Comedy Now!

Lara Rae, billed here under her pre-transition name of Al Rae, recorded this set for CTV’s Comedy Now! right as she was embedding herself into the infrastructure of the Canadian industry. Aired in January 2002, the same year she co-founded the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, the broadcast captures a veteran of Toronto’s alternative circuit performing as a solo stand-up.

Rae had spent the previous decade touring as half of the absurdist musical duo Al & George. This television spot preserves her pivot to a more traditional club format, emphasizing the tight joke construction that would eventually land her in the writers’ room for Little Mosque on the Prairie.