Tazz performing in Rocanville Saturday
March 31, 2025, 10:43 am
Kara Kinna
Comedian Big Daddy Tazz will be performing in Rocanville on Saturday, April 5 as a fundraiser for the Rocanville Fire Department.
Tazz grew up in Saskatchewan, and now lives in Winnipeg. Not only is he funny, he openly talks about mental health, about having ADHD, the dark side of comedy, and the amazing power of humor. Following is his interview with the World-Spectator last week:
How did you get started as a comedian?
I’ve always wanted to be a comedian. A little bit of a dark reason—in my life when people were laughing there was no anger, there were no beatings, there was no angst, and I just love making people laugh.
When I used to make the bullies laugh they would kind of leave me alone for the day. I tried to be as funny as I could by using myself as the material. I just love making people laugh, I’ve always done that, it doesn’t matter if I’m on stage or at an airport, as my wife can attest—probably 75 times a day I try to make her laugh and the two times she actually laughs is good.
It has always been my dream to be on stage, when were kids we watched the Carol Burnett Show and I would see Tim Conway making Harvey Korman laugh, and I thought I want to do that, I want to have that wonderful effect on somebody.
And guess what, now 34 years later or so, I’m still doing it, and to be honest, if I wasn’t a comedian I’d still be making people laugh.
How did you get there?
It’s different for everyone. Back in 1988 I moved to Calgary to be security at the Olympics—basically a body guard. When the Olympics were over I didn’t want to leave Calgary, so I got a job bouncing at a club and one night they had comedy there and the headliner had showed up but the opening act didn’t. So he said ‘well I don’t want to go on without an opening act,’ and they said ‘well Tazz will do it,’ and I did and I got the bug.
There was a little comedy club in Calgary called Jesters and they hired me to be their sound guy and I could do some stage time every once in awhile and I just progressed from there. I got some good agents and some bad agents, some people who took advantage of me, people who gave me terrible advice, people who gave me wonderful advice. And back then not a lot of headliners would want to give the advice on how to get ahead because it was a very cut-throat business, and I always promised myself if anyone asks me any questions on how to get ahead, I would give them the advice they need to hear, not what they want to hear.
The world sometimes can be a very mean world and like my uncle or father used to say, knowledge isn’t to be courted, it’s to be lauded, so give it out to everybody, and that way we can all be successful.
Did you have any other jobs or did you get right into comedy?
Because of my ADHD—and back then it wasn’t ADHD, it was like what’s wrong you with you—I didn’t like jobs that put me in an office or put me in walls, and I bounced around a lot and I bought and sold antiques and comic books. I’ve never had a proper real job for more than a week, and that was my choice.
Usually the people that hired me chose to fire me. Comedy was always the right fit, I just didn’t know how to get myself into that world and once I figured it out I just took off.
How does your ADHD go hand-in-hand with your comedy?
It makes my show unique. Every show will never be the same because I don’t know where I’m going when I talk and the ADHD just makes me go off on all these tangents then come back and go off on another tangent and come back.
I remember we were shooting a TV thing and I was talking about having ADHD and I was about to leave and I go “Oh I wanted to tell you this,” and I got a huge laugh and I couldn’t figure out why I got a huge laugh. And my older sister was in the audience and she said the reason you got such a big laugh was because you were just talking abut having ADHD, and then forgot something and needed to come back to it. My ADHD was so prevalent that I didn’t realize that that’s why it got such a big laugh.
Did comedy help you?
This is a ship that sails with me in it. And I love that. I also am a mental health speaker, so I travel North America for good mental health for kids and adults. That’s because I don’t want people to suffer the way I did until I got help.
Was it hard before you became a comedian?
Very much so, and I still struggle with comedy, but the difference is now when I’m struggling, my brain is like “It’s going to be okay, and what can we find funny in this. Before it was “I don’t want to do this anymore, I can’t live anymore, I’m a piece of garbage.” And if you listen, a lot of the times when you are being negative with yourself, it’s not your voice you are hearing, it’s somebody else. It’s never your heart voice.
I’ve learned a lot through trial and error—sometimes more error than trial—and I know what works for me and I share it. I just try to get people to speak about struggling or about triumphing over what struggles they have. Because when you speak about it, it gives people hope and when people have hope, they have light, and when they have light in their lives, they know that everything is going to be okay eventually.
What do you love about comedy?
I just love the fact that I can take somebody’s life and turn it into a little bit of fun for however long. They say comedy is an egotistical thing, and I don’t think it is. I think my job as a comedian is to make you forget about your life for however long I’m in front of you. Whether it’s two hours on stage or a couple of minutes at the airport, or the Safeway or whatever.
It’s a beautiful power to have. It really is. Some people enjoy hurting people, and some people enjoy bringing people down for their ego. But I don’t want my ego to grow, I want my heart to grow.
Why do you think it’s important?
Right now this world is full of crazy—crazy good, crazy bad, crazy down the center. And so if you make somebody forget about their life for just a little bit, it gives them a break. It gives them a break to let them know that life is not all doom and gloom.
If you look hard enough into any situation, there’s funny in there somewhere. The rub is you shouldn’t always talk about it. There is some really dark humor. Police officers and first responders have a dark sense of humor because that’s how they get through the trials and tribulations of yuk. And I just think it’s important to be able to just relax
There is a line out of the Jungle Book—and I’ve always loved the Jungle Book—where Baloo says to Mowgli “don’t fall apart in my back yard.” In other words this is a relaxation place, this is a safe place. This is a place where you can forget about all your troubles for just a bit. The funny thing about troubles is they will be waiting for you and you can go back to them whenever you want, so let’s have a little bit of laughter in between.
What kind of show can people expect in Rocanville?
This is for the fire department so I’ll do some fire department stuff, and one of the towns I grew up in had a volunteer fire department, so I’ll have some stories about that.
In small towns, I’m more comfortable because I can talk about small town stuff. If you go to the city—I had a joke and I wrote and I loved it, but hardly anyone gets it because I’m 57 years old and when I was a kid, it took me until I was 13 years old to realize that the water on the tap on my farms wasn’t supposed to hurt my fillings. We have iron heavy water in some areas. You drink it and wonder why your face is tingling.
But I did that joke in the city one time and they just looked at me. And I remember one time I did a joke in Vancouver on the very first TV show that I did, and as soon as it came out of my mouth, I went “this is the wrong crowd.”
Only three people laughed, and at the very end I went and found those guys and all three of them were from Esterhazy, Saskatchewan. And the reason they laughed is because they were farm kids and they understood.
I love small towns because they are my people. It’s like doing a show for family. Some you like, some you don’t.
What do you hope people take away from the show?
Because it’s a fundraiser, I hope they leave with a full heart and an empty wallet. But I hope they leave knowing that life can be funny, life can be happy, and that everything eventually is going to be okay.
My wife has taught me a quote: “Everything will be okay in the end. If it is not yet okay, it is not yet the end.”
We have to take a break from cloudy days to create some sunshine, that’s all.
