WE ASKED MORGAN O'SHEA

NAME/ STAGENAME?

Morgan O’Shea,

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS CALL YOU?

Morgan, mostly Mo.

WHAT DO YOU CALL YOURSELF?

Morgan, it’s a solid name, it’s a solid name all around.

WHAT IS YOUR TITLE?

A work title? I’m still learning. I’m not really a comic yet. It takes like a decade to become a comic;. Larry David and Ricky Gervais did this interview once where they both agreed that you can’t be funny until you’re at least 30.  So I got 3 more years.

What’s your sign?

Virgo

WHAT'S YOUR HOMETOWN?

I was born in Edmonton but I was raised in Calgary. I came out here for comedy. I figured Montreal is the comedy capital of Canada, which isn’t true by the way! I found that out later, and by that time I just love it too much to leave.

WHAT'S YOUR DAY JOB?

I work in a collections department for a shady telemarketing company, it’s very unfulfilling.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN THE GAME?

It will be 4 years in August.

HOW DID YOU START OUT?

I always wanted to do it. I lived in Medicine Hat for a bit with my aunt and that’s when I first started actually writing jokes and coming up with ideas. My self-consciousness,  my insides were like you’re not funny! My girlfriend at the time set it up. I did my first open mike on my birthday, in Calgary. The club I think it was called Dickens

TELL ME A FUNNY WORD 

I’m sure someone has said it before but mayonnaise shake, it’s what white people drink. I did a joke about getting robbed by a black guy and lying to the police because I like black people so much. “Yeah it was a white guy,  really white, blond hair blue eyes, he was drinking a mayonnaise shake, off to pay his taxes.” I was laughing about that at work today, like ”Morgan you’re so awesome…mayonnaise shake.”  

IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT MAKES YOU FUNNY?  

I’m funny because I can make people laugh, I just always have. My dad would get mad at me, I would just say something funny and he’d forgive me. He could never stay mad at me.

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?

Everything. Hanging out with my friends. I live with Kris next to George, behind the club so there’s always comics stopping by.

WHAT IS NOT FUNNY?

Nothing! You can make the worst thing funny, that’s the whole point of comedy, that’s what we try and do! Look, even that brick over there is funny, because someone might have died building it. It’s kind of funny, maybe there’s orphans trapped in it, I dont know! Horrible things are definitely funny.

WHAT'S THE BEST AND WORST THING ABOUT BEING A COMEDIAN?

The best thing is going out there and just killing a room, being good and making the whole crowd laugh. That’s the best. The worst thing is charity shows, because you don’t get payed.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE COMEDY SPOT?

Now that the loft is over, I’d say the (comedy) Works is the best comedy room in the city, just cause it’s a small intimate venue, low ceilings. When it's capacity, it's 200 people but it feels like 500. It’s a real comedy club, like in New York.

WHAT IS YOUR BEST OR WORST TIME ON STAGE?

Well I pretty much killed it at UNDERCOVER, that was a good time!
The worst time I remember was in Calgary. The first time I got the lights shut off on me. They shut off the microphone too and it was the worst feeling in the world. First time I got gonged by Ram was pretty bad too. The second time I got used to it.


IF YOU WERE STRANDED ON A DESERT ISLAND AND YOU COULD ONLY BRING ONE COMIC WITH YOU, WHO WOULD IT BE?

Dulgar. It’d be Dulgar cause we’re roommates and we just laugh so much back and forth, it’s great. He’s the Romi to my Michelle.

NICE!

IF YOU COULD BRING BACK ONE COMIC FROM THE DEAD (TO BONE) WHO WOULD IT BE?

Pryor, cause I have a thing for black people. He’d also make fun of my little white penis in that voice of his. That’d be great.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE JOKE?

Dulgar’s, actually. He has this new joke about how the rodeo started after slavery because white people had too much rope left over.  That cracked me up! Anything George does onstage I just die. It’s just how he sees or takes a situation that has happened to us and crafts it into his own style. He’s my favourite comic on the scene without a doubt.

WHAT IS YOUR ULTIMATE GOAL?

I don’t want to be rich or anything. I just want to make enough money off comedy so I don’t have to work. I’ll know I made it then. I will still live in the same shitty apartment with Dulgar, we’ll still be broke as fuck, but I won’t have to work at my shitty collections job.

DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR UP AND COMING COMEDIANS?  

Don’t do it cause I’m out there!!!  Don’t do it cause Im’a murder you!

COMEDIC PHILOSOPHY?

Period blood is hilarious.

THESE ARE THE WORDS OF MORGAN O'SHEA.