Looney tunes

Will King and his trusty guitar will be staples at this year’s Great Outdoors Comedy Festival.

Looney tunes Musical comedian mines current events for playful parodies To continue reading, please subscribe: Digital Subscription One year of digital access for only $205* - Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com - Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper - Access News Break, our award-winning app - Play interactive puzzles *First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only.

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After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks. Will King and his trusty guitar will be staples at this year’s Great Outdoors Comedy Festival. The 37-year-old musical comedian is set to warm up the crowd with satirical songs and well-known covers prior to each headlining slot during the three-day festival, which kicks off Friday at Assiniboine Park.

Born in small-town Kentucky, King moved to Nashville in 2009 to pursue a career in songwriting. He worked at Tootsie’s World Famous Orchid Lounge on the Honky Tonk Highway and has written songs with the likes of Lainey Wilson, Brothers Osborne, AJ McLean from the Backstreet Boys and JC Chasez from ’N Sync. His songwriting gigs dried up during the pandemic and he turned to social media to share the comedic songs he was making in his spare time.

He gained a large following on Instagram (@willkingmusic) and has since turned comedy into a full-time job. Free Press: When did musical parodies become an interest? Was standup comedy something you ever envisioned doing?

Will King: Parodies and comedy in general have always been a big part of my life. One of the first CDs I ever owned was the “Weird” Al Yankovic Running With Scissors album; I got it when I was 10. Years before posting my first parody and comedy song

online I always tried to make my wife or friends laugh with some dumb little parody or joke I came up with. And in songwriting sessions, I would always try to throw in a little humour or a witty line in a song. I’ve kind of always been searching and working for the laugh.

FP: Who is your favourite musician? Who is your favourite comedian? WK: My all-time fave musician would have to hands down be Jason Mraz — for his wordplay and how he slips a little humour in his songs every now and then.

I also remember thinking, “Wait, this dude sings and raps and does them both well?” Eddie Griffin and Lewis Black definitely were my first two favourite comedians growing up. Katt Williams stands out now as a current favourite and Rodney Carrington was the first to show me that you could be country, comedic and play the acoustic guitar FP: Walk me through your creative process: does the commentary come first or do the songs serve as inspiration?

WK: Usually the commentary comes first, I would say about 99 per cent of the time. I typically need to know why and what I’m writing about first and then I’ll pick the song after that I think best fits with the idea.

A lot of my views come from me singing about the news and trending TV shows and celebrity gossip, so once I see what everyone is talking about, I find my point of view on it and then pick the song because I know I gotta be quick. FP: How long does it take you to work out a song? WK: It honestly changes from song to song.

I was loading the dishwasher when I wrote the entire first verse and chorus to my Stacy’s Mom Fountains of Wayne parody — probably took me 10 to 15 minutes to write and another 10 minutes to record it. I posted it, not thinking it would get 125 million views. Then on the flip side, I’ll have songs that take me up to three to four hours to really chase down.

FP: Is there a genre, an era or a kind of song that works particularly well as a satirical number? WK: Definitely!

I have found that the song either has to be one of the biggest songs of the moment — a Choosin’ Texas by Ella Langley parody would do incredible right now but in a couple of months it probably wouldn’t catch on — or a timeless classic that no one will ever forget and will know instantly, like Don’t Stop Believin’ or Hit Me ... Baby One More Time. FP: How does it feel to have made a career out of music, even if it’s not how you pictured it?

WK: Even though I did not have a musical comedy career on my bingo card, it honestly feels amazing and I wouldn’t trade any of this for what I thought I wanted when I first moved to Nashville in 2009. Seeing people comment about how my silly songs and jokes make their day better is worth more to me than any Grammy.

This interview was conducted over email and has been edited for length and clarity. eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com Emergency five turns into regular gig Kaitlynn Brightnose’s first foray into standup comedy was what many people would categorize as a waking nightmare. She and her brother were checking out an Indigenous open-mic night when host Paul Rabliauskas approached looking stressed.

“We got there and half the people who signed up didn’t show,” Brightnose, 35, says. “He asked my brother.

My brother said no. Then he came up to me and said, ‘You have five minutes.’” Brightnose agreed and tried to play it cool, but inside she was panicking.

She asked her brother for advice. “He told me to just tell my funny stories like I’m trying to make my mom laugh,” she recalls. And that’s exactly what she’s continued trying to do for the last three years.

Brightnose has become a regular at local open-mic nights and at the Bannock Bums showcases at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival. Friday, she will perform on her biggest stage yet during the Indigenous Comedy Showcase ahead of Jim Gaffigan’s headlining set at the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival. The event is a new partnership between the national festival and the Southern Chiefs’ Organization.

“Laughter is medicine. ... It’s how we celebrate together, support one another through hardship, and find joy in everyday life,” Grand Chief Gerry Daniels said in a statement. Brightnose, who grew up in northern Manitoba near Pukatawagan, is excited to share the spotlight with friends and fellow up-and-comers Jeff Gobeil (who is also presenting The Crown Witness Is a Stand-Up Comedian?

at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival at the West End Cultural Centre) and Noah Robinson. “All three of us started on the exact same day at the exact same show. I call them my comedy brothers,” she says.

Audiences can expect Brightnose’s set to include plenty of silly and embarrassing personal stories. “Other people have described the way I do comedy as having tea with your auntie. I try to make it so the people in the audience feel like they already know me,” she says.

— Eva Wasney Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva. Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism.

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