Daryn Jones performs at the Garrison for the #JFL42 comedy festival

Anyone who has seen MTV live is definitely familiar with the wonderful Daryn Jones. I was sad to see him leave his position at MTV live as host, as I felt he was rather fitting for it. that being said, I had no idea that Daryn Jones did stand up comedy so you can imagine the excitement I felt when I discovered that he was one of the fabulous 42 talents that JFL has lined up for the Toronto festival. I caught the 7:00 show at the Garrison, which I am now familiar with as I have seen a few other shows there for the festival. If you haven’t heard of Daryn Jones before I suggest you check out some of his work. He’s funny.

Daryn Jones is an accomplished comedian and television personality and has been doing stand up comedy since he was 17 years of age. He has mad numerous appearances on CTV’s Open Mic Night with Mike Bullard, was a featured performer at the 2000 Canadian Comedy Awards and received the 2001 Gemini award  for best writing in a comedy series for his sketch comedy television show, entitled “Buzz.” as well as many other accomplishments too long to list here.

Seeing Daryn Jones in person was an incredible experience for me. Typically I’ve been going to various shows and discovering new comedians that I was unfamiliar with before and Daryn Jones was one of the few names I recognized right off the bat. It was intriguing to see him do stand up comedy for the first time. I had no idea what to expect from him really, and although the beginning of his set felt a little strained, as the show progressed further he got into the swing of things and had the audience cracking up.

HA! Speaking of cracking up, Daryn Jones tricked the audience into clapping for our infamous mayor Rob Ford. The beginning of his set probably was slow because his opening bit was geared toward Rob Ford and his alleged crack problem. Not to speak on behalf of everyone in the room, but I think people just didn’t know how to react, and understandably so. It’s one of those things where you  laugh because it’s funny to poke fun at, but nobody wants to clap at the fact that we hold the title as the 4th largest city in North America (not to mention one of the hippest cities) and the man that is supposed to be running our city is said to be dabbling in crack cocaine. It was very challenging on his part, but all in good spirit of course. His witty quips were well received by the audience (which by the way consisted of a considerable younger crowd of folks then some of the other shows I’ve been to) and I enjoyed myself.

As the set carried on, it took an unexpected turn. Daryn asked the audience if they were hungry, and then the DJ dropped a track and the audience was greeted by about 5 or 6 dancers all carrying bags of popcorn, who then proceeded dance through the rows of people and throw popcorn at the audience. Everyone in the audience seemed really confused, I just thought it was ironic because I actually was hungry but didn’t get to actually eat any *lol* It was unexpected to say the least, and definitely caught me off guard.

About halfway through the show comedian Cabbie Richards joined Daryn on stage as a nice surprise, and him and Daryn conversed and cracked jokes together!

Although some aspects of the show fell a little short for me, I still feel that Daryn Jones is a hilarious guy and good comic. I’m not even trying to be facetious, after all of the amazing sets I’ve been to Daryn’s made me laugh but it was lacking something in my humble opinion. The show was still enjoyable for me as I’m sure it was for many others as well. I’m pleased to be able to say that I finally got the chance to see him live and in person, and I wish I could have gotten an interview with him but he seemed pretty busy after his show so I left it at that.

To sum it up in short, my experience was a satisfying one. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more comedic material from Daryn Jones and I wish him all the best of luck in his endeavors. I give him a rating of 3/5 stars!

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Boss Grace Shaw