Hailing from Rochester, New York, comes a comic who has been offending audiences for the better part of 30 years.
Mike Dambra, the ‘smart ass king of comedy’ will be headlining this Saturday night at the Hideout Pub.
From smoky clubs throughout New York City to Northern Alberta, there’s a long list of famed comics Dambra has toured with — including Rosie O’Donnell, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Howie Mandel.
Due to a late surprise known as four-year-old daughter, Grace, Dambra moved to Edmonton and wound up taking on a job he never thought was in the cards for him — stay-at-home dad.
“My sperm cures cancer,” said Dambra, adding that he and his wife’s miracle baby came as a complete surprise, following his wife’s cancer treatments where pregnancy wasn’t supposed to be a possibility.
With his days filled with being sassed by his young lass, Dambra has no shortage of nights booked with comedy.
He’s become known as the comic who can handle any heckler and the inventor of the infamous ‘Pickle Bit’. But the self-admitted obnoxious, politically incorrect persona he becomes on stage is only a façade.
“It’s just a character…and it’s definitely obnoxious,” he said, adding that he’s a really quiet guy in real life as he explains his ‘Pickle Bit’ — a part of his show that became famous after he insisted on his right to use the widely unaccepted word ‘retard’ in his skit after a battle with a female heckler.
The bit has morphed into something uniquely Dambra, ultimately offensive to the sensitive audience member and notoriously funny to critics and cohorts on both sides of the border.
When it comes to ‘heckler management’, Dambra has been called upon to deal with every table flipper, ice cube thrower, foul-mouthed, intoxicated, rage-filled sort that every did attend a comedy night looking for trouble.
“They’re like bad children — so you’re really nice, and then kinda mean, then really mean and then scary (to them)…my mother always skipped steps two and three,” explained Dambra, who admits that he looks forward to handling hecklers.
He’s even tried to be someone else. The occasional well-paying corporate gig has called for Dambra to ‘tone it down’.
“It’s no fun for everybody. They’re not getting me, they’re getting the watered-down version,” he admits. “I’d rather swear so people are like, ‘Wow, that guy’s got a problem’.”
Tickets are $12 for the show, which begins at 8:30 p.m.
Tickets to dinner and the show are $30 and seating begins at 7 p.m. Phone 403-932-4441 for details.
