{"id":36024,"date":"2025-03-20T16:50:39","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T20:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36024"},"modified":"2025-03-20T16:50:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T20:50:41","slug":"united-colours-of-canada-brings-country-together-through-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/united-colours-of-canada-brings-country-together-through-comedy\/","title":{"rendered":"United Colours of Canada brings country together through comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A lot has happened in this world since Martha Chaves first played the Aurora Cultural Centre in the organization\u2019s first comedy show, hosted to march International Women\u2019s Day in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a new Prime Minister, there\u2019s a new President of the United States, but one thing remains the same for Chavez: comedy as a form of protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing that remains the same? The title of the upcoming show, which was set last summer: The United Colours of Comedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hosted by Chaves, the United Colours of Comedy features a variety of comics from across Canada \u2013 Ali Hassan, Danish Anwar, Fiona O\u2019Brien, George Westerholm, Leonard Chan, and Daphne Joseph \u2013 and will play the Aurora Town Square Performance Hall on April 26 at 7.30 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t miss the comedy show that celebrates all the shades of Canadian humor. Prepare to be in stitches, while stitching the Canadian Flag together!\u201d says the Centre. \u201cProminent nationally from her appearances on CBC Radio\u2019s Because News, The Debaters and Laugh Out Loud, Chaves teaches at Humber College and Toronto Metropolitan University inspiring the next generation of stand-up comedians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Chaves says the title of the show was chosen by chance, the recent trade aggressions from the United States have, says Chaves, only served to underscore its importance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis whole aggression from the United States and certain groups is not new. One of the things I love about Canada is that it has been so accepting of things that in my own country I wouldn\u2019t be accepted for \u2013 like being a part of the gay community. I have always seen Canada as a truer country with its problems, but it has been a heaven for anyone who wants to thrive. I want to celebrate that and continue to celebrate that before the people who don\u2019t like us permeate the scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are some people who don\u2019t want to talk about [current events] because they think it is too easy. I have been told, \u2018making fun of politics is very easy,\u2019 but that all depends on your point of view. Making fun of anything is easy, but it all depends on your own originality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before she came to Canada from Nicaragua, she lived through revolution. She recalls she and her sister wanting to have a \u201cnormal life because everything was overwhelming.\u201d They found an outlet through protest songs \u2013 until Chaves found her funny bone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, my comedy is a form of protest \u2013 it\u2019s political, but it is also silly because people don\u2019t want to be sad when you there,\u201d she says. \u201cComedy, per se, is an act of defiance. It\u2019s an act of revolution because we should be sad, but joy is subversive and joy lifts your spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming to Aurora to help lift spirits will be the Dublin-born O\u2019Brien, Anwar who grew up in Russia and Belgium, Hassan of Pakistani descent, Joseph, Quebec francophone, Leonard Chan of Chinese heritage, and George Westerhorn, who is of Dutch heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know there are a lot more colours in Canada, but we only have an hour-and-a-half,\u201d says Chaves with a laugh. \u201cThe comedy community is like a microcosm of Toronto. I started doing comedy in 1995 and not until 2005 did I start seeing other ethnic comics. You always saw Black comics, but no ethnic people, no people with accents \u2013 now there\u2019s a big variety and it\u2019s beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lot has happened in this world since Martha Chaves first played the Aurora Cultural Centre in the organization\u2019s first comedy show, hosted to march International Women\u2019s Day in 2024. There\u2019s a new Prime Minister, there\u2019s a new President of the United States, but one thing remains the same for Chavez: comedy as a form […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2025-03-20-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9n2","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 06:14:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36026,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36024\/revisions\/36026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}