Al Val brings joy, truth and trans representation to the comedy scene

Al Val is a comedian, actor, writer and musician who has appeared on programs for CBC, MTV, and YTV. She’s also headlined standup comedy shows all over North America. A graduate of Second City’s Conservatory Program, Val also performed with improv troupe “Starwipe” for 8 years. Val is set to co-headline Just for Laughs Toronto with Allie Pearse in the Fall, has just finished filming a reality show for OutTV, and has been performing non-stop during Pride. Val combined coming out as transgender during the pandemic with her sudden emergence as a force in Canadian comedy. She spoke with me about how, as a comedic performer, one of the first things she is driven to address is the legibility of her gender nonconforming identity. She does this with a terrific sense of timing, and also through her great command of physicality—a thing that not all stand-up comedians have. We also talked about the sense of responsibility she has to bring joy through humour; this is, of course, common among comics, but perhaps not as common as we might think. Her goal is not only to “break the tension,” but to also remind audience that they don’t need to decide what is “morally okay to laugh at,” and that there is no need for “pity” or “coddling”—affective states that are antithetical to a good comedy show and certainly not conducive to recognizing transgender as a legitimate social identity. It was really interesting to get a sense, from Al, of how the industry of comedy works in Canada. It’s a competitive market, and one where comedians don’t really receive much or any support. For this reason, she says she’s had to build a career mostly on her own. Working independently means that, as she puts it, “your attention is being pulled in so many different directions.” There can and should be more support for the art of stand-up comedy in Canada, and so we address the kinds of organizing and lobbying that’s happening around this issue, which has only been exacerbated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The conversation really zeroes in on the question of how comedy works, and the place of vulnerability and authenticity in it. This is especially relevant to Al Val’s brand of comedy. Comedy is, from her perspective, easier when it's “honest,” and this is in spite of the fact that there’s a degree to which, when you perform, you’re always “submitting yourself to judgment” as an entertainer. That relationship between humour and truth is maybe an especially salient feature of today’s comedy, when you think about the ways that it’s emerged as a confessional, intimate, immediate art form in the last 5 years. The way Al puts it, it’s about “packaging” both “trauma and insight into joke form” to both “disguise” it and inspire people to “think and reflect” on a “thesis” for a while. A central part of her comedy right now is working through the question of “what constitutes gender.” In the words of Tey Meadow, “Gender subjectivity is tender ground. It shifts beneath our feet, eludes easy capture, and impinges on emotional nerves. Sometimes we find ourselves seeking recognition in the most unlikely places. Even when handled with care, it is treacherous territory.” We’re seeing this throughout society right now, as greater support for transgendered folks is also provoking a regressive, conservative backlash against gender nonconformity. I found it really striking that, for Val, the focus is on making sure that, with positive trans representation, we make transphobic jokes and rearguard politics “a relic of the past.” She says she just has a “nonchalant, indifferent blind trust” that we will look back in ten years and know that the backlash was the last gasp of a hostile, uncaring attitude that has no place in society.