Dan Donnelly, game show queen

29Nov 2022.

As a kid, Dan Donnelly was a fan of Whose Line Is It Anyway? “And it is still my dream to get Colin Mochrie to come to our show,” he told me. His show is a live podcast called Comedy Game Showdown. “The show's format is inspired by the panel shows of British TV like Mock the Week, 8 Out of 10 Cats, et cetera, in which two teams of comedians compete with an array of quizzes, commentary, improv, and debates, all on a monthly pop culture theme. These themes are often directly part of or adjacent to geek fandoms, and one way in which our show shines is in actually representing the queerness and other diversities of fandom in a way that a lot of geek and pop culture targeted media does not.”

The format is simple. Two teams of three comedians compete in a trivia challenge, and of course being comedians, they improvise some pretty funny responses. When I scrolled through the podcast episodes, I saw a lot of names that I recognize, including such queer talent as Ada Nicolle, James O’Hara, Al Val, and Vong Sho, It warms my heart to know that there are so many queer nerds around. “It goes back to the original Star Trek. In the late '90s that dedicated fan base transferred from conventions to online communities, which allowed women and gay men to come aboard.” Donnelly prefers using stand-up comedians on the panel, “but I wanted to produce something other than another run-of-the-mill stand-up show. In the Toronto comedy community you see the same people all the time, but why see them doing the same thing all the time?”

After building the show over a three-year period, Donnelly is looking for ways to expand its reach. “I’ve been submitting it to various fringe festivals across Canada,” he said. “We took the show to Humourfest in Quebec City last May and it was a great experience.” And possibly, in the future, TV? “To me there is no downside for a company like CBC to produce a panel show,” he said. “They do some radio shows in a format like this, such as The Debaters and Because News.” I agree with him in one respect - our national broadcaster practically has a moral obligation to put Canadian comedians on television, and the panel show format is ideal. So how about it, CBC? Give Dan Donnelly a call.