From coma to comedy: U of A alumni Jon Gagnon’s journey to the stage

Close to-death experiences have a means of inspiring individuals to benefit from life whereas they will. With a change in perspective, desires and ambitions that have been as soon as deemed unrealistic can come to life.

Jon Gagnon was decided to pursue his ardour for comedy after waking up from a coma. Now, the College of Alberta and The Gateway alumni is nationally referred to as a cartoonist, an award-winning screenwriter, and a standup comic.

Gagnon acquired his begin as a cartoonist whereas finding out environmental engineering on the U of A. He would learn the comedian strips in The Gateway throughout class, till in the future he determined to make a comic book strip himself.

“I wrote my first cartoon and I introduced it as much as The Gateway workplace. And so they have been like, ‘this isn’t ok,’” Gagnon stated. “It sort of humbled me, and I believe I shed my interior critic.”

After working to enhance his comics, Gagnon lastly felt like he had some that have been ok to deliver again to The Gateway. Ultimately The Gateway began operating his cartoon “Stickman.”

Roughly 12 years later, his beloved character Stickman was introduced again to life within the wake of pandemic boredom. Gagnon described how being caught at dwelling left him stir-crazy, and itching to place his creativity to make use of — so he determined to deliver Stickman into the digital realm.

That includes signature pandemic jokes about rest room paper, the “Stickman Cartoon” animation collection was a enjoyable product of the instances.

“I employed an animator … and I wrote the script. The script was mainly that Bernie Sanders had invented COVID-19 as a way to kill off all of the previous individuals who didn’t vote for him.”

“I’m a giant Bernie Sanders fan, and I at all times discover that in comedies you need to flip the narrative. Bernie is such a hero, why not make him a villain in a enjoyable cartoon?”

Gagnon recalled how after graduating from the U of A in 2008 with a level in environmental engineering, he headed out right into a world that was affected by a devastating financial disaster.

“Every thing kind of collapsed, so I solely acquired a job bartending to pay payments,” Gagnon stated. “I had this deep eager for performing, and I simply didn’t do it.

All it took was a kick within the head for Gagnon to pursue his desires. After unintentionally discovering himself in the midst of a bodily altercation and being put in a coma, he realized that if he died his tombstone would’ve stated ‘bartender’.

“Once I awoke from the coma, I spotted that I regretted by no means actually pursuing comedy extra,” Gagnon stated.

Together with his motivation and dedication at an all-time excessive, Gagnon participated in a standup comedy competitors. Very similar to his first try at comedian strips, his standup debut was lower than good, and he ended up inserting thirteenth out of 14 contestants. His saving grace on the competitors, nevertheless, got here from a dialog with American comic Darryll Lenox.

Lenox informed Gagnon that he had “a whole lot of potential” however wished to know why he selected to make a joke about getting bodily assaulted.

“I stated, effectively you realize I’m not up there only for [the audience]. I’m up there additionally for me, and I’d like to make use of this time as a result of if I could make them snigger, then possibly I can heal from it,” Gagnon stated.

Lenox appreciated that Gagnon had “a whole lot of maturity,” which isn’t at all times the case with comedians. From that dialog, Gagnon scored a gig opening for Lenox in a North American tour, lastly doing what was as soon as only a dream.

Gagnon is presently again in Edmonton as a headliner. He’s acting at The Comic Strip in West Edmonton Mall on November 24-26. He stated he’s excited to be again performing within the metropolis the place his love for comedy was born.

“The College of Alberta is such a particular place for me, and I’m simply completely happy to return [to Edmonton].”