Welsh comedians ready to give Toronto a tongue-lashing

Heard the one about the three Welsh comedians heading to Toronto to celebrate St David’s Day?

The St David’s Society of Toronto will hear all about it on Saturday night (March 3) as Phil Evans, Gary Slaymaker and Daniel Glyn jet into Canada for a night of stand-up comedy.

The three comedians will be performing their critically-acclaimed show ‘The Dragon Has Three Tongues’.

“It’s a showcase of the very best in Welsh comedy,” said Evans.

“Welsh audiences will be familiar with what the show is all about, but this is the first time we have taken it abroad.

“The St David’s Day Society of Toronto is made up of Welsh ‘exiles’ in Canada, so we’ll be mixing the comedy with some ‘hiraeth’ (longing) for the Land of My Fathers.”

Messrs Evans, Slaymaker and Glyn are three familiar faces and voices in Wales and appear regularly on S4C (Welsh language TV) as well as BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru.

Two years ago they joined forces to create ‘The Dragon Has Three Tongues’ to provide an innovative showcase for their different talents.

“It’s funny and entertaining, with the accent firmly on matters Welsh,” said Evans, the man who puts the ‘cwtsh’ into comedy in Wales.

“It’s the comic equivalent of ‘buy-one-get-one-free, except, of course that you get three comedians for the price of one,” laughed Evans.

“We can promise Toronto a true taste of Wales, something that will give them that extra-special ‘cwtshi’ feeling.”

Evans sparked an internet debate earlier this year on the use of the word ‘cwtsh’.

According to Evans, the resident ‘Hug-meister’ of Wales, the correct spelling of the word is cwtsh.

“I am sure there will be plenty of Welsh scholars out there willing to say different, but in my book it should always end in ‘sh’ rather than ‘ch’,” said Evans. “It should be self evident as the ‘ch’ in Welsh is usually pronounced in the same way as you’d say ‘loch’.

“We will have to see what the ‘ex-pats’ in Toronto have to say about the matter.”

Daniel Glyn has been working in comedy since 1991. He jokes that one day he’ll get it right!

As well as performing stand-up in Welsh and English, he has also written gags for Stuart Cable, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, Jonathan Davies, Bryn Terfel, Lesley Phillips, Dewi ‘Pws’ Morris and Rhys Ifans.

Gary Slaymaker is a native of Cwmann, near Lampeter, but now lives in Cardiff.

After a varied career working in a video shop, comics shop, a bar and as a labourer, his big break came in the late 1980s when he presented a late-night show on BBC Radio Cymru.

He later moved over to television, presenting his film-review show ‘Slaymaker’.

In 2005 he published his first Welsh language novel ‘Y Sach Winwns’ (The Onion Bag).

Myfanwy Bajaj, President, of The St David’s Day Society of Toronto, said the ‘The Dragon Has Three Tongues’ show would be a departure from the standard St David’s Day fare in Toronto.

She said: “They say that a change is as good as a rest. Well there won’t be any rest because we will all be too busy laughing!

“Mixing our St David’s Day dinner with a comedy show is a new departure for us, but we’ve heard good reports that ‘The Dragon Has Three Tongues’ is a highly-acclaimed show.

“We have a new, younger group coming onto the Board of the Society, hoping that this will infuse some new life and enthusiasm into the society. It is very important to keep the Welsh connection alive in this diverse city of Toronto. We must all try to keep our identity in our multicultural surroundings.”

Weblinks: http://www.philevans.co.uk, http://www.dewisant.com/stdavid/

Twitter: @TheSlay, @DanielGlyn, @philevanswales

Picture: The poster for the Toronto gig.

Press release issued by Robert Lloyd on behalf of Phil Evans, Daniel Glyn and Gary Slaymaker.

To read more about Phil Evans and his life as a comedian in our Humour section click here.