1961 Magazine Fall 2014 | Page 15

writing team for This Hour Has 22 Minutes. The period was not without its struggles, but the lessons learned paved a way for calculated risks and the patience of knowing that success comes with time. REBELLION IS COMEDY. Living abroad only enhanced James’ love for his country, a love that he expresses through his commentary on the Canadian experience. Travelling in a minivan to a hockey tournament, the “leg room” of Air Transat, and being served by “Bovine Betty” at a backwoods Tim Horton’s are all things we can relate to. By using our commonalities as the backdrop for his stories, James becomes one of us — and we certainly aren’t as mundane as our American neighbours might think. In a sense, James speaks for Canadians by pointing out the obvious and making it enjoyable. Despite his, shall we say, “distaste” for our current Tory Government (whose contempt for parliamentary decorum make him feel like he is being “kicked in the prunes by the Orwellian jackboot”), James loves this country and loves making a living here. IT’S A HURCULE AN TA SK TO BE GOOD AT THIS. It certainly didn’t happen overnight, but James has arrived. Entering the fifth season of his television series on the CBC, The Ron James Show, James can sit atop the mountain of Canadian comedy and revel in the satisfaction that comes, not with achieving, but never giving up. Any one of his many life stages could have guided him in a different direction. Here he is. He made it... and Canadians love it. The Ron James Show airs Monday nights at 9:30pm ET/PT on CBC Television. For more information on Ron James, visit his facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/TheRonJamesShow or follow him on twitter: @TheRonJamesShow.