Comedy Now!: Gilson Lubin

Gilson Lubin plays with the linguistic gaps that come with moving from St. Lucia to Canada as an eleven-year-old. His stand-up relies on a slow, observational innocence, pointing out how he spent his early Canadian years fundamentally misunderstanding the local vocabulary. He details growing up believing a racist was simply a very fast runner and that bigotry literally referred to a taller tree.\n\nTaped at Toronto’s Masonic Temple in August 2003 and broadcast on CTV in June 2004, this half-hour set caught Lubin during his quick rise through the Canadian comedy circuit. Only five years after pivoting from architecture school to stand-up, landing a slot on Comedy Now! served as a major industry showcase. Lubin’s style is patient, leaning on gentle personal storytelling. Beyond his vocabulary mix-ups, he spends time on his family life, including a routine about his father’s struggle to spell the word Canada despite having no trouble spelling Canadian on account of his favorite beer. The televised showcase helped launch his transition to television hosting on MTV Canada.