Bob Cates

I'm performing and speaking locally on Dec 12 in Guelph. Come and join us. Hear the Christmas message. I'm inviting our pizza guy! @CCAguelph crestwicke.org/information-u…

British Columbia! I'm coming to BC for some shows in February around Salmon Arm, Kamloops and Kelowna. My current shows at schools during the day of Feb 3-5. I'm looking to perform at YOUR EVENT on the evening of Feb 5 or 6. Will save you tons of money on travel since I'm already there! Note: location could be further west (ex: Vancouver) if Feb 6. Send your details/requests to me at comedyinmotion.com/contact-u…

"Pastor I didn't like that song in worship today" "Well it's a good thing we weren't worshipping you"

Currently headlining on the Celebrity APEX. @celebritycruiseline @celebrityapex

Come see us this Friday night in Woodstock ON. instagram.com/p/DecJJymD5P5/

Incoming Rant: “Why do comedians limit themselves?” or “A rough comedy club start redeemed by @RyanHamilton .” This is a bit long but hopefully interesting. As you know I rarely write stuff like this. Jane and I had a rare weekend open where we weren’t performing anywhere and as it happened @RyanHamilton was going to be in Toronto. So I booked some tickets for Jane and Hudson and I to see the show, having enjoyed his clean comedy on various videos over the years. It was a rough 3-hour drive which was double the normal driving time due to terrible Toronto traffic, as usual. So that put us in a bad mood, but we were eager to get to the show which took us to a comedy club which shall remain nameless all the way down on the Danforth, so a bit of a trek. We got into the showroom, crammed in like sardines, but it was impressive that they could get 150 people in that small of an area. The MC comes on to introduce him (or so we thought)… it turns out she was the opening act. Oh no. I forgot that comedy clubs do opening acts. Yikes…because she was really dirty, crude, and dressed in such a way that would be described as a cross between poor taste and inappropriate. And not that funny (perhaps because of all the previous things I mentioned). (Side note to performers: don’t let something as FIXABLE as how you dress hurt your act. Let it HELP your act!) We sat there in shock at the vulgarity and X-rated jokes, from someone opening for a clean headliner. I was about to get us and our teenage son out, if it went much longer but thankfully she stopped after maybe 10 mins. But then another opening act, came on. Doh! In this guy’s case he was a lot funnier, having some genuinely good word play and unique things that did make us laugh…but it was again hand cuffed by more X-rated material and his his case blasphemy too. (Note to comedians: if your going to offend anyone of faith in the audience by saying you’re smarter than God, at least don’t show your ignorance by calling Sunday the “7th day of the week,” These two acts I rated as X-rated not just for bad language but for speaking of crude topics such as their privates and private things, to use the most base descriptors I can think of. Thankfully his set was short as well, and to the relief of all Ryan came on and killed for 75 minutes with a totally clean set. No swearing, vulgarity, or Lord’s name in vain, etc. It can be done! (And we know this from seeing other acts too, like @BrianReganComic, @LelandKlassen, and @natebargatze ). I was really impressed with Ryan’s presentation: doing funny material about things that he had just experienced, IN Toronto and about something that happened in the world just two days earlier (Elon’s flying car). I love watching pros work and seeing just how much character and likability matter. A comic can have technically funny stuff, but if you don’t “like” them as a person I think, it just doesn’t work as well. Now, some people who read this might think, ah he’s just an old guy who’s no fun, a stick in the mud who knows nothing about comedy. Well I’m actually a guy who’s made a good living in comedy entertainment full time, for 30 years, and has a Canadian Comedy Award on my shelf. Sure, it’s true I’m not a stand-up comedian, but rather a comedy variety act. And because of that, I’ve always felt rather quite “outside” of the comedy world. It may also be because I’m a Christian and work totally clean, but I’m not sure. But I envy stand-up comedians for many reasons: They can literally travel to a gig with no checked baggage. They could probably walk on stage with the clothes they flew there in (ex: no costume needed). They don’t have props to lug around and check in and hope they don’t get lost. They don’t have to worry about technology, such as headset mics (most likely don’t even own a mic), music for their show, remote control operation, etc. And they don’t have to spend endless hours practising a physical skill to go WITH their comedy. (I’ve been focused on one new 3-minute routine with a new prop, for 11 months and it’s still not ready. But stand-ups who are talented, can literally sit down and *write* new material and put it in the show the next day. Finally, stand-up comedians can go a lot further than a comedy variety act. There are no “famous” comedy jugglers. Ok, there are a FEW famous comedy magicians, and comedy ventriloquists, but there are MANY famous stand-ups. However, I feel that there are thousands more stand ups since the barrier to entry (so to speak) is low, which means the percentage who “go far” or perhaps better “who make a good living” at it, are much fewer. Variety acts do have some advantages over stand-ups, though: First we are actually good for all ages, which means we can work in way more places. Even a clean stand-up really wouldn’t entertain much under 14-year-olds. But a comedy magician, comedy juggler or comedy ventriloquist can work for all ages: fairs, cruise ships, corporate, theatres, churches, fundraisers, conventions, you name it. Another advantage we have is that even if someone does not find our comedy funny, we’re doing extraordinary things that can still entertain them. And finally, as one friend said “at least we get paid more.” Well, I don’t know if that’s true but I like the joke! So to address my first point: Why do comedians limit themselves so much, by working dirty? That comedy club is one of the few places they can play with that material. But if they worked clean like Ryan Hamilton, they can perform ANYWHERE. I often wonder why so many performers don’t get it. I do understand the temptation as there is one joke that I’m always tempted to say that’s on the edge and do succumb to from time to time. (If I told you you’d laugh at the very pg rated nature of it, not R-rated). I’ve come to the conclusion that the performers who work dirty, are generally speaking, that way in real life. They speak and think about such things off stage, and so out of the heart it naturally flows, while on stage. So in that sense, it can be quite hard for them to be such a different person on stage. It’s a REAL challenge for me when acting as a talent agent to find clean acts that can follow me. Because, as it turns out, my definition (and a lot of the audience’s definition) of what is clean is totally different from what they think is clean. Part of this comes in part from my being a Christian. So for example, I would be aware that using the Lord’s Name in vain (JC or OMG) would not be considered clean, and rather off-putting to say the least. But that has become such a part of daily vernacular that a lot of comics would not register that. But it can be more than that and extend into the appropriateness of a stand-up’s topics. I performed one year at one event where the 400-person audience was 15% amish/mennonite and so they needed someone clean. I did well and was helping them find an act to follow the next year. I booked someone whom I thought was clean and they thoroughly said they were clean and understood the assignment. (And this is not someone who is known for being dirty by any means). But the client was so upset at how he offended a number of the audience members, they wanted a refund. So, this comes back again to what is clean. All I know is my version of clean is often very different from other performers. But I don’t want to be a total Debbie downer: I do have a some great variety act friends that are top world class pro’s that I know work clean and would trust to be truly clean (and they’re not Christians). So to finish off, I want to encourage stand-ups to clean up your act for your own personal career success! I also want to say a big thank you to the stand-ups out there who work clean, and specifically to @ryanhamilton. It was so great to be at your event live. You saved the night! I would love to spend some time with you someday. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll act like a stand up and be an opening act for you. :-)

I'm still loving wise for foreign transactions. Save money here. wise.com/invite/ecac/robertf…

The Quakers say, “Of your unspoken words, you are the master; of your spoken words, the servant; of your written words, the slave.”

I'll be headlining at the Port Elgin Pumpkinfest on Oct. 3. No I'm not going to juggle pumpkins! pumpkinfest.org/attractions/… @PEPfest

8-Rings in Italy

Ahh, performing zoom shows during Covid. Those were the bad old days.

A powerful reading today in my reformed, systematic theology book: "Thus the believer can say, "To live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21). What does it mean to live unto the Lord Jesus? It means that our concerns are no longer confined to that narrow circle of self. Instead, we live as those who are not our own. We know we were bought at a price 1 Cor. 6:19-20, so we deny ourselves to serve the Lord (Luke 9:23). Our whole lives are aimed at Christ, for our whole lives belong to him. We live to Christ because we live by Christ-by faith in him. By his grace, we surrender our wills to do his will in obedience to the Holy Scriptures. We live and, indeed, we die with the aim that Christ will be magnified (Phil. 1:20). We do this with the confidence that God's glory is our ultimate happiness. To live for him is to seek the best for ourselves, not in this world but in the age to come. We understand that man does not exist for himself, but for God. Therefore, the best life is one that is lived for God through Christ, who is the God-man." This paragraph summarizes Richard Sibbes in "The Christian's End"

I wish Bible studies and church meetings did this too

Very well put. This is the current state of Canada.

Amen

I'll be performing at speaking at 6pm in North Chicago (Park Ridge) tomorrow night if anyone wants to see the show. facebook.com/share/p/19bWzU3…

“It isn’t enough for the Christian man to read his Bible and pray, or to be part of a Bible study during the week, or to get involved in a campus ministry while in college, or to read good theology books, or to listen to good Christian podcasts, or to listen to good sermons while he is driving in the car. The redeemed man must be involved in a church. In one of the last books he wrote before he died, John Stott said this about the importance of the church: ‘I trust that none of my readers is that grotesque anomaly, an unchurched Christian. The New Testament knows nothing of such a person. For the church lies at the very centre of the eternal purpose of God.’ Stott was right. An unchurched Christian is a contradiction in terms” (Kevin DeYoung, in his chapter “The Redeemed Man Serving His Church,” in “The Redeemed Man,” pp. 185-86).

If you go to Europe, bring half as many clothes, twice as much money, twice as much sunscreen, and twice as much data!

Made it to Vienna Austria, and so it begins. #CanAm #Spyder #Slovakia #Austria #Italy.

Come see Hudson Cates and Cole Sheeran compete in the finals of Hespeler's Got Talent THIS Thursday night. facebook.com/share/p/17VvV4b…