Beatroute Magazine - BC - Print E-Edition - June 2017

COMEDY
JANE STANTON
perfecting the art of making strangers laugh
GRAEME WIGGINS
SONS OF VANCOUVER CHILI VODKA
meek palates need not apply
JENNIE ORTON
BOOZE
BACK AND FORTH
bar brings the good times back to basics
GRAEME WIGGINS
“I didn’t want to be that drunk older loser at the
party trying to be funny so why not try to, and I
know this sounds weird, make strangers laugh?”
Vancouver comic Jane Stanton has taken that goal
and run with it, making local and national strangers
alike laugh in rooms across the nation. She’s
parlayed that ability into appearances on CBC’s the
Debaters, multiple web series, and performances at
festivals like Bumbershoot in Seattle and Just For
Laughs in Montreal.
The process of heading towards that goal started
straightforwardly but escalated quickly. She explains,
“I did it when I was at acting school the first
time and it was super supportive, and then I did a
show at Laugh Lines, an open mic type of things and
then I didn’t do it for a long time.” Soon afterwards
is when things really took off, in a most intimidating
way: “Someone phoned me up and asked me to
do this Apollo style show and I was like, ‘I should
say yes’. Then I realized ‘that means they can boo
you off…why did I say yes to that?’ But I tied in that
and then my fourth show was for like a thousand
or fifteen hundred people, and it’s been downhill
ever since.”
A long-time veteran of the scene, she keeps
things pretty simple when it comes to mining her
life for material. “I don’t know what I tackle anymore,”
she relates, “in January I had, not quite an
epiphany, but I’m trying to lose weight and I want
JACOB SAMUEL
booking comedy shows and showing comedy books
Jacob Samuel looks at the humor of life on the stage and on the page.
Stanton is finding that practice makes perfect and that everyone loves a good diet joke.
GRAEME WIGGINS
If there’s one thing about Vancouver
comedy, it’s the diversity of talents it’s
comedians seem to possess. Fresh off
recording his first TV appearance for
CBC at the Winnipeg Comedy festival,
local stand up Jacob Samuel is
set to release his second book, Slinky
Hell; a collection of humour cartoons
that showcase his unique take on the
world and modern living.
Samuel got his start in comedy by
writing comics. He wanted an avenue
to write jokes, and despite never
having been much of an artist, he felt
cartoons could be a good outlet. “I
got pretty good advice from a family
friend who was an editorial cartoonist
for the National Post named Gary
Clement. He said ‘you don’t have to
draw well for this kind of cartooning
as long as people can understand
what they’re seeing and it’s funny’. If
writing’s more important than this is
doable.”
From there, stand-up came soon
afterwards, a way to force himself to
be more social and try new things. He
recounts, “I had been cartooning for
about a year and a half. I got a better
handle on writing jokes. I wanted to
try stand up and I moved to Vancouver
and didn’t know many people so
to talk about that. And just where I am in my life. I
grew up listening to Richard Pryor and all of that,
and that’s just what I thought stand up was.”
It’s a devotion to perfectionism that seems to
drive her forward, a lesson learned from comic Phil
Hanley. That is what keeps her motivated. “Well it’s
not the money! I love like doing a set of new stuff
and it takes a long time to get it right… but he was
one who was all about doing a five-minute set everywhere
in the city; the exact same set but tweak
the crap out of it and do it for six weeks. That’s what
you should be doing. It might end up completely
different from where you started. That’s fun. It
might not sound like fun, but that’s it.”
Catch Jane Stanton live @ Yukyuks on June
16 and 17
it forces you into doing things that
you might otherwise not do. Branch
out and meet people.”
Putting the two skills together and
making them work has been fruitful
for Samuel, “I think they complement
each other because some things don’t
work in stand up but are still pretty
funny ideas. Stand up is ruthless. if
something doesn’t work, it’s gone.
Something could be an interesting
idea but if it doesn’t fit in the box you
can’t much with it. It’s more visual.
It’s hard to visual in stand-up; if a joke
bombs and you have a prop it’s terrible.
But the ruthlessness of stand-up
forces you to be a better writer because
you see what people laugh at.
Supporting comedy in Vancouver’s
diverse and sprawling scene can be
more than just going to see some local
stand up or improv shows (though
you should be doing that too). It can
be checking out the local comedians’
other avenues of comedy-making.
Checking out Samuel’s book might be
a good start.
Order Samuel’s book online
at Slinkyhell.com or on Amazon.
THE WOODS SPIRIT CO.
amaro carefully foraged by mad scientist wood nymphs for your pleasure
An Amaro that fills a hole in the market.
When you think of what could have possibly
started the first craft distilled Amaro in the
Vancouver market, you wouldn’t automatically
reach for: “We were foraging for mushrooms
one day.” But that is exactly what Fabio Martini
and Joel Myers were doing when they turned
to each other, after years of being enthusiasts
of beer and spirits, and said “let’s start a distillery.”
The two men have been friends since high
school in Chatham, Ontario, and have remained
close. When the time came to turn a
passion project into a living breathing business,
the decision to work together was an easy
one. And the name was a no brainer.
“I always like to say the idea for the distillery
is literally born out of the woods,” laments
Martini.
The friends, who still actively forage for botanicals
for their recipes in the local forests of
the west coast, decided on Amaro after discovering
a notable hole in the local market for
spirits of that type.
“We were doing our research and drinking
a lot of Negronis at the time and there was a
Campari shortage. Bartenders were starting
to experiment with traditional cocktails more
and were calling for a local product that they
could support,” recalls Martini.
The process began, and the men had a very
distinct idea for how they wanted this spirit to
taste. Alas, normal distilling practices did not
allow for the subtle flavor extraction they were
hoping for. Now this — this is the cool part.
Myers’ wife, Dr. Jennifer Gardy, a PhD in
bioformatics, read an article about a distiller
in London using a vacuum distiller to extract
intense flavors from macerations for his gin.
Martini and Myers knew they had to try it, to
innovate the distilling process to create something
unique.
The wood nymphs had become mad scientists.
The contraption is something directly out of
science class and the results are overwhelming.
Sons’ spicy vodka clocks in just below lawsuit level.
photo by Katie Huisman
Like a viper hiding in tall grass, Sons of Vancouver’s chili vodka hides
within the Spicy Moscow Mule they serve in their tasting lounge. At
first it is the same delicious and refreshing cocktail you know and love,
and then: zap!
Made by macerating pounds of Thai dragon peppers for the distilling
process, the chili vodka is what co-founder James Lester describes as
their most polarizing product.
“30% of people love it, they write us emails; 70% of people hate it, they
write us emails,” he laughs.
The macerated pepper output, which amounts to a dark red mixture
that looks a lot like the mood slime from Ghostbusters 2 and could easily
burn a hole right through your esophagus, then gets proofed down to
40% and blended with more vodka to bring the spice down outside of
“lawsuit territory” as they call it. The result is a nuclear orange concoction
served behind a very fitting label of a woman on a motocross bike.
It is loud, it is dangerous, it is not for the faint of heart.
“We got guys coming in from Coquitlam and Chilliwack with like hot
sauce on their belt loop, and they just identify with chili vodka and they
love it,” Lester says.
But it wasn’t always palatable.
“We saw craft beer come a long way, but cocktails are the same as
they were, like, 20 years ago. We wanted to do our own thing.”
Bartenders were all for it but bar managers would hard pass, fearing
drinks would be returned and that “white people won’t drink this.”
One day while commiserating in the tasting lounge about what to do
with their most misunderstood baby, a gentleman came in off the street
and greeted them.
“’Hey guys, my name is Cornelius’ — and his name really was Cornelius
— and he’s like, ‘I just want to tell you that I love your chili vodka,
and I don’t know if you’re getting any opposition but I just want to tell
you that it’s great. Don’t tone it down at all.’ And we were like, ‘Ah! Cornelius!’”
Lester laughs.
And as quickly as he had appeared, he left. Like an employee of the
universe, to ensure we got the chili vodka we deserved.
“So we stuck with it and we’re calling it like the cult thing,” Lester
laments.
Where can you get your own personal bottle of liquid Vesuvius? Head
to Sons of Vancouver Distillery and grab some. And while you are there,
order a Spicy Caesar and drink to Cornelius: man of the people, God of
Fire.
Sons of Vancouver is located at 1431 Crown Street in North
Vancouver. The tasting room is open Fridays 5 p.m. – 9 p.m.,
Saturdays 1 p.m. - 9 p.m., Sundays 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Using a sort of organic chemistry method of
distilling in a vacuum under cooler but constant
temperatures, like a botanical sous vide,
they could pinpoint the exact essence they
wanted out of his chosen botanicals, in this
case grand fir needles.
The result is a multi-faceted and intoxicatingly
layered digestif. A first burst of citrus rind,
pulled with expert timing from the fir needles
in their 40-degree bath, then a syrupy sweetness
courtesy of the apricot syrup, followed
by the signature bitterness that Amaros are
known and loved for.
“I still take the first sip and am like, ‘damn
that…is bitter,’ it kind of slaps your palate
around,” admits Martini.
The Amaro Woods has created is a triple
threat: excellent in traditional Campari cocktails
like the Negroni, holds its own alongside
oak barrel aged spirits like bourbon in a good
Boulevardier, and this writer’s favorite: on the
rocks as a digestif.
“Sometimes I think when you have the right
idea and the right approach, the serendipitous
things just kind of show themselves,” Myers
says.
The Woods Spirit Co. is currently constructing
its tasting lounge, but you
can enjoy their Amaro at bars around
the city and follow their adventures @
woodsspiritco on Twitter and Instagram.
As any Vancouverite who’s spent any time in other cities can
attest, Vancouver’s nightlife is pretty limited. Sure, you’ve got
ample amounts of perfectly acceptable tap houses and pubs.
There’s a good selection of places to go for fancy cocktails or
if you want to go dancing. What it’s lacking, though, is variety.
With Back and Forth Bar, Vancouver’s first Ping-Pong bar,
owner Regan Truong plans on changing that.
Having spent the bulk of last year in Toronto opening the
Donnelly Group’s eastern foray, Belfast Love, he came back to
Vancouver and, inspired by the diversity of the Toronto nightlife,
went to work bringing something new to the Vancouver
scene. As he explains, “It’s a different scene out there. It’s got
a lot going on, arts- and culture-wise. The bar scene is a bit
different. And I came across this Ping-Pong bar called Spin. We
all went there, played Ping-Pong and had beers, and thought
it was the coolest thing ever. Susan Sarandon started it up.”
That inspiration led to Back and Forth, which initially was
just planned as purely a Ping-Pong bar, but slowly expanded to
include some vintage video games and a host of board games,
all playable in the cafeteria-style communal seating area. “It
evolved over time. I initially wanted to just do a Ping-Pong bar
and then my friends were like, ‘Why don’t you do games,’ so I
bought some board games. Then one of my friends mentioned
videogames. There’s a popular video-game bar in Toronto and
they play Mario Kart there. So it’s just an unpretentious place
to drink beer and play games.”
Part of his efforts of keeping things casual involves keeping
the prices affordable. “All the highballs are five bucks and under
plus tax; all my beer sleeves are five bucks plus tax, $5.75
with tax. I’m trying to make it affordable and fun.” And while
he has a good selection of beer on tap (Twin Sales, Parkside,
Phillips, Parallel 49, Fuggles, Strathcona) don’t expect much in
the way of food, as he hasn’t rented the kitchen as of yet, so
offerings are limited to Chef Boyardee, noodles in a cup, chips,
and Pizza Pops.
Unpretentious is really the key word. With decor seemingly
inspired by your family rec room, and a playlist of nostalgic
rap hits on the system, it’s catering to a crowd that seems underserved
in Vancouver at the moment – those who want to
go out but don’t want to deal with the usual nightlife stress.
As he puts it, “No crazy DJs, cover charge or dancing. It’s hang
out, drink beers, play games.”
Back and Forth Bar is located at 303 Columbia
Street and is open Sunday – Thursday from 4 p.m –
2 a.m., and Friday – Saturday from 4 p.m. – 3 a.m.
Back and Forth bar is the place you dreamed about as a kid.
24 COMEDY
June 2017
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BOOZE
25
JENNIE ORTON