Behind Red Green is a projection of an emblem that says the “International Possum Brotherhood” and resembles the group of members of POSSUM LAKE who partook in meetings at Possum Lodge at the Algonquin Commons Theatre on Oct. 18.
The “I’m not Old I’m Ripe,” tour landed at Algonquin for its 77th live performance with an almost maxed out crowd of just under 700 people.
Not only did the audience feel part of Green’s so-called group meeting, but the laughs were created from Red Green’s relatable material – as most of the audience members were people over 50 or students that came with their family.
Brandon Tkakuk, a welding and fabrications techniques student, decided to buy tickets for his father Troy to see the show with him for his birthday. “He’s just a Canadian classic, we’ve watched his show for years, and he’s just a great wholesome Canadian,” said Troy Tkakuk.
The Red Green Show appeared on CBC television from 1991 to 2006, and was an outdoors, do-it yourself parody with a group of men who liked fishing and using duct tape.
The show at the college was like watching TV again when you were younger again, except this time Green, played by longtime Canadian comic Steve Smith, was older (he’s 70 in real life). And he embraced the change.
“It’s not easy getting old, you old guys know that. I find the joints don’t do as well as they use to,” he told the crowd. “I bet the guy that made Wizard Of Oz got the idea of the tin man from watching an old guy getting out of his car.”
And the old people problems didn’t stop there. During Green’s performance, he also described to the audience why babies are living the life old guys like him can only dream about.
“I’ll skip the obvious,” he said. “You don’t have to do anything, you don’t have to talk to anybody, somebody dresses you, somebody feeds you, somebody baths you and rubs you down with oil.”
And the list went on.
“Nobody gets mad when you fall asleep on the couch, you never have to pay for anything, nobody makes fun of you for not having teeth, women you don’t even know look at you like they like you and you don’t even have to go to a bar to pick them up. Just lie in your carriage and they’ll pick you up,” Green said.
The show went on with jokes about his wife, the differences between when men shop and when women shop, and reasons while IT people will never be better than a handyman.
Green interspersed his 90-minute monologue with videos lampooning his brand of handyman wisdom and had the audience help him conclude the show by having them repeat his well-worn mantra:
“If women don’t find you handsome, they can sure find you handy,” he said, as he finished up his live performance – a line that will never get old, if not ripe.