{"id":17151,"date":"2016-02-12T00:23:33","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T08:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=17151"},"modified":"2016-02-11T16:58:08","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T00:58:08","slug":"join-hotz-at-just-for-laughs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/02\/12\/join-hotz-at-just-for-laughs\/","title":{"rendered":"Join Hotz at Just for Laughs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeremy Hotz is coming to British Columbia, starting with a show in Kelowna on Feb. 25. (photo from Just for Laughs)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

For a man whose current show is the International Man of Misery Tour, whose CTV special was What a Miserable Show This Is <\/em>and whose DVD is called What a Miserable DVD This Is<\/em>, Jeremy Hotz is a very funny and upbeat guy. He\u2019s also really pleasant and cheerful on the phone.<\/p>\n

Hotz spoke to the Jewish Independent<\/em> on Jan. 27 from Toronto, where he was doing a press run for his show, which is being presented by Just for Laughs. The month-long Canadian tour started in Jasper, Alta., but then Hotz returned east to perform in Newfoundland. He is now making his way west and his first of four shows in British Columbia is in Kelowna on Feb. 25. The trip has him performing almost every day, sometimes twice in a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t work in the same order or anything,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of stuff I make up is specific to the city that I\u2019m in, so it\u2019s quite fresh for me every single time I go on stage. I\u2019m a very free-form comedian. I include the audience in the performance so they\u2019re part of the show. It\u2019s like a comic working without a net. That\u2019s what seems to work the best for me, even though a lot of comics will tell you, \u2018you should never do that.\u2019 But, of course, everything that I\u2019m told I shouldn\u2019t do, I do. I put my hand in front of my face, I turn my back to the audience, I do everything wrong, but if you do all those wrong things together, I guess it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whereas many comedians have their prepared routine and will perform the same jokes from show to show, Hotz has several concepts that he carries from one performance to another \u2013 complaints about getting older, for example \u2013 but the content will be different. \u201cThat\u2019s because I can\u2019t remember the damn jokes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He explained that he doesn\u2019t plan anything out. \u201cPlanning gives me anxiety,\u201d he said. \u201cI suffer from this generalized anxiety disorder \u2026 and what happens to me right before shows when there\u2019s stuff looming and coming up, it can get very bad, almost debilitating\u2026. But, once I get out there, it just melts away, it\u2019s gone. I feel much more comfortable in front of a theatre full of people than in a one-on-one conversation with a stranger.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that he ended up being a comedian in part because he never really got any other jobs when he was younger. \u201cI had to choose stand-up because it really was the only thing that was working for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humor has always been a part of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were Jews, so when we got together for dinners, it was funny,\u201d he said. First starting out as a comedian, \u201cI didn\u2019t even know there were comedy clubs. I didn\u2019t understand why people would have to go to a club to see funny, and then I realized, oh, not all families are funny, I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he had a bar mitzvah and attended Jewish school for six years as a kid, Hotz said, \u201cMy dad was the one that held the Jewish thing together in the family. My mother, of course, was Jewish as well, but she came from South Africa, like he did, and her family wasn\u2019t observant. We observed the High Holidays, the Yom Kippurs, we had Passovers, things like that, but as far as going to the synagogue every Saturday, we didn\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in South Africa, Hotz was a year old when the family moved to Canada; he has an older brother and a younger sister. He remained here until he moved to the United States in 1997.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened was I went to the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal and then these people from Disney gave me this big deal,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey just threw a whole bunch of money at me to stand there and do nothing for a year. I guess they were keeping me off the market and they were saying they were going to do all these things with me. They did nothing, but they gave me that chunk of money and, on that money, I moved to Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining his household soon will be a purebred long-haired chihuahua named Shackleton, after the polar explorer. Hotz is getting him from a longtime friend and had just seen the puppy while in Toronto for the press run. \u201cWe went on Canada AM and he was a fantastic little star,\u201d said Hotz. \u201cHe\u2019s only three months old.\u201d<\/p>\n

At best, Shackleton might be five pounds at his adult weight, Hotz added. \u201cHis nickname, of course, will be Shaq, which will be very funny because Shaq [O\u2019Neal] is the big giant basketball player and this dog will be about five pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Just for Laughs tour, there will be a few projects to which Hotz will return his attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re right now working on this documentary that\u2019s going to bring to light this anxiety thing that I suffer from because it\u2019s no joke,\u201d he said. He described it as being \u201clike an evil man that waits around the corner and can just pop out at any second.\u201d While fine on stage, it\u2019s generally \u201cin full force\u201d before the show, so he brings his brother, who\u2019s a psychologist, on the road with him, at least for the beginning of the tours, \u201cto get my head thinking about the right things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when acting in TV or film \u2013 Hotz is in Call Me Fitz<\/em>, and has done other television shows and the movies My Favorite Martian<\/em> and Speed 2<\/em> \u2013 the anxiety affects him. He was diagnosed about two and a half years ago.<\/p>\n

In addition to the documentary, Hotz said he and his writing partner, Brian Hartt, have a couple of projects that they would like to have produced. On his wish list for himself is an HBO special.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve pretty much done the Lettermans and the Lenos and other specials, Comedy Central \u2026 but I\u2019d like to do one HBO special. That would be something for me to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hotz is looking forward to performing at Vogue Theatre. \u201cI think it\u2019s one of the best venues,\u201d he said, \u201cand I really hope that a lot of people are there. I know that there\u2019s a comedy festival [jflnorthwest.com<\/a>] going on at the right time, which they\u2019ve made me part of, so hopefully that\u2019ll be neat. And it\u2019s a Just for Laughs thing, so that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy because they kind of launched my career. It\u2019s very difficult to get out of Canada \u2013 because of Just for Laughs and the festival, that\u2019s how I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Montreal isn\u2019t on this tour \u2013 and Hotz hasn\u2019t done the main Just for Laughs festival for awhile \u2013 he said he\u2019ll be there this July. While locals will be able to watch that performance on television, no doubt, his B.C. dates are a rare opportunity to see the award-winning comedian in person. Hotz is in Kelowna Feb. 25 (Kelowna Community Theatre), Vancouver Feb. 26 (Vogue Theatre), Nanaimo Feb. 27 (Port Theatre) and Victoria Feb. 28 (McPherson Playhouse). For tickets ($45.50), visit hahaha.com\/en\/jeremyhotz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeremy Hotz is coming to British Columbia, starting with a show in Kelowna on Feb. 25. (photo from Just for Laughs) For a man whose current show is the International Man of Misery Tour, whose CTV special was What a Miserable Show This Is and whose DVD is called What a Miserable DVD This Is, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[5311,5310],"class_list":["post-17151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-jeremy-hotz","tag-just-for-laughs"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}