Story updated: The Comic Strippers show will be held Friday, Jan. 26 starting at 8 p.m. at Centennial Theatre. The original story contained the incorrect date.
Ken Lawson didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming a satirical improvisational male stripper.
He wasn’t born wearing a bowtie, he didn’t spend his high school years taking advanced gyrations. But here he is, 50 years old and one of the best satirical improvisational male strippers in the world.
“There’s no other show like ours that’s touring anywhere,” said Lawson, a.k.a. Chip Stick (all of the Comic Strippers are named Chip).
The Comic Strippers are bringing their non-threatening, partially-nude (only the top part), extremely funny brand of fake-male-stripper-based comedy to North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre Jan. 26.
So how did Lawson get here? What was the audition process like to join the Comic Strippers? It started with a phone call from his long-time friend Roman Danylo, best known as the star of the TV show Comedy Inc.
“Hey man, I’ve been thinking about this idea. Do you want to come to a photo shoot?” Danylo asked Lawson.
“Yeah, sure,” came the reply, Lawson’s shoulder shrug audible through the phone. With that, he was a male stripper. Well, sort of.
The selling point for the Comic Strippers is that they are not really strippers at all. They perform their shows in tight pants and bowties, but there’s no real nudity, just lots of laughs as they perform ridiculously choreographed dance routines while also showing off their improv comedy chops interacting with the crowd. All of the Strippers have a background in improvisational comedy.
“You know the show Whose Line Is It Anyways?” Lawson asks. “It’s like that meets Magic Mike, with dad bodies.”
It’s also wildly popular. About five years ago the Strippers tested their material at Vancouver Theatre Sports, receiving very positive feedback. That led to a trip to Australia for the Adelaide Fringe Festival where they were also very well received. Back home in Canada they booked their first big gig at a theatre in Fort McMurray, Alta.
“We sold it out, almost 700 people, and the sound of the audience – I’ll never forget it,” said Lawson. “We couldn’t hear ourselves, the audience was screaming and laughing so loud for the first 15 minutes. It was like, OK, we’ve got something. And then we were off to the races.”
A rough, tough tar sands town in Northern Alberta may seem like an odd place to debut a show featuring satirical male strippers, but Lawson said Fort McMurray was a perfect place to shake their booties.
“They don’t necessarily get a ton of entertainment up there, so they were very appreciative. And there’s a lot of Newfoundlanders up there, and Newfoundlanders know how to party.”
The Strippers haven’t looked back since, touring across the country several times, including multiple trips to Newfoundland. In 2016 the show won the Canadian Comedy Award for Best Live Production.
The audience, for obvious reasons, skews female, but lots of men come too. Lawson said many dudes tell him they were dragged to the show by a wife or girlfriend but ended up having a blast. And the men on stage are no threat at all, said Lawson. Promotional material for the show boasts that the performers have “comedy bodies.”
“We always like to say we’re going to make guys look good, because these bodies are easily attainable. It doesn’t take much work to get a body like one of ours.”
Underneath it all is a “body positive” message for everyone, said Lawson, adding that before he joined the Strippers he was self-conscious about showing off his “160-pound, six-foot-tall skinny dude” body.
“We’ve all got unique bodies,” he said. “Whatever you’ve got, just rock it. It’s actually really quite liberating coming from a skinny guy that used to be just terrified to take his shirt off.”
At its heart the show is more of a gentle rebuttal to the greased-up guys in the Thunder From Down Under.
“We play these characters that are really serious and they really think they are sexy, and they’re just idiots. But loveable idiots,” said Lawson. “We’re just taking the piss out of the whole macho bullshit stripper thing. It’s just so friendly and silly. It’s very harmless, but people kind of feel like they’re having a sneaky good time.”
It may get a little risqué – the show is for adults only – but it’s mostly just outrageous fun, said Lawson.
“We do this thing with a ping pong ball …” he said, his voice pausing for a second as he weighed the words coming out of his mouth. “It sounds so absurd out of context. Every show there’s always something that makes us kill ourselves laughing.”
The Comic Strippers, Centennial Theatre, Friday, Jan. 26 at 8 p.m. Age restriction 19+. Click here for ticket information.
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