Canadian comedian Derek Seguin will be performing in the Bella Coola Valley on Sunday, April 7 as part of a cross-country tour.
“We are lucky enough that I was in touch with him and he is willing to make the long journey out to Bella Coola,” said Bella Coola Valley Music Festival Society artistic director Rose Clark.
A long-time fan of the Montreal-based comedian, Clark said she has listened to him on the radio and said he appears on the CBC show The Debaters often.
“He’s fairly well known if you pay attention to stand-up comedy,” Clark said.
Reached at his home in Montreal Friday, March 8, Seguin said he is excited about visiting Bella Coola and was glad Clark reached out and invited him.
“I was like, ‘I’ve never heard of Bella Coola,’ where is that?’ I would like to go anywhere and they were flexible with their dates. I told them I was going to British Columbia on these dates, would you like to do a show on a Sunday?’ They said, ‘sure.’”
Seguin enjoys going to places everyone does not get to visit, such as the Central Coast.
“It’s kind of fun to discover a new place in this massive country that we live in.” He has gone to all the territories and said “what other kind of job would get you to these places for work?”
He’s snowmobiled in Whitehorse and fished in Iqaluit, he gave as examples.
The only thing he knows about the Bella Coola region is its connection to Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens goalie, whose mother has Nuxalk roots.
“It’s the closest I’m ever going to get,” he said of visiting somewhere his home team’s goalie came from.
He confirmed he’s a Habs fun “big time.”
Seguin is in the middle of his third national tour.
“We don’t always go to the same place, but this is the third time I’m going out, renting the rooms, selling the tickets and all that jazz.”
When he arrives by plane in Bella Coola, he will have been performing in the Okanagan. After that he flies to Calgary the next day.
While his shows don’t have a theme, he likes to talk about his life, his three children who are all adults now, his girlfriend and his observations of modern society.
“Just whatever I feel like. It’s my show. Being that I’ve never been to Bella Coola, I’ll probably even talk about the journey that got me from Kelowna to Vancouver and the stuff that happened to me earlier that day. You never really know with me.”
As a child growing up in Montreal, Sequin said he was very shy, which does not necessarily compute with his job.
“I was not by far the most outgoing or funny in my little group. I started late in 2004.”
He was already in his 30s, had two young children and a mortgage when he performed at an open mic.
“I was addicted immediately and somehow have managed to make a career out of it. I feel very lucky because I managed to find something that brings me joy.”
The home he owns is one kilometre from his childhood home, which is sister bought from their mom and lives in.
His children are 24, 23 and 18.
“It is very rewarding that we socialize together and they socialize with each other,” he said of his children. “I’ll get home from a trip on the road and my son will be visiting hanging out with his sisters. It’s very heartwarming that they choose to socialize.”
Seguin noted his shyness has never really disappeared.
“It’s different when you are on a stage and everyone in front of you has been instructed to listen. I much prefer to speak to 1,000 people from a stage than to speak with two people in a social circumstance, even now. I’m still shy when it comes to interpersonal communication.”
Before becoming a comedian he was an advertising executive.
Aside from being a stand-up comedian, he is an actor, host, narrator and voice actor.
Sequin was nominated for a Juno in the category of Comedy Album of the Year 2024.
A festival society fundraiser, the show will take place at Lobelco Community Hall.
Tickets are available for sale at Mountain Valley Organics and Kopas Store or by emailing bellacoolamusic@gmail.com and Clark will help the purchaser obtain tickets.
They are $35 in advance and $45 at the door.
It is a licensed event and for adults ages 19-plus, with a content warning the show contains language and material that some viewers may find offensive.
Last December the festival society hosted a trivia night that proved to be a lot of fun, Clark said.
Inspired by that event, there will be a local flavour to the opening act before Seguin’s show.
“We are coordinating a local debaters. There are going to be five locals - not professional, not trained. We are going to choose local topics and we are going to have a debate,” Clark said.
This will be the first time the festival has hosted a comedian for a standalone show as far as Clark knows.
“If people are interested in comedy they do know who Derek is and even if they don’t it is fun to see there is something new coming to the valley. People are really ready to laugh after the winter.”
Looking to the summer festival, taking place July 19, 20 and 21, Clark said some of the artists have been confirmed and she has a few more possibilities.
“I’m just waiting to see how the budget is going to sort itself out.”
They plan to announce the festival line-up at the end of April.
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