It’s hosted thousands of comics, moved locations countless times, and experienced both booms and busts. But Ottawa’s venerable Yuk’s Yuk’s comedy club has had, through those tumultuous forty years, one true constant: manager Howard Wagman.
In March of 1984, Wagman was approached by his uncle, Yuk Yuk’s founder Mark Breslin, to help open the chain’s latest club. It would mean a move to Ottawa, though Wagman had just relocated from his hometown of Toronto to Montreal. Still, Wagman, with his degree in Food and Beverage Management, believed he could serve as a much-needed anchor for this ship that had yet to prove seaworthy. Little did he know that he’d been at the wheel for the next four decades.
For the longest time, the club was situated in the basement of the Beacon Arms Hotel. There, Wagman hosted local wannabes cum industry stalwarts like Mike MacDonald and Tom Green and big-time U.S. imports like Sam Kinnison. Sometimes, he went above and beyond his day-in-day-out duties to play corner man and kingmaker.
“The first time Norm Macdonald went on our stage,” Wagman recalls, “he thought he had bombed and walked out of the club. I went outside and chased him down the street. Amateur night audiences are not exactly comedy-savvy people so he had no idea what potential he had and how great he could be.” A few encouraging words from Wagman, though, and Macdonald was back on the boards.
Howard Wagman, manager of Ottawa’s Yuk Yuk’s comedy club for over four decades, hosting icons like Mike MacDonald and Tom Green.
The Ottawa club has always stood fast by its weekly amateur night. “We care a lot about the development of talent,” says Wagman. “that’s why it’s one of the best comedy clubs in Canada.” It’s a convention that has always been a part of the franchise, ever since its formative days in T.O. “In the mid-70s,” Wagman recounts, “there was no place for comics to play at all. And so, Mark, who was like a brother to me, started this comedy night. People like Rick Moranis and Larry Horowitz would come and perform because there was nowhere else to go. It was wildly popular, but it was free. Mark decided that we should open a place as a business.”
In 1978, they did. Howie Mandell tried his luck there, Jim Carrey tried his luck there, and Rusell Peters tried his luck there. Once that Yorkville club had proven itself as a bona fide breeding ground, expansionism was inevitable. Currently, the Yuk Yuk’s empire includes eleven venues across Canada, serving, collectively, as the country’s top feeder of North American stage, TV, and movie comedy talent.
After COVID put it through its paces like an incorrigible heckler, the resilient Ottawa club, five moves later, has found itself in the city’s West End. It’s a long way from its last stop, ever-busy Elgin Street, so the move did rattle the usually implacable Wagman at least a bit. Now, though, he calls the new site a dream come true.
“I’ve got a great food and beverage partner in Mike Ziola, who owns Biaggio’s Italian Restaurant, and the food is fantastic. We do dinner and show packages and the place is packed every Wednesday to Saturday.”
The space in which he operates might be new, but for Wagman, the duties are the same: plentiful. “I’ve got to promote each artist. I’ve got to plan special events. I’ve got to make sure that the club is full.” Plus, there are all of those comics to deal with. Wagman not only books them in Ottawa, but in surrounding venues too. “We have a roster of over one hundred comedians that I have to satisfy, with agents across the country. You try to keep the good people working and get them the plum gigs.”
Note the magnanimousness. Comics have a reputation as neurotic, even caustic free-spirits—bit Wagman, who’s seen and known more than his fair share, has always been quick to come to their defense, reclassifying them as colourful, sociable, and dependable. They, in turn, have always appreciated him. He’ll be much missed if he ever decides to call it quits. But while the sixty-four-year-old admits that he has slowed down a little—he’s a gentleman farmer now in a small town just outside Ottawa—he’s not yet ready to dim the spotlight on comedic talent forever.
“I’m older and wiser,” he self-assesses. “I used to spend day and night at the club. Now, I know how to balance things better. I’m also there less because I’m not building something, I’m maintaining it. And I’ve got a wonderful group of managers and staff. It’s a good life.”
A good life promoting a good night’s entertainment, Wednesday to Saturday.
By Dan Lalande
