wants. Then to punch it up he removes one word the next time to see if he can get the same (or better) laugh. He keeps removing words until it can’t get the laugh, then adds back the last word. He wants his Way to be as funny as what he Says. When you watch him tell jokes, this exercise is obvious. He would never say, “It’s like my mother-in-law is from space.” The Jay Leno version of that line is “My mother-in-law. From space.”

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