Album Review: Stand-Up Ontario: Premium Quality Breathmints

This Album is very high caliber. 

Released on the comedy label within the Just For Laughs festival umbrella of companies, it features a cross section of Toronto’s strongest stand up comics. In this age of the cross over internet hustle, all these performers are stand ups  through and through. No Tiks, no Toks - just a microphone and hot takes on a very dark time. 

Nigel Grinstead, Allie Pearse, Courtney Gilmour, Al Val, Seán Cullen, Juliana Rodrigues and Dylan Gott are all headliners in their own right. Yet no one on this album has a set longer than anyone else.  

Nigel Grinstead opens the album with an impressive set that is an indicator of his growth both as a performer and a person. Gone is the hardened, albeit wise beyond his years, scrappy stick man that left cigarettes and concern in his wake. Make no mistake, the delivery of that performer is still very much intact. But bits about missing teeth and squalor have been replaced with a calmer more self actualized Nigel, who now turns that evolved sense of cunning unto anti vaxxers, Uber Eats and the finer points of better living through audio books. Grinstead is a comic who truly is only at home on stage and the tight parameters of these opening tracks show that off without ever having to actually see it. 

Allie Pearse has an amazing collection of material on this compilation. The type of deeply personal jokes that possess such bluntness and honesty their humour has been honed and focused to the point of undeniable ability. The line between vulnerability and vulgarity is executed and displayed with such class and focused showy style. Pearse is a comic that is emerging as a contemporary extension of the great female truth teller, but seems refreshingly uninfluenced by the hyper meek style of her contemporaries of the moment. The deeply intelligent dark rational in a joke about wearing human leather is stuff of a signature closer. 

Call up your friend you haven’t seen in a while, take them to an Allie Pearse show….or just tag her in some of these tracks adult female friendships are just as beautiful and complicated as Pearse’s comedy. 

The title of the album, Premium Quality Breathmints, comes from Courtney Gilmour’s set, an over the top but not convoluted bit about how the pandemic has made us all awkward. Gilmour’s material on this album is clean, polished and very well suited for radio. A very versatile comic who is quite capable of bluer material but keeps this set well in the range of sarcastic and observational. It’s sort of an exercise in futility to review Courtney Gilmour’s  work….after all she has never been in the business of letting anyone but herself define who she is. 

Seán Cullen now steers the album right into absurdity, with his signature mocking tone. A beautiful societal reflection sharp, crisp topical almost to the a fault where this material will most certainly have a shelf life. It skates between lofty sarcasm and mile a minute scathing wit. It’s this style of comedy that is a thread that runs through so much of what becomes beloved internationally and in this short and sweet set Cullen demonstrates his best and major contributions to it. 

Al Val is a very talented comic, with a very compelling story. A veteran headliner to the point where it is evident, being familiar with their work, that the few tracks on this album are a skillfully condensed presentation of where they are at creatively and emotionally. They are political without being daunting, they are funny without being crass. In transition with a beautiful focus, they’ve never lost sight of the particular madness that drove them to share humour with others. This set leaves listeners in anticipation for what’s next in what is certain to be a long, interesting career. 

Juliana Rodrigues is Canada’s comedy “It” girl, a gifted stand up with a placid charm that makes it all look so easy. Her contributions to this album are no exception. Her delivery never tells you how to feel. Yet she is crystal clear about her intention and own feelings within her material. Candid statements that never even crest on complaining or loss of poise timestamp this moment in her career, that is largely defined by the pressures of being a woman in her 20’s, dating, mental health, and past wounds. She isn’t shy but never makes a big deal about it. 

Dylan Gott closes out this album in a deeply enjoyable way. There is an immediate likability to Gott. He is so many things yet never lets any one of them dominate his punchlines. He seems to have a hilarious uncertainty that borders on contempt for most things including himself. Lucky for us, Gott spent his pandemic in some nostalgic reflections and that is certainly the most relatable and highest point of charm in his set. The eloquence of his humour always leaves you wanting more and his tracks on this album would do their job nicely to calm one down in traffic no matter who was in the car. 

In closing, Premium Quality Breathmints is an album that is a beautiful sampler of who the Canadian industry is rightfully buzzing about in Ontario.

Stand-Up Ontario: Premium Quality Breathmints was released January 18, 2022 on JFL Originals.
Listen to it here.