Centennial Theatre presents I am Woman hear me Laff! with Martha Chaves, March 7, 7:30 p.m. Chaves will be joined by MC Christine Lippa and opening acts Alison Ogilvie and Melanie Rose. Tickets $29/$24. Box Office: 604-984-4484, tickets.centennialtheatre.com.
Martha Chaves uses humour as a coping mechanism – as we all should.
“Comedy is always an escape,” says Chaves. “People always wonder, how can you find comedy when there is tragedy? But I think that humans wouldn’t be humans if there was no comedy.”
Chaves’s early years weren’t so amusing. Born in Nicaragua, she grew up under the Somoza dictatorship.
Still, as a child, Chaves found levity in the rigid Catholic household she was raised in. That’s when she first realized she was funny.
“I made my mother, who was very strict, laugh,” recalls Chaves.
Her parents were lawyers, and Chaves would eavesdrop and create jokes out of their conversations. She would also poke fun at her parents’ friends.
“It was the only time that I got attention,” says Chaves, on the line Wednesday from Toronto, where she now makes a home with her partner.
While preparing to go on tour, which includes a stop at Centennial Theatre on Thursday, Chaves, a comedian of national acclaim, is under the weather this week. But she is still bringing the laughs.
A YouTube search uncovers some hilarious highlights from Chaves’s stand-up career to this point.
Through self-deprecating satire, Chaves tells the audience she loves her long hair because it hides her double chin – and because she can’t grow a beard.
“I wish I would be a man so I could make the same money that a man makes – and to hide my double chin with the beard,” delivers Chaves.
She goes on to say, guys don’t give a “flying fig” about how they look, while women often succumb to pressure from the cosmetics industry.
“Do you want to stop the signs of aging? Die young – that’s my advice,” deadpans Chaves, before proceeding to make a joke about Preparation H and under-eye bags.
When Chaves, a veteran of Montreal’s Just for Laughs, and CBC Radio’s The Debaters, graces the stage – she looks at her own life for inspiration. As a Catholic-raised, gay woman of colour, and an immigrant, Chaves is breaking through stigmas with her humour.
Her most memorable episode of The Debaters saw Chaves delivering some apropos lines about minimum wage.
“I said, ‘Some people don’t mind paying good money to eat an ethically raised hamburger. How about paying good money to be an ethically raised human?’”
Lately, Chaves has naturally been weighing in on the current U.S. political landscape, while peppering her jokes with the self-deprecation.
“I said, I am everything that Trump hates: I am Latina, I am a lesbian, and I am fat. I’m practically Rosie O’Donnell.”
There are many layers to unravel with Chaves.
When she came out publicly on stage in 2009, it wasn’t a memorable occasion for her. There was no fanfare. She just mentioned her sexual orientation in passing.
“I didn’t come out before because people have to understand, in comedy you have to let them know you first,” explains Chaves. “People are curious about why I have an accent or where I am from. Doing comedy in a second language is already an uphill battle in a way. It wasn’t that I was denying who I was but it was just that I gradually acclimatized myself in my comfort.”
Chaves picked up comedy as a way to build self-confidence after she arrived in Canada. Her family home was destroyed in the 1972 Nicaragua earthquake, so when she was 17, Chaves was sent to study at Concordia University in Montreal. She took language and translation classes at Concordia – but was nervous about her accent.
Just for Laughs co-founder Andy Nulman had just the ticket for Chaves, who took from him a course which would kick-start her comedy career. It also helped that Chaves was immersed in Montreal – the epicentre of amusement in Canada, and home of the Just for Laughs festival.
“I was a comedy consumer,” says Chaves. “I would have never expected that I was going to do that (be a comedian) because of ‘limitations,’ that a person with an accent has.”
Comedy has opened Chaves up to many opportunities.
She performed for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last year, along with his mother, Margaret.
“They are just like family to me, in my crazy head,” says Chaves.
She told a Trudeau a joke about her elocution lessons, while referencing a famous remedial drill.
“The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain. And then I said, ‘Who believes that’? The rain in Spain falls mainly on the homeless.”
Chaves then looked for Trudeau’s reaction.
“I think I could see a glimpse of his perfect tears that he should be selling on eBay because I’m sure they cure arthritis,” she recalls.
Chaves has been performing stand-up comedy in Canada, the U.S. and Latin America for 24 years. She won a Canadian Comedy Award for Best Standup Comic of 2017, after being nominated several times in the previous decade.
Chaves goes annually to Guatemala, where her siblings live, to put on a comedy show in Spanish. She charges a nominal amount to make the humour accessible for all, and also teaches the locals how to develop their own comedy chops.
The comedian has also performed for the Canadian Armed Forces in Egypt, Israel and Afghanistan. Delivering comedic aid to the peacekeepers overseas is something Chaves feels strongly about – though she might make light of it.
She has mentioned those Middle East tours during her stand-up shows, and instructed the audience not to clap for her.
“Nobody else wanted to go,” states Chaves. “When I hear, (she proceeds to mimic the sound of an assault rifle), I’m thinking home (Nicaragua).”
Chaves has been to Vancouver once before, to perform at a comedy festival. She is currently cooking up some jokes to roast Vancouverties next week. Something vegan or rain-related, perhaps?
However, Chaves is not a fan of jokes that poke fun at certain stereotypes – having sat on the other side of the fence.
Chaves has worked with some big-name comedians, including Chris Rock on the movie Down to Earth. She said the role was not something that she was proud of – and it perpetuated a stereotype. Chaves played a maid.
“That’s why I stopped auditioning, actually,” she says.
Chaves’s Centennial Theatre show, held in conjunction with International Women’s Day, has her feeling empowered. Having been in the comedy trenches for a long time now, Chaves can hold her own.
“I grew up in the jungle, as a comedian,” explains Chaves. “I was touring with guys for 20 years on the Yuk Yuk stages. And maybe they were sexist, racist and homophobic, but I just ignored it. I just put in my head: Nothing is going to stop me from my goal – I want to be a good stand-up comedian.”
Asked what the North Vancouver audience can expect from the show, Chaves already knows.
“Madness, madness. It’s a bunch of women. We all sound different from one another. And we’re going to be in the greatest mood. I’m going to make them happy – if they allow me.”
