The Numbers Are All Adding Up With The New Crave Original Stand-Up Special TOM HENRY: 66 JOKES

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede There’s a particular comic observation in the new Crave Original Stand-up Special TOM HENRY: 66 JOKES that hits hilariously close to home for everyone in the self-isolation era. Of course, Toronto-based comedian Tom Henry didn’t know anything about the coronavirus last summer, when his stand-up special was taped at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montréal. But with TOM HENRY: 66 JOKES debuting Friday on Crave, now is the perfect time for this joke to shine. It goes like this: “I read somewhere that what you should do is look in the mirror, and smile at yourself, and say nice things to yourself – it actually kind of tricks your brain into thinking you’re happier than you are,” Henry says in the special. “So I tried it. And it didn’t work. And now, I think my brain thinks I’m some kind of loser.” That’s funny stuff, especially with Henry’s uniquely understated comic tone. “I was always a big fan of just the classic joke-tellers, like Rodney Dangerfield, or Don Rickles, or Victor Borge – you know, the piano guy,” Henry said in an interview. “I love Andy Kindler. I grew up watching David Letterman and I loved his monologue, just joke after joke. So to me, that’s what I’m doing. But I understand that sometimes to other people the jokes can be weirder than that. My delivery also is different.” Henry said he gets compared to comedian Steven Wright “semi-often,” but that’s more about their voices than their comedy styles. “I love Steven Wright, so it’s great, but it’s funny because I didn’t really grow up with him that much, I just knew him a bit from watching TV,” Henry said. “So I never set out to be Steven Wright. If anything, I kind of wanted to be Zach Galifianakis – when I first started, I think I tried to do sort of an impression of him, but I’m terrible at impressions, so nobody knew.” As Henry described it, at some point in every stand-up comedian’s career, the influences just get absorbed into who you are anyway. “But if there’s any similarity to Letterman, I’m very flattered – to me, he’s really the king,” Henry said. “When I was a little kid, like nine years old, I’d be watching Letterman, my mom would let me stay up – I don’t know why. She wasn’t big on rules, she was kind of a hippie. But I just loved him so much. Late-night TV is something different now, I guess. It seems like it has been done for so long that now it’s hard to do anything new with it. Maybe somebody will figure it out. Maybe it’ll be me. Let’s put that out there.” Without a doubt, Henry has crafted a very specific style that is all his own. “Each joke of mine runs probably 30 seconds on average, so it’s really time-consuming to write it all,” he explained. “A lot of great comedians can go on stage with just a nugget of an idea and then elaborate and kind of write the joke that way. They can just be on stage talking about an idea they’re having for five minutes, or 10 minutes, or however long. And I can’t do that. It has to be just this written thing.” Whatever works, as long as the laughter comes, right? “The big laugh is always the best response, that’s the simple answer, but it’s also kind of cool sometimes when you hear somebody in the audience say, ‘Oh my God,’ or, ‘What?’ ” Henry said. “I don’t really want to be that person who’s trying to bend minds. But if that’s part of it for someone, that’s okay.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv