An Interview with Shaun Majumder

With the 31st edition of the Just For Laughs comedy festival set to begin in 11 days' time, I am blessed to attend -- and cover -- the festival for the 28th time. And with the days leading up to the festival, the good people at the JFL p.r. department are not only giving me the chance to see a selection of shows to write about in my Grapevine column, but also get the chance to interview a select group of comics who will shortly be making their way to Montreal. One of them is Canadian comic Shaun Majumder, a longtime Just For Laughs veteran (and best known for his sweaty correspondent character Raj Binder, whom you see regularly on CBC's "This Hour Has 22 Minutes"). This year, Majumder is hosting a live Just For Laughs show for the very first time, which will be the Ethnic Show, which starts its run at Club Soda on July 10. Last week, I had the chance to conduct a phone interview with him from his hometown of Burlington, Newfoundland. The end result is below, which originally appeared in my Grapevine column in the June 29 edition of the West End Times (oh, and by the way, that's Majumder and me pictured above, schmoozing it up outside the Delta Hotel bar one late Saturday night during the 2006 Just For Laughs festival).

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Comedian Shaun Majumder was born 41 years ago in Burlington, Newfoundland, the son of a Bengali Hindu Indian father and a native Newfoundland mother of European descent. But what was it like to grow up in this unique Canadian province as a child of mixed ethnic heritage?

“It was great, but it was challenging, too, especially when me and my friends played different sports. We picked a favorite player and we had to be that favorite player,” said Majumder in a recent interview with the Grapevine. “I was always the Black guy or the Chinese guy, like Michael Jordan or Bruce Lee. And when we played hockey, I could never be Wayne Gretzky; I had to be Grant Fuhr!”

A longtime veteran of the Just For Laughs festival, Majumder will be performing hosting duties for the very first time, as he will be helming this year’s edition of The Ethnic Show, which will be playing at Club Soda from July 10-14 at Club Soda, and July 26 and 27 at Metropolis. Joining Majumder on the Ethnic Show lineup will be Gary Gulman, Trevor Noah, Cristela Alonzo and Fahim Anwar.

“I’m really excited about hosting a live Just For Laughs show for the first time. It’s the only festival that I always commit myself to doing because it is THE greatest comedy festival around. I also enjoy the challenge of being the person who strings all the elements together. In a way, you get to spend the evening with me and we make a connection until I have to introduce the next act. I’m the sounding board where I mix the ethnicities who are appearing on the show, which is sort of like C3PO with the ability to speak six million languages,” said Majumder, who was speaking from his hometown of Burlington.

A veteran comedian who has appeared in a wide array of American and Canadian TV shows such as “Republic of Doyle”, “The Firm” and “Detroit 1-8-7”, not to mention as a regular on CBC’s “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” in the guide of the sweaty, nervous correspondent Raj Binder, Majumder realizes the importance that people should be able to laugh at their own ethnic traits, as well as those of other communities, as long as the source of that laughter has plenty of honesty and sensitivity to it. “Our planet has so much biological diversity to it, that nothing is pure to begin with. The Ethnic Show is not just ethnic jokes, but looking at different perspectives of different people, which is what comedy is all about, not to mention the power of diversity,” he said. “At the Ethnic Show, we are going to spray the crowd with a lot of diversity.” 

These days, Majumder is focusing on his latest project, a reality series called “Majumder Manor”. Since it started airing earlier this year, the show traces his efforts to help make his hometown of Burlington, Newfoundland a potential hot spot for tourists. So far, Majumder – who is the only shareholder in the project – reports that a greenhouse has been built and is fully functional, and is in the midst of developing a luxury campsites for potential visitors in which prospector tents will be used for accommodations. There will also be an arts and cultural festival about anything and everything concerning Newfoundland called “The Gathering”, which will take place in Burlington from August 23-25.

“Majumder Manor is a long process and not an easy one, but at least this project will benefit the community at large in its mission to draw tourists to Newfoundland. This is quite a challenge, because there is not much here in Burlington, but I am excited about its prospects,” he said.

Fr more information about the Ethnic Show or any other Just For Laughs shows, visit their website at www.hahaha.com. And if you want to find out more about Shaun Majumder’s upcoming The Gathering Festival, go to www.thegatheringburlington.com.