Charlie Demers

Charlie Demers is a Juno-nominated stand-up comedian, BC Book Prize-nominated author, & co-star of two Emmy-winning Netflix animated series, Beat Bugs and The Last Kids on Earth.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Demers is a regular performer on CBC Radio One’s The Debaters, and co-host of Citytv’s comedic panel show The Citynews List in Vancouver.
In 2005, he was the judges’ choice for Vancouver’s funniest new comic; since then he has been featured on national radio, in print, as well as in festivals and live venues across Canada and the Pacific Northwest and with Paul Bae as the sketch duo “Bucket”–the act Robin Williams called “the future of comedy.” In 2018 his album ‘Fatherland” was nominated for a Juno Comedy Award. This was the first time in 34 years Juno had announced comedy nominations. Charlie Demers has published numerous books, including The Prescription Errors, Vancouver Special, The Horrors, Property Values, and Primary Obsessions.

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?
At this stage in my life I have come to think of creativity primarily in sacred terms, & of human creativity as our small part in that process of unfolding. I mostly think of it as the gracious & gratuitous gift of the new, where before there wasn’t.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?
Usually at the extremes of either very solitary reflection or intense interaction & jamming with friends.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?
It sounds specific, & it kind of is, but also sort of isn’t: I wish I’d known I would live past forty. Neither my mother nor her father made it out of their thirties, & that idea was always sitting on my shoulder, & I think it rushed a lot of my work. I would have like to know I had time.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?
Charlie Chaplin or Paul Robeson

What myths about creativity would you like to set straight?
That art is therapeutic. (Therapy is therapeutic. Art is supposed to be artistic.)

What music are you listening to these days?
Ashleigh Ball’s ‘Before All the Magic’s Gone.’ Can’t stop listening to it.

What are you reading these days?
Theology books

What are you proudest of in your life?
Being my daughter’s father.

How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger?
I am a writer and performer.