By Rose Simpson
Canadians need no introduction to comedian, actor and bestselling author Ron James. The indefatigable, multi-award-winning, Maritime-born Toronto transplant has been tickling our funny bones on stage and screen for more than 40 years. 
Ron began his comedy career in the early 1980s at Toronto’s iconic Second City, which also spawned such comedic luminaries as John Candy, Mike Myers, Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara.
From there he headed to Los Angeles for three years to pursue the sitcom dream. Returning in debt and disillusioned, he transitioned from actor to solo act, writing and starring in a critically acclaimed one-man show, Up and Down in Shaky Town.
After five years spent honing his stand-up comedy craft for a feudal wage in Canada’s smoke-choked club scene, his act caught fire. With producer Terry McRae of SHANTERO Productions, he blazed a new trail and within a few years he was playing to capacity crowds from coast to coast.
Since then, he has filmed a record-breaking 10 one-hour comedy specials and created and starred in two television series, Black Fly on Global Television and The Ron James Show on CBC. In 2022, Penguin Random House released his first book, All Over the Map: Rambles and Ruminations from the Canadian Road, which became an instant national bestseller. Currently, he’s starring in One Man’s Treasure on Bell FIBE TV 1.
At 67, Canada’s longest running stand-up road warrior shows no signs of slowing down, as he continues to play an average of 50 theatres a year. To quote a passage from his book: “I’ve plied my trade driving widow making strips of asphalt covered in death fine snow to points beyond the pale braving blizzards a Yeti wouldn’t wander.”
It’s this poetically charged love of language, rife with metaphor and imagery, that makes the Doctor of Humanities recipient from Acadia University, his alma mater, a standout amongst stand-ups.
Ron didn’t let a little thing like a pandemic stop him, either. Rather than allow his comedy muscles to atrophy during lockdown, he threw a lifeline to his fans with several Live from My Living Room 90-minute performances, which allowed a country held hostage by COVID to process its trauma in the language of laughs. “Comedians lighten life’s heavy load,” he says, “and a solid 90 minutes of laughter helps lift that weight from the shoulders.”
Famous for his energy and work ethic, Ron says, “Thankfully, my Newfoundland-born and Halifax-raised working-class father instilled that in me. I included some stories about him in my book, which is basically a travelogue through time and space that embraces the soul note of people and place.
“Sure, there are stories about the industry I’m in, detailing adventures I’ve had, but mostly it’s a love letter to the region I’m from and the Canada I’ve travelled,” he says from his cottage in Nova Scotia. When not on tour, he lives on the 14th floor of a downtown Toronto condo where he grows his own tomatoes on a west-facing deck.
Every chapter of All Over the Map: Rambles and Ruminations from the Canadian Road is an insightful journey. You’ll discover characters, jumping from the page, who once coloured the tapestry of his Nova Scotia youth and epiphanies he’s had listening to stories shared of lives lived by fellow travellers he’s met travelling Canada’s “big wide open.” Juxtaposed with personal insights and reminiscences, there’s that abiding love for the rugged landscape we all call home and for those who pulled a living from a primal frontier eons ago.
“The book was built around notes I’d diligently kept in my moleskin journals while on tour. I wrote all the time,” he mentions. It wasn’t until the pandemic, though, that he took the time to sit down and get it done.
There’s no time for retirement or golf in Ron James’ high-energy world. His mojo gets stoked the most when channelling the life force from stage to stage. “That’s where I feel fully actualized,” he observes. “The whole point of growing older is to maintain a sense of purpose; it’s about not giving up. You’ve got to love what you do and if you do, then keep doing it.”
Shaky Town
Life hasn’t always been this fulfilling for the man who once considered a career as a history teacher. The crucible of time spent chasing a television career in LA in the 90s stirred a new purpose in him. “Ironically, it was chasing the American dream in Los Angeles 35 years ago that sired my Canadian one. During that three-year struggle to stay financially afloat, I learned a hard and fast lesson: a man is ultimately responsible for his own happiness. No one gives that to you. So once back in Canada I shifted my focus and set about pursuing that.
“I wanted to make sense of the world on my own terms. Write my own words, not deliver somebody else’s. I figured if those in other professions like law or medicine never had to move to America to actualize a career, maybe a comedian could do the same.” That’s when his groundbreaking Up and Down in Shaky Town: One Man’s Journey Through the California Dream was born.
Moving from stage to radio and then to television, the critically acclaimed solo show appeared on CTV’s Comedy Network as a 90-minute special and established him as an authentically Canadian comedian.
As he shifted to the comedy-club stage, wearing his retro rayon plaid shirt, his act evolved into Ron becoming the first true Joe Canadian—not the creation of advertisers looking to sell Molson beer. He held a mirror up to Canadians and made them laugh at their own idiosyncrasies
Staying Relevant
If there’s any theme to Ron’s shows, it’s that of the average man trying to make sense of a rapidly changing planet as terra firma liquifies beneath our feet. With a comedian’s eye for satire and poet’s ear for language, he cuts a wide swath through contemporary culture, covering topics as diverse as technology’s impact, micro-dosing acid and Canada’s current challenge dealing with “America’s newly elected, totalitarian Tangerine Genie.
“Ultimately, I’m a storyteller,” he offers. “I like the way words trip off the tongue and tickle the ear as well as the funny bone.” Whether it’s tales of mid-life dating, current food fads, idiotic conspiracy theories, irrational fears, Boomer health, camping in grizzly country or the long-gone world of childhood, a Ron James show has something for everybody.
Beating Back Father Time
As he enters his third act, Ron sometimes feels the tug of time, even though he does his best to stay in shape and is pain-free, except for a wonky knee from a lifelong habit of jogging.
“You’re certainly aware that maximizing the moments matters more, now that you hear the clock ticking,” he says. “Health is very important to me, so I cycle, use my Concept 2 rowing machine and hike in the summertime. I also like to cook, so I eat well and I don’t drink too much alcohol … anymore,” he says with a hint that there was a day he did.
“I partied hard once upon a time. Well, we all did. I mean, I’m from a day when a hash tag was something you got from getting too close to the hash knives.”
He tries his best to maintain a healthy lifestyle, which he believes is important to marshal the energy needed not only for his tours but also for leading a creative life. Maintaining a strict routine on the road, he gets up early and hits the gym if a hotel has one. Otherwise, it’s a two-hour brisk walk around town, provided he has the time. He’ll read the Guardian and Globe and Mail online, then the local newspaper wherever he’s playing, so as to customize content for that evening’s performance.
“I’ve always found being on the road very productive. New content broken in that night is exhilarating because it goes from the page to the stage. It’s a high-wire act! So, it’s only natural to want to wind down with a few wobbly pops post-show.
“And because so many Maritimers are stretched across the country, I’d meet lots of old pals in different cities after performances and to the pub we’d go. I don’t see as many anymore, ’cause well, like me, their capacity for quaffing late-night beer has waned. In the old days, I’d have a couple of pints post show and a single malt scotch in the company of aging soldiers from the 1970s I once ran with in my bullet-proof youth. Now I end the evening with a couple of Tylenol and a Gatorade in the hotel room alone,” he laughs. “Life in the fast lane of Canadian stand-up!”
To buy Ron’s book and to check for upcoming shows after he appears at the Fifty-Five Plus Lifestyle Show April 4-5 at Ottawa’s EY Centre, see ronjames.ca.
