Comedian Lars Callieou performing during his Firepit Comedy Tour. Photo Credit: Firepit Comedy Tour Facebook page.

By Shane Clausing

Firepit Comedy Tour

Comedian Lars Callieou bringing laughs to a few Grande Prairie backyards this week

Jul 27, 2020 | 2:13 PM

Edmonton comedian Lars Callieou is bringing his Firepit Comedy Tour to Grande Prairie this week.

Callieou, who has been a traveling comedian for the past 17 years and has toured to 25 different countries, created the tour in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Edmonton native was on tour with another comedian in Australia back in early March to kick off a three-month tour when COVID-19 started to spread rapidly.

“We landed in Australia at the beginning of March. I go there each year for three months and we got the call home,” explained Callieou. “We were just over a week into our three-month tour and the Prime Minister came on TV and said, ‘if you’re over seas you need to come home’, and we came home and isolated for a couple of weeks and then went 46 days without doing a live comedy show.”

Callieou said that throughout his 17 years of being a comedian, he’s never had more than one week off from performing comedy.

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Forty-six days after Callieou had his tour stopped and he returned home from Australia, the Province of Alberta announced that gatherings outdoors with a maximum of 15 people were able to take place. With that, Callieou created the Firepit Comedy Tour.

“I posted on Twitter, I think on April 29, if anybody is having a backyard gathering of less than 15 people I will bring a speaker and I will do comedy in your backyard around your firepit, thinking I would probably do about a half dozen, maybe ten of them.”

“Sunday night (July 26) we did our 121st show since May 2. It certainly has exploded.”

This Tuesday and Wednesday, Callieou will be performing three private shows in the Grande Prairie area.

He says that intially, he was only going to be in Grande Prairie for the day, however word got around that he was coming into town so he had to extend his stay and ended up booking three shows.

Callieou says he’s continuing to do these shows because he loves performing.

“I just love doing stand-up, so I’ve taken any gig that’s been offered to me for the past 17 years, so I’m always happy to see how something turns out.”

“I’ve done show’s on a Greyhound Bus from Edmonton to Calgary, I’ve done shows at the Calgary Zoo next to a hippopotamus, (so) private shows aren’t a new thing, but private shows for a small group of people around a fire pit in somebody’s backyard, I can’t say I’ve ever done one of those in all my years of doing stand-up comedy.”

“I just wanted to figure out a way to do some live comedy shows again. I had done some Zoom comedy shows and there is no substitute for live comedy from a performers standpoint and from an audience standpoint.”

Each show performed by Callieou lasts around 50-70 minutes and the show is for people aged 16 and over.

Callieou also has ensured that all guests attending the show are six feet apart, so a safe environment can be ensured.

Initially, when Callieou began doing the backyard comedy shows it was for free, but since it’s taken off, he does charge a fee for his services. However, he’s using a unique payment system so anyone can get involved, despite where they’re at financially.

“What we really wanted to do is make it accessible for everybody, so we said it’s pay what you want, or pay what you can,” explained Callieou. “Because there are people on CERB or on social assistance, or EI who really perhaps needed to laugh the most, so we said you can pay what you can.”

“That’s the model we’ve used. We’ve had a few people call and say they’re on social assistance and we’ll come do the show for free. When you’re back on your feet you can buy a ticket, but until then, we are happy to come do the show.”

Callieou has had a storied career on the comedy scene. He has appeared at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montréal and has a one-hour special air on The Comedy Network. He’s also been overseas to entertain the Canadian Armed Forces five times (Kuwait, IRAQ, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Dubai and Abu Dhabi) and is a two-time Canadian Comedy Award Nominee.

Of note, Callieou has traveled on tour with famous comedians such as Martin Short, Bob Saget and Joan Rivers.

Callieou adds that he still can’t believe how successful his latest tour has been.

“Did I ever think we would do 40 or 50 shows? No. Did I ever think in my wildest dreams that we would do 120 shows plus shows in a couple of months? No. It’s exceeded my expectations to say the least.”