Chris Robinson – A man built for his craft

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

Oh Lord! I just hung up on my Classic Man.

I quickly looked through the new calls that had come in to try to find his number. I had just started my interview, and by accident I hung up the phone on him.

About a minute into my frantic search for the last number that called, he called back.

“I am so sorry for hanging up on you Chris,” I said apologetically.

“It is a good thing that I just had a $9.00 ice cream cone, or I would be really upset,” he said laughing. “The ice cream cone just saved this interview.”

I think that I was fortunate that if I was going to hang up on anyone, the best person that it could have been was Chris Robinson.

Born in Canada to Jamaican parents, Chris Robinson made the tough decision early in his life to enter into a profession that makes no promises for success. Being a stand-up comedian is a tough job. You can ask some of the greats: Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart; they will all tell you the same thing. Standing up in front of people who judge everything that you say and expecting them to laugh is a difficult feat for anyone.

Many people want to become a comedian, but few succeed or have the endurance to handle the heckling, the empty rooms, or the failures. It is a competitive industry with little job security. You could be considered a great comedian one day, but there are no guarantees that the audience will love you the next day.

I am going to say that maybe our Classic Man Chris Robinson did not know the difficulties of the comedy industry, and if he did, he didn’t care. At the age of 14, Chris tells me that he knew stand-up was for him.

“In between trying to talk to girls, I used to watch stand-up on TV. I think what solidified it for me was after I watched Dave Chappelle – Killing me Softly. Watching how he had the crowd roaring. I knew that I wanted to do that.  I had always been funny. My family tells me that from a young age, I was always animated. As I got older, I just had it in me that comedy was something that I could do.”

He decided to put all of his energy towards seeing how he could do stand-up.

“I will tell you this. I was definitely built for it. I come from a religious family; more specifically, my family is Jehovah Witness.  I remember having to go door to door, trying to convert people. Trust me. I was used to rejection. I felt like if I could handle that, I could definitely handle going on stage and telling a few jokes.”

Apparently, life seemed to agree with Chris. He took a career’s course in high school, and during the course, the choice of being a comedian came up for him. He learned about the Comedy Writing and Performance Program at Humber, and he knew that was the way that he was going to go.

While at Humber, Chris had time to hone his craft. He learned about the commercial side of the industry from award winning professionals who were active in the comedy industry. It is here that here that he learned: stand-up, improvisation, scriptwriting, and sketch comedy. More importantly, Chris learned the business end of comedy, which is the most important aspect. Chris really enjoyed his time here, and during our interview he recalled this time in his life.

“I swear I started doing stand-up every day. My first time on stage in front of an audience was on Humber Night Tuesdays. This was a mandatory part of the program. All students had to do one set before graduation. I remember signing up first. I was so amped. I remember stepping on stage, and it felt like a relief.

 I had been dreaming of this my whole life. I felt at home. Thankfully, I had a good set, and this only gave me the confidence to do more.”

So more he did.

He began performing across the city, and he realized quickly that all nights would not be good nights. This is when life as a comedian can get difficult. At the start of your career, you have to do a lot of work on your own. That means promoting yourself, booking shows with club managers, writing and practicing materials, all of this while getting little to no pay. There are no unions. There is no guild for comedians. Chris knew this, but it did not deter him.

“It can be very difficult sometimes. There is this self-doubt that creeps in that you have to continuously overcome. There are those thoughts, am I good enough? I was performing as much as I could, but I came to realize that you are not always going to have a packed audience, but you still have to perform. One thing that always used to get me is that voice in the back of my head that would question, is this my last good joke. Will I be able to make people laugh as much as they did this time?”

Chris chuckled. “I remember full sets that bombed. There was my first time hosting a comedy show. I was so nervous. I was stuttering. It was a complete disaster. It didn’t matter what I did, the crowd was not feeling me. At first I thought that maybe it was the crowd, until the first comedian of the night went up and people started howling. I felt bad cashing that check.”

This has been a tough year for most of us, and if anything a good laugh is in order. Humour has become a vehicle for performers, and for all of us to explore topics that might otherwise be difficult to touch. This is the year that Chris has decided to really step it up. He released his comedy album “Gut Bussa” in May, and it can be found on: iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and Amazon Music.

If you want to catch a quick laugh you can also watch an episode of CBC True Dating Story, where he plays a gentleman named Che who ends up in a very compromising position. Finally, Chris can be found in The Amazing Gayl Pile: Last Resort (10 x 10), which is available on CBB Gem streaming service. Last Resort is the fifth instalment of the International Emmy-nominated and Canadian Screen Award-winning comedy series (http://gem.cbc.ca)

In its five season run to date, The Amazing Gayl Pile showcases the best in Canadian comedic talent, including Inessa Frantowski, Linda Kash, and Scott Thompson, as well as tapping incredible international performers such as Jon Hamm, Paul Scheer, Jack McBrayer, and June Diane Raphael

“Prepare for some hilarious, absurd comedy. It is pretty ridiculous even for me, but I think people will find it extremely funny. It is not something you will ever see on TV.”

I asked Chris what he wanted to share with young comedians who think that they want to go into this business.

“You have to bring heat every year. You have to stay relevant. It is important that you learn about the business side of things. You have to be mentally strong, and don’t expect anything to happen right away. Comedy is chronological. If you have been doing comedy for two years, you are like a two year old. Just worry about getting funny.”