An Evening with Stephen Leacock

An Evening With Stephen Leacock is currently airing on PBS TV. The show was originally seen on CBC, BBC, BRAVO, and numerous European networks.

John Stark first began portraying the great Canadian humorist back in 1972, before a freshman English class at Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver. Response was so positive that he took the show on the road and was soon asked to perform at McGill University in Montreal, where Leacock himself lectured for over twenty-five years. Stark then went on to perform at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York, and at the National Arts Center in Ottawa, where the show was taped and later released as an RCA album. A successful tour of Europe followed with performances at the Oxford University and the Edinburgh Festival, where the show was named "critic's choice."

This presentation features Stark as the disheveled McGill University professor - a Leacock trademark, and draws upon Leacock's vast body of work which consists of over forty volumes of humor and essays. Leacock's style was much like Mark Twains'. One of his most famous sketches, "My financial career" was first published in LIFE magazine in 1896. The story focuses on the plight of a bashful young man's first brush with the intimidating world of high finance. It is typical Leacock: the little man, Chaplinesque in character; always at odds with the machinations of modern society; never quite fitting in anywhere; confused, perplexed, flustered, and someone that everyone can identify with. By the 1920, Leacock had become the most widely read humorist in the English speaking language.

"precisely Leacock"
... Financial Times, London

"A delightful evening with a fine humorist of great talent"
... The Hollywood Reporter

"…stunning portrayal of Canada's master humorist"
... Montreal Star

Click here to play a streaming three minute excerpt of An Evening with Stephen Leacock. You must have RealPlayer installed in order to see the video. You can download the RealPlayer free of charge at www.real.com