Tea Time In Toronto With Nigel Downer

“You know, sometimes you just need to crunch on a nut.” -Nigel Downer

I met up last month with Nigel Downer at Simit & Chai Co., a Toronto café.  We discussed his start at the Second City and his current gig as director of the Bob Curry Fellowship Showcase.

Nigel Downer: What’s up, bro?

Paul Aihoshi: Not much. What’s up with you?

Nigel: Oooooh man! Man! Uhhhhh, just all the classics, you know. A bunch of auditioning. Going through the Bob Curry Fellowship, because I’m directing the Showcase this year for Second City, which is great! What else? Man, just reading a lot of comic books. Because there’s a ton of comic book movies coming out. So I’m super jacked up.

Paul: Which one are you most jacked up about?

Nigel: Guardians of the Galaxy 2, for sure! That’s closer to the end of the year, I think? Oh! Power Rangers! You kidding me? Yo, dude, I’m watching that fur sure!

Paul: How did you get involved in Second City?

Nigel: Aw! You don’t know?

Paul: I don’t know!

Nigel: Come on, man! Well, our story begins in 2008. In 2008, I started taking courses at The Second City Training Center. The reason I did that was because a good friend of mine, Darrin Rose, is a stand-up comic. He took me under his wing. He had been bugging me for years about doing comedy. I was still working a full-time job at this point. I started moonlighting with him at open mics around the city, and he was getting me on with him on amateur night. My very first stage was Yuk Yuk’s. It was okay. I didn’t bomb, but I definitely wasn’t great. And there’s a heckler in the audience who threw out, “Don’t you work at [place of previous employment we won’t mention]?” And I was like, “uhhh…..” because I was trying to keep it under wraps. This was like my Batman-to-Bruce Wayne. I literally just answered her, “Yeeeah… hedgehogs everybody!” I just started talking about hedgehogs. That was my next bit. I didn’t know what to do. So Darrin’s like, “Cool, man. That sucked. Here’s what you need to do. You need to take some improv classes so you can get over that hurdle.” So I immediately enrolled in Second City courses, and I loved it. I ditched the stand-up stuff and a year later, graduated Level A to E, and then Conservatory. During my grad show, I got an email from Julianne Snepsts, Second City’s associate producer at the time, asking what I was up to that summer. Then a week later, my boss calls me into her office and I get let go. And it’s true, when you get let go, you pack your stuff in a box and you peace out. So, I get home and I go to that email and I was like, “Hey, my summer’s clear, What’s up?” I met with Julianne at the office, she’s like, “We want to offer you a job with EdCo.” I was like, “Yo! I’m down. I’m into it! What’s EdCo?” [Editor’s note: It’s The Second City Education Company.] So, that’s how I got my start. I did EdCo for a year; I did TourCo for a year, and I did Mainstage for two years, one after another--boom, boom, boom. I wrote four shows on the Mainstage and left in 2013.     

Paul: Nice! How’s Bob Curry going?

Nigel: Great! I think they just finished week 6 or 7. It was my first week with them. So it was really fun. They had [five-time Toronto Mainstage alum] Jen Goodhue for the last two weeks, and they wrote sketches. I gave them a little snippet of how my process works--how I take your once-improvised scene or your written premise, put those sketches on their feet, and see it on the stage. And then that way, when we jump right in the show--which will be performed April 24th--they’ll have a better idea of how I’ll really kick their asses and be on them. For everything. For environment, for the structure of the scene, for the POV, and the silliness, man. It’s always going to be silliness and fun. So, we got a little taste of what it’ll be like.

Paul: What did you get there? A protein…

Nigel: Yeah. This apricot protein bar. Yeah, it’s just a cool-looking thing. And I can’t remember the last time I had apricots. So, it was like, you know what, I’ll crush an apricot real quick.

(Biting into his apricot protein bar.) Oh, this thing is just...crumbling.

Paul: How is it?

Nigel: Good! It’s as sweet as you think it is. But it’s got a really nice… um, it’s got something keeping it together which is really nice, like honey and stuff in there? Delicious, yeah. You know, sometimes you just need to crunch on a nut. You know?

Paul: I’m going to highlight that quote.

Nigel: Yeah, I had a feeling you would. As I said it, I was like, “Yeah, this is happening.”

One night only! Catch the Bob Curry Fellowship Showcase, directed by Nigel Downer, on April 24th, 8pm at the Second City Toronto Mainstage.

Paul Aihoshi is a filmmaker, photographer, improviser and sketch comedian. Some of his work can be seen here: paulaihoshi.com

Interview edited for length and clarity.