Not Funny Hunkering Down In Barrie
Marc Trinidad getting ready for the day he can get back on stage
Just ask Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle who the best Caribbean Canadian comic they have worked with is and the answer will be the same, Marc Trinidad. Be it on stage, radio, or on live TV, Trinidad is our standup man!
True to his sir name Marc Trinidad was indeed born and raised in Trinidad, but now Barrie is where he calls home. After working theatre and sketch comedy in T&T for a number of years he decided to come to Canada to gain some international exposure. He has lived and worked in the “Great White North” for over 20-years and has carved out a stand-up career that has him in constant demand wherever English is spoken!
With nightclubs closed and comedy festivals on hold, Trinidad, is hunkered down at home waiting out the virus shutdown. Over the weekend the standup man had a sit-down question and answer session with our Arts reporter Stephen Weir. He also took a selfie for the Caribbean Camera for this article!
Question 1: Where are you spending the quarantine?
Answer 1: I am in Barrie! The city gives me a comfort level I didn’t have in the GTA. I’m Caribbean. The speed of life I need is found further away from big cities. I like it here.
I’m just beginning to become social again so I can’t say I’ve had many interactions with anyone outside of my family (he has a wife and four children), whom I’ll add, have just found out that I didn’t know pickles were cucumbers. Matter of fact, they found out the same time I did. Oh and Raisin juice and grape juice are the same too. The joys of dinner as a family!
Question 2: Have you been able to use this enforced downtime to be creative?
Answer 2: During the quarantine, I’d love to say I utilized the time for writing and creating. But to be truthful, I wasn’t positive about what I was seeing in the world in the beginning and still carry some apprehension now.
The pandemic opened up many issues that society had been suppressing and hiding for years and now that they’ve bubbled to the surface, we are struggling to find the proper path forward.
These global issues do affect me as I do try to spend time reflecting on them. I have always, in my comedy and my life, tried to speak truth and positivity. Looking always for those silver linings that most neglect. So with the overwhelming amount of social and societal input, my comedy muscle atrophied during these months.
People think comics are switched on at all times. Some of us are empaths and get affected by the ebbs and flows of the energy of social issues. I’m one (of those)
Question 3: Until you get back on stage what are doing on-line?
Answer 3: I can say that I have begun my training and I’m getting back in shape by working on transferring my comedy into online digital rants similar to a John Oliver or Andrew Schultz. Took a while to get the equipment and skills needed to pull a semi professional look together but I’m getting there.
Question 4: What do you think lies ahead for the art of comedy
Answer 4: As for the future of comedy I see everything coming back to pre-virus days. The only question is when it will. In the meantime the digital world beckons as a gap that us pure, club style stand up comics, need to become fluent in.
As things reopen so shall we. In the meantime I’ll suck on the CERB tit.
Question 5: Where can people see you these days?
Answer 5: I have a group of younger comics I work with and we put on shows routinely under the weownthenorth banner.
Editor’s note – Marc Trinidad has a number of very funny videos on YouTube and posts on Instagram (iammarctrinidad) and Facebook (Marc Trinidad).
Comments