Gravel voiced, terminally laid-back Canadian comic Tom Stade has a very clear idea of how he wants a gig to feel.
“My style is – I don’t turn it into a comedy show – it becomes a kitchen party.”
Watching Tom Stade at work you are floored by his irresistible charm, thrilled by a tantalising sense of danger and blindsided time and again into huge laughs.
He’s been doing comedy since 1988 – “when I started it was a weird countercultural thing that I got into.”
Since then he’s seen comedy grow, become more professional, become “more like a job”, with younger generations finding new and different ways to explore the territory. “They have podcasts. They have a new special out every week.”
But he’s never lost his sense of curiosity and wonder – and the thrill of using humour to uncover the fundamental realities of life.
“I think comedy is the greatest language and it crosses barriers. I really mean that. With comedy you have to show vulnerability, you let your guard down.”
His new show is called Tom Stade Rules – which he proclaims with characteristic swagger as “one of my greatest titles ever.”
“I’m 55 – and like a lot of older people I feel like the rules have changed. So this show is about trying to find out what the new rules are.”
It’s absolutely not about ‘wokeness’. Stade is quite happy being woke – just as long as he can figure out how to do it without upsetting anyone.
“I’m a liberal but I’m older – so it is about having to negotiate the new world I’m in.”
Being on the road as a working comic gives you an unbeatable insight into the current zeitgeist – and to make them laugh you have to tune in to the way the audience is thinking.
Stade has been based in Scotland for twenty years – but since his children have become adults he’s moved from Edinburgh to a small town in the central belt. Most of the year he spends on tour, travelling with his wife Trudy.
“We are on the road as much as we can – because that is our real home – like Thelma and Louise – or Tom and Louise. When the kids are gone you get to break free. You get to be the teenager you once were.”
To be fair, although Tom may have had to wear what he calls his “responsibility hat” when dealing with schools and parent evenings, he has always given a strong impression of being young at heart. The fact he uses the expression ‘responsibility hat’ suggests adulthood may have been a disguise all along. It must have been noted before – but Tom is anything but Staid.
“I have never lost my curiosity for life and I think that is what youth is. To me 1988 doesn’t seem so long ago – but to younger people that is aeons.
“The comics I grew up with were Bill Hicks and Sam Kinison. Now a lot of the audience enjoy James Acaster, which puts them in a different frame of mind. For people in their seventies they might be thinking of Billy Connolly or Richard Pryor.”
While audience expectations may have changed, Stade finds a way to bridge the gap. One of his favourite tricks is to pick apart the viewpoint of different generations, alighting on young, older and ancient members of the audience and making them characters in his show.
“I do talk about current events but I’m not really political. I’m more about the human condition.”
Stade loves seeing the younger comics coming up – finding out about the world from their perspective.
“I want to be influenced by them. I want to know what they are talking about.”
And the feeling is mutual. Catch a glimpse of Stade off duty and he’s often surrounded by a gang of younger performers – like a comedy Pied Piper. For a while he co-wrote and starred in an anarchic online-only sitcom featuring Daniel Sloss and Kai Humphries.
He was also a co-writer and performer in the Frankie Boyle Channel Four series Tramadol Nights and has appeared in sitcoms, feature films and a comedy special screened in Canada.
“You never know which day will be your last appearance on television,” he says with mock theatricality. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll be back.”
His new show will take shape at The Stand, which for many years has been his favoured venue at the Fringe.
“It’s a great relationship with The Stand and Stand One is the perfect room – not too big. I’ve been there so many years I’ve seen people come and go. I’ve outlasted all of them.
He’ll arrive with a show which is ready to go – but not completely sewn together.
“During the Fringe I’ll use the room as a gym to get ready for being on tour. What I love about the Fringe is it allows you to make mistakes. Some of the funniest things that happen start off as mistakes.
“That’s when you really have to improvise – that’s when you see you are really in the moment.”
Tom Stade Rules, 20.00, Stand One, August 5 – 30
