Carter Hortie likes to make people laugh – almost as much as he likes raising money for charitable causes.
The North Vancouver comedian is one of two headliners at Stand Up For FSHD at the Columbia Theatre, happening this Saturday, July 19. The show is raising money to research facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, a muscle wasting disease affecting the face, shoulders and upper arms.
While Hortie doesn’t have anyone in his life with FSHD, he makes an effort to perform at charitable fundraising events, stemming from tragedies in his own family.
“My father passed away a year and a half ago from cancer and my mother passed away from cancer in 2007,” he said. “When you get older, you start to see how people suffer in life, and I decided that I would take on as many fundraisers as possible.”
WARNING: contains strong language
Hortie has been a mainstay at Columbia’s Lafflines Comedy Club for much of his career, ever since he first got onstage at an amateur night at Punchlines in Gastown some 20 years ago.
“My brother did some standup, and after I saw that show, I was like, ‘I’ll be here within one month and I’ll have five minutes,’ and he was like, ‘I’m going to hold you to that,’” he recalled with a laugh.
“I came back with five minutes of standup comedy – or, at least, what I thought was standup comedy – and it went over really well and I walked out of there hopelessly addicted to standup.”
His comedic style – perhaps more refined today than it was back then – is a mix of political satire and observational comedy, but he throws in stories from his life that paint a picture of his upbringing, with hilarious results.
“To give you an idea, the only impression I do is of my father,” he said with a laugh. “At some point in your career, you’re going to be talking about your family and how you were raised. It’s usually a good indicator of why someone becomes a standup comedian.”
Hortie is sharing the stage with Dino Archie, a young comic from California who’s also a familiar face on the Lower Mainland comedy scene.
“We’re almost the antithesis of one another – he’s a young black comedian from Los Angeles and I’m an older white comedian from Canada,” said Hortie. “He’s a very, very funny young man, and it should be a whole lot of fun.”
Ticket sales aren’t the only source of donations for the fundraiser – Hortie will be selling CDs at the show, with all of the profit going to FSHD research. The fundraiser is for the FSHD Canada Foundation.
The gutbusting double bill is set to start at 7 p.m., with doors at 6 p.m. and music by Mixed Company, a barbershop quartet, at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and are available via eventbrite.com or at the door.
