{"id":1901,"date":"2012-01-10T11:10:22","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T19:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=1901"},"modified":"2012-01-10T11:10:22","modified_gmt":"2012-01-10T19:10:22","slug":"wool-took-road-less-travelled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/01\/10\/wool-took-road-less-travelled\/","title":{"rendered":"Wool took road less travelled"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glenn Wool experienced two life-changing events 15 years ago. He was involved in an automobile accident, and he won $10,000 on a scratch-and-win ticket. Instead of replacing his car and continuing to work as a fledgling Canadian road comic, he decided to move to England, and that made all the difference.<\/p>\n

At the time, most comedians had their sights set on the United States. Wool reflects that heading across the pond had a very positive effect on his career.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Funnyman Glenn Wool: booze, wild hair, bowtie (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI was one of the only Canadians to do it, and there was just loads of stage time. It really helped me find my voice and blossom,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

According to Wool, performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has been a huge opportunity for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cEdinburgh, that\u2019s like the Olympics, man\u00c9 it\u2019s hard, but you grow so much as a performer because you\u2019re just doing an hour every night for a month,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to write a new hour every year. It\u2019s the best thing you can do. I mean, you get sorta ripped off sometimes by shady venue managers, but at the end you\u2019ve kinda gone through comedy university.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wool\u2019s success has come with a price. Writing a new hour of stand-up each year is practically unheard of in the United States. There are a few notable exceptions, but it requires uncommon dedication and work ethic.<\/p>\n

On top of that, the entertainment business is a risky one. One particular year at Edinburgh didn\u2019t turn out according to plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the run the venue went out of business and declared bankruptcy, so I was on the hook. It was like I did Edinburgh without selling a ticket,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

It might be the passage of time, or his positive attitude, but he\u2019s able to laugh off misfortune. \u201cNothing bad happens to a stand-up comic, because at least you can get material out of it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Now, Wool\u2019s back in Canada for the first leg of the Snowed In Comedy Tour, originally conceived four years ago by his friend Dan Quinn as an excuse to snowboard at ski hills all day and then do some stand-up at nearby bars. The tour has grown each year since. This season, the two will be joined by Pete Johansson, Craig Campbell, and Arj Barker.<\/p>\n

All of the comics have worked with each other in some capacity in the past and Wool has great respect for his co-workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is going to be swinging for the fences because we\u2019ve all got pride. I don\u2019t think anybody is going to be working on any new stuff,\u201d says Wool. \u201cThey\u2019re all pretty big heavy hitters of comedy; you don\u2019t wanna go up there with something half-assed because it\u2019s gonna stick out like a sore thumb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snowed in Comedy Tour<\/strong>
\nFriday, January 13
\nMcPherson Playhouse, $35
\nsnowedincomedytour.com\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glenn Wool experienced two life-changing events 15 years ago. He was involved in an automobile accident, and he won $10,000 on a scratch-and-win ticket. Instead of replacing his car and continuing to work as a fledgling Canadian road comic, he decided to move to England, and that made all the difference. At the time, most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-january-11-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1901"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1905,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901\/revisions\/1905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}