You may or may not have heard about Tom Green before, and no, he’s not the duct tape guy, that’s Red Green. But he’s coming to our little town to help us laugh the winter blues away with his stand-up comedy at the Kelowna Community Theatre this Thursday.

Whether you like or hate Tom Green, he is in a lot of ways, a pioneer of our much loved reality TV. His outrageous stunts, antics and unpredictable behaviour landed him a gig with MTV and movies such as Road Trip and Freddy Got Fingered, until his bout with testicular cancer which sidelined him for a while, but still not long enough to give us a documentary of the whole ordeal. Operation and all.

A few years passed and Tom got the bug again to get up in front of people and make them laugh, so he launched his World Comedy tour. Kelowna just happens to be on the list.

Since he is coming to town oook got a chance to talk with Tom about his life, some of his passions and what he’s doing now.

Here is that conversation.

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oook: You’re doing stand-up now and you’re coming here to Kelowna March 7th. What should people expect from your show?
Tom Green: Hilarious stand-up comedy show. Hilarious funny stand-up show. It’s been the product of the last few years of touring and it’s going to be a blast. We’re going to party it up in kelowna.

oook: What got you into doing stand-up?
TG: I spent my early childhood bouncing around a lot of different cities and army bases, and then I moved to Ottawa when I was seven years old. I started doing stand-up when I was 15 and loved it. Loved getting up on stage. Loved the adrenaline rush.

oook: What drives your passion right now?
TG: I just enjoy doing what I’m doing. I really love the craft of stand-up. It’s a lot of fun. I find it really challenging, to take on stand-up in a differenct capacity than I have before, where I’m getting out there and doing it full time. I’m really having a great time doing stand-up. You can check out a podcast called “Tom Green Radio“.

oook: Is this a throw back to your cable access show?
TG: Yeah, it feels more like a college radio show, yeah or cable access show, and I actually really kinda love doing stuff in that space, ’cause back then there were no rules or restrictions, nobody was coming along telling you what to say or do, you really had more of a creative freedom that you don’t necessarily have when you are on mainstream TV.

oook: I actually remember watching the early days of your cable show. I remember going to Ottawa in 1997; you were trying to fill a vat of pee with some purple juice on some street in Ottawa.

TG: Oh, you actually saw that?

oook: Yeah!

TG: Oh that’s hilarious. That was long before my show was ever on MTV, and I was probably living in my parent’s basement at the time, just trying to figure out a way to make it in show business. It’s funny that you were actually there and saw it. Did you stop and watch for a bit and wonder what the hell was going on?

oook: It was pretty funny. I knew who you were.

TG: From The Organized Rhyme?
oook: No, I was watching the Cable Access show at the time. I had a friend living in Ottawa, and I was living here in BC, and for some reason I had seen some of your episodes.

TG: Yeah, it’s funny how that happens, those tapes got passed around, and people knew about the show, even though it was only on a small public access station.

oook: You really pioneered the way for Jackass and a lot of those guys.
TG: We were early on in the Reality TV time, and our show was on MTV, and I think we opened up TV’s eyes a little bit to the fact that this kind of man-on-the-street style comedy was something people liked. When I got Cancer and I had to quit my show, I think they wanted to keep going so they kept making shows like that.

oook: I hear you were a Special Guest on Seed.
TG: Yeah, that was cool, really had a great time on that, shooting up in Halifax. Yeah, that was cool. It’s gonna be hilarious. I can’t wait for that to come out.

oook: So what is next for you?
TG: Focusing on Stand-Up and the new podcast are just launched right now, just really pushing that, shows that we are developing and film that I’m developing.

For the most part, I put most of my time and energy into doing Stand-Up and the tour.

Tell people to come out and see the show, see what I’m doing, I’m having a good time, and it’ll be an awesome night.

oook: Is there anything else you’re doing that you want us to know about?
TG: You gotta tell people to go to the show. I’m not going to be coming back to Kelowna for a while, I’ll definitely be coming back, but they gotta come and enjoy the show and have a party March 7 with me, because I’m looking forward to it and we gotta let loose and blow off some steam and have some good times.

oook: Alright, I’ll tell them to come drink some beer with you.
TG: Yeah, absolutely.

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Well… there you have it. But before you go. Watch this video and a personal invite from Tom.

Come see Tom Green LIVE at the Kelowna Commmunity Theatre Thursday March 7 @ 8:00pm. You can purchase tickets from Key Note Tickets.

Listen to his podcast and watch some more outrageousness at http://tomgreen.com.

“Kelowna would you like some sausages?”