Laff Trax Comedy Theatre

Laff Trax Comedy Theatre is a comedy production house established in Edmonton, Alberta in 1990. The goal was to provide another outlet for comedians to hone their craft.

Beginning

Comedian Dez Reed founded Laff Trax Comedy Theatre. With its hand drawn logo and two comedians on its roster, the going was slow.The first ever production featured Dez Reed and Bob Angeli at Bonnie's Lounge in The Bonnie Doon Mall, Edmonton, Alberta.

The Toronto Years

After moving to Toronto from New York, Dez Reed was quite busy performing stand up at the many existing venues in the GTA and Laff Trax Comedy Theatre sat in limbo.
It wasn't until 1991 that an idea came of producing another show. Kelsey's restaurant in North Toronto was the location of the first Toronto show. It featured Dez Reed and long time Toronto comedy legend Frenchie McFarlane. The second Laff Trax show at Kelsey's featured Stu Francis. The rest built from there.
In 1992, Dez Reed partnered with Grant Zane to open The Comedy Spot in Ottawa, Ontario. The venture was short lived and the duo moved to Toronto.
Later that year the two opened Laff Trax Comedy Theatre (the first Laff Trax club) in Toronto's Airliner Hotel, at the same time they opened Chaplin's Comedy Club in The Hilton, Downtown Toronto. There was a modicum of success at both clubs, but ultimately both clubs shut their doors.
One nighters comtinued for a couple more years until Dez Reed accepted a position at Yuk Yuk's, which absorbed all of Laff Trax contacts. Seemingly, Laff Trax Comedy Theatre was dead and buried.

The Saskatchewan Years

After Dez Reed and Yuk Yuk's parted ways. Dez began touring North America working for one nighter agencies and "b" list clubs. The idea of booking one nighters became appealling once again. His home town of Saskatoon had just had its one nighter booking agent Bryan Cox decide to give up booking, there was an opening.
Dez returned to Saskatoon and made perhaps the worst business union of his life. He partnered with MCP, a music booking agency that was interested in producing comedy with Dez as consultant and using the Laff Trax Comedy Theatre name and trademark. The outset was successful, however, soon Dez Reed became disillusioned with the ethics of his new partners. He was right not to be trusting, MCP's Dave Calyniuk and Rich Libner had gone behiond Dez' back and attempted to register Laff Trax Comedy Theatre as their own. After a brief legal battle, Dez regained total control of his company and MCP faded into obscurity.
Though considerable damage had been done to the Laff Trax Comedy Theatre franchise by MCP's questionable business practices, Dez Reed and Laff Trax Comedy Theatre was once again resurrected.
By 2003, Dez had built the Saskatoon scene into one of the hottest comedy scenes in Canada. Comedians from across North America were travelling in hoardes to perform for Laff Trax.

The Great Plains Comedy Festival

In 2002, The Great Plains Comedy Festival was founded. With Laff Trax Comedy Theatre as the official booking agency, more credibility than ever had been attributed to the franchise.
The ultimate was when comedy legend Steven Wright came to Saskatoon and Dez Reed was tapped to open for him and Laff Trax Comedy Theatre was included as a junior partner in the promotion of the event.
The following year, another legend was booked by Laff Trax, and that was Emo Philips.

Presently

Laff Trax Comedy Theatre continues to produce shows in Saskatchewan and across North America.
Though a full time successful comedy club has continued to be elusive, Laff Trax is the only legitimate comedy producer in Saskatchewan, producing the lion's share of the corporate comedy events as well as weekly and monthly shows as well as the annual Great Plains Comedy Festival.

Legacy

Many legendary comedians such as Emo Philips have performed on Laff Trax Comedy Theatre stages, but more importantly Laff Trax has helped such comedians as Russell Peters, Stuart Francis, Brent Butt, Leland Klassen continue their dream. Laff Trax Comedy Theatre has also given many comedians their actual start, these include Shaun Majumder, Kelly Taylor and Myles Morrison.

References

1. The Saskatoon Star Phoenix, June 30, 2006
2. Saskatchewan Business Magazine
3. Regina Leader Post, January 22, 2007
4. http://www.art-search.com5. http://www.theatresaskatchewan.com6. EYE Weekly Magazine

External Links

[http://www.lafftraxcomedytheatre.com] Official site
[http://www.greatplainscomedyfestival.com] Festival Site