Ottawa City
April/May 2005
Profile: Jon Dore
Idol opens doors for wacko comic
At first blush, Canadian Idol might look like a carbon copy of American Idol. Squint your eyes at the panel of judges and Zack Werner could be Simon Cowell sans accent, Sass Jordan is a blond Paula Abdul and Farley Flex is Randy Jackson without the cool specs. But the Canuck version of the wildly popular cross-country talent competition has at least one distinguishing feature - Jon Dore.
Like the fool in a Shakespearean drama, the 29-year old Ottawa-born comedian has been infusing the popular CTV series with his wacky shtick since its inception three years ago. His mere presence brings comic relief to both jittery contestants and tense TV-viewers. Whether prying personal stories out of pop-star hopefuls in the audition room or dressing up in drag for an on-air skit, Dore seems at home in his role as the nation's nuttiest camp counselor. "I love performance. I love an audience-- feeling in control," he says, "I love the feeling of the laughter coming in and rolling out."
He originally auditioned to host the popular show. However, Dore lost out to Ben Mulroney. Meanwhile, the producers created a new position that was right up his alley. Dore was offered the job of correspondent, the official title for what might be best described as resident goofball--the comic foil to the decidedly less-playful Mulroney. "The first year, we didn't know what the hell we were doing -we were kind of inventing the role on the fly," he recalls, "It was a little forced, a little silly."
Dore's first on-camera experience came at Algonquin College where he studied broadcasting for two years. That led to a three-year stint as co-host on Roger's Daytime show. Meanwhile, he sought out every opportunity to ham it up in front of live audiences to develop his comedic craft. Howard Wagman (no relation to this writer), the manager at YukYuk's comedy club, remembers when Dore would perform on amateur nights six or seven years ago. He says Dore always possessed star qualities, but that he lacked two key ingredients: confidence and experience. "He was an average standup at best," says Wagman. He believes Dore's time on Idol has pushed his talent into the stratosphere. "He's become much more experimental and out there - now he's really, really good."
In addition to the standup circuit, Dore cut his teeth doing dinner theatre with Eddie May Mysteries back when the humourous whodunits were set at The Marble Works Steak House. Noel Council, his old boss, recalls Dore's knack for connecting with his audiences and creating marvelous characters like Van Parfait, an acne-faced loser who worked at Burger King. "Jon sprayed himself with Pam cooking spray to get the proper greasy look," says Council, "When he walked out, he smelled like a batch of french fries."
Following in the footsteps of his comic idols Jim Carey, John Cleese and more recently, Ali G, Dore loves the idea of fooling people, especially under the guise of a host of outrageous personas. While Dore ultimately envisions himself as more of a late-night talk-show personality, Canadian Idol has given him national exposure and a platform on which to develop his love for all things random and weird. He is also gaining insight into the high-stakes world of TV-ratings and its impact on the artist's creative control. "We brainstorm ideas with the writers and they have to be approved by the production company and the network," he says, "Is it TV-friendly, family-oriented?" Within these boundaries, he finds room for his off-kilter humour. In the show's first season for instance, a segment about Newfoundland culture led Dore to lock lips with a fish. The next year when the show stopped in St. John's, he took the loveable cod out on a date.
Without hesitation, Dore says the opportunity to travel across the country has been one of the biggest perks of the job. This year, auditions are being held in even more of the country's far-flung destinations like Whitehorse, Yukon, Sydney NS, and Charlottetown, PEI. As a stand-up comic at heart, he's thrives on all of the unknowns that come along with 13 unpredictable weeks on the road. " Anything can happen. You don't know who's going to go through to Toronto, you don't know who's going to cry, who's going to lose their mind -the whole show just unfolds as you're doing it."
The Canadian franchise formula seems to be working. Last year, each episode of Canadian Idol attracted an average of 2.2 million viewers - more than 17 million Canadians have watched the show. That puts it among the most-watched English language Canadian series of all time. " Idol has definitely helped my career - but it's not ultimately what I want to be doing," says Dore, who has just finished shooting a pilot that he's not ready to discuss.
Since landing the gig he moved to Toronto, but says his experiences in Ottawa have shaped him as a performer. "I don't want to get into the whole question of the artist getting out of Ottawa," he says in a rare moment of seriousness. "Toronto is definitely a better place for me work-wise. Ottawa is always home."
For now, he seems to be taking his high-profile status in stride. "I've been back to Ottawa a few times and sometimes someone will say to me, 'Hey, I know you, are you...?' And I look at them and say, 'you're my mother'."
