Four months after his last appearance in the Lower Mainland, Chris Rock laid to rest any notion he’s past his comedic best-before date.

In comedy, timing is everything. So the decision to bring Lisa Lampanelli to our province in the wake of a complaint to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal against comedian Guy Earle is truly funny. If this province can’t handle an outburst from a no-name comic in a restaurant, how on earth are we going to get through the full-on racial and sexual verbal assault that is Lisa Lampanelli in a packed theatre?

Like most working comics, Roman Danylo has had his fair share of gigs from hell. He’s had a hex put on him by a drunken club patron, he’s been spotlit by a heating light on a buffet, and had to perform as a follow-up to scantily clad dancers.

The irrepressible comic has had to lower his energy output a notch, but that hasn’t stopped him from cross-dressing for fun down at the mall

The sketch legends aren't getting any younger, but they have lost none of their cutting-edge wit, as they prove on their Live As We’ll Ever Be tour.

Billed as the world’s only standup comedian for children, Campbell says he won't treat his young fans any different from himself at the Vancouver International Children’s Festival.

Raiders of the Lost Improv

Wanda Sykes is one of the funniest people in America—or at least she was in 2004, when Entertainment Weekly anointed her one of the top 25 comics in the U.S. But if her Friday appearance at the River Rock Show Theatre was an indication of her current place in the pantheon of comedic performers, she’s slipped a notch or 50.

In the age of hyphenated comedy, it’s hard to peg Darcy Michael. When he walks on-stage you think maybe he’ll be the plus-size comic who does material about his weight, like a John Pinette. Then he gets into his drug humour and you’re thinking he’s more like a lazy stoner comic along the lines of Doug Benson.

Still a comedy nerd’s wet dream, Sarah Silverman wants you to find other synonyms to describe her outrageous self.

“I ended up with these huge purple scars around my nipples—it’s so disgusting,” the notorious Margaret Cho tells the Straight by phone from her home in Los Angeles. She’s discussing her recent return to off-Broadway with The Sensuous Woman, her burlesque dance show in which she spun pasties on her breasts. “It was this very intense dance. I’m sad that I’m not doing it anymore, but I’m also happy that I don’t have to wear those pasties again.”

Comedy can be powerful stuff. On the surface, sure, it’s lighthearted and fun. See, but that’s how they getcha. One minute you’re innocently laughing away at a standup comedian; before you know it your world-view has shifted slightly.

Ron James can’t go two minutes, it seems, without creating a perfect metaphor to drive his point home. The quintessentially Canadian comic is one of the great wordsmiths in the business. His shows are a tangent-laden journey through the country and its people, with stops for personal reminiscences and rants. In other words, buddy’s got a mouth on him and he knows how to use it.

Paul Provenza, Sarah Silverman, Comedy Death Ray, Ron James, Chris Rock, Greg Proops, and many more will be bringing the funny to stages this season.

The year 2008 is shaping up to be one of the heaviest comedy years on record in Vancouver. Of course, it’s got a slight advantage with an extra day.