WATCH: 11 familiar Edmontonians try their hand at comedy in ‘LOLYEG’ video

WATCH ABOVE: Eleven familiar Edmontonians were asked to try their hand at telling a joke in a video promoting the Edmonton Comedy Festival. Emily Mertz explains.

EDMONTON – Comedy is hard. It takes a lot of confidence, connecting with the audience and good comic timing. Recently, 11 well-known Edmontonians found that out first hand.

Each person, including Mayor Don Iveson, Fire Chief Ken Block, Global Edmonton news anchor Gord Steinke and Edmonton Eskimo Matt Nichols, was asked to try telling a street joke.

Their jokes were combined to make the ‘LOLYEG’ video which is being used to promote the upcoming Edmonton Comedy Festival.

The video was posted to YouTube on Monday, the day tickets went on sale.

“We really wanted to engage the people in our community to try telling a joke just to see how difficult it actually is and to appreciate just how good our comedians are,” said Edmonton Comedy Festival President Andrew Grose.

He said every single person who participated in the video was a good sport but the mayor’s delivery won him extra points.

“You could tell he was enjoying telling the joke,” said Grose, “and being funny should be enjoyable.”

“I think it’s the highest form of art,” said City Councillor Scott McKeen, who was part of the video. “What a great way to criticize government, criticize policy, criticize the machinations of corporations than with humour because it makes us laugh but it also makes us think.”

McKeen added, while he loves comedy, it remains a bit of a mystery to him.

“I can’t tell a joke to save my life and when I try to tell a joke I often hear dead silence. Other times people will be laughing at what I say – sometimes with me and sometimes at me.”

Edmonton Comedy Festival runs from Oct. 7-10. It features more than 30 comics from across North America performing at venues throughout the city.

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