logo
Inside out

Inside out

In April 2020, Julie Nolke caught her big break.
The Canadian comedian/actor/writer debuted a new series on the sketch comedy channel she runs with her husband on YouTube: Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self, wherein a pandemic-present Julie tells a pre-pandemic Julie what's in store for her.
The first video has 21 million views and counting.
Five years on, Nolke has firmly established herself as one of Canada's brightest comedic voices for her ability to tap into the zeitgeist — and now, she's doing something new: Dying on the Outside, a live, one-hour, one-woman sketch-comedy show she's bringing to the Park Theatre on Wednesday.
'It's a departure from what I've done for the last, I don't know, 10 years,' Nolke says over the phone from Toronto.
Last year, Nolke was feeling disconnected from her audience — which, when you're creating comedy online, is mostly measured in anonymous numbers.
'I really just wanted to see and meet the people behind those views,' she says.
After three months of writing, Nolke tapped fellow comedian/actor/writer Gwynne Phillips to direct the show, which had a sold-out run in Toronto in March.
Nolke's not the only viral Canadian comedian who has recently brought her work from screen to stage. Fellow Toronto comedian Laura Ramoso, who was in Winnipeg in November on her Sit Up Straight tour, has also followed a similar career trajectory.
'You know what's funny — Laura was the first person I called when I realized I wanted to do a live show,' Nolke says with a laugh. 'I called her and I said, 'We have to meet for coffee because I want to do this thing, and you are an expert in it.'
'We had a really nice, long chat, and she gave me a lot of guidance, and has been giving me guidance through this whole thing. She's an incredible community member and wonderful friend.'
Without revealing too much, Dying on the Outside deals with, among other topics, death and processing death as the title suggests. The north star of all of Nolke's comedy is relatability.
'The hope is that if I've gone through something and I create a piece of content, as long as I keep it authentic, the hope is that it's going to be relatable,' she says.
Nolke grew up in Calgary, where she did a ton of improv and theatre and, after high school, moved to Toronto to complete an acting degree at York University. Dying on the Outside is a welcome return to live performance.
'Of course, it's been 10 years since I've been back (onstage), so I was a little bit rusty, and I definitely had some imposter syndrome, but once I started performing, it felt very natural. And to be honest, that surge of adrenaline you get from the audience is exactly what I was looking for. It feels like a very special, once-in-a-lifetime experience that only live theatre can offer,' she says.
It also allows her to exercise different creative muscles.
Julie Nolke brings Dying on the Outside, her new sketch comedy show, to the Park Theatre on Wednesday.
'There's something really brave about doing something in person, live. There's that opportunity for failure that I think I need. I need that fire under my butt so I keep changing my content and making sure the audience is relating to it.'
Nolke's success has not been overnight. She started her YouTube channel with her husband Samuel Larson in 2014 after years of struggling as an actor. It steadily grew enough they were able to quit their day jobs in 2016 before Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self took it to a whole new level.
'I think we just had an excellent temperature check on where people were at in the world. Our comedy just seemed to hit in exactly the way that people needed, and so those videos took off, but I am an avid believer that if it wasn't going to be those, it was going to be some other video, just because we had worked so hard and we'd gotten really good at YouTube,' Nolke says.
There was a cultural shift taking place at that time, too. YouTubers and online creators were finally being recognized as legitimate artists.
'I have felt that shift in a huge way. I mean, I was on a show called Run the Burbs — we had three seasons on CBC — and the reason I was invited into that original development writers room before the show was ever greenlit is because the production company knew me from YouTube. That would not have been the case five years previous,' Nolke says.
During Elections
Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election.
Now, Nolke has multiple screen credits to her name, including Murdoch Mysteries, What We Do in the Shadows, Coroner, Odd Squad and Workin' Moms. In 2023, she also had a starring role in the W Network movie The Wedding Rule.
After years of grinding it out and putting in the work, Nolke has been nominated for two 2025 Canadian Screen Awards for her work on Run the Burbs. The winners will be fêted in Toronto at the end of May.
The performer calls the nominations,'really surreal. Like, very, very out-of-body experience. I think there's a part of me that still feels a little bit impostery in film and TV — like, when are people going to realize I'm just a YouTuber? I try to mute that voice as much as possible but the reality is, it exists.'
'And so, the awards bring me a huge sense of validity. Like my peers, my own peers, the people that I deeply respect in the industry, recognize that I'm more than just an online creator who couldn't book a job the regular way. It doesn't go by me mildly.'
jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com
Jen ZorattiColumnist
Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen.
Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Three B.C. bands make the 2025 Polaris Music Prize long list
Three B.C. bands make the 2025 Polaris Music Prize long list

Vancouver Sun

timean hour ago

  • Vancouver Sun

Three B.C. bands make the 2025 Polaris Music Prize long list

Three B.C. bands have been named to the 2025 Polaris Music Prize long list. Juno-winning Haisla rappers Snotty Nose Rez Kids' Red Future, Victoria's dapper Art d'Ecco's Serene Demon, indie rock fixture Destroyer's Dan's Boogie are all albums nominated on the list. A total of 189 albums were considered for the Long List this year. Artists include 16 first-time nominees, two past winners in Backxwash and Caribou, and one past recipient of the Polaris Heritage Prize in Rich White, a member of Eric's Trip. Established in 2006, the Polaris Music Prize awards $50,000 to the winner, with runners-up each receiving $3,000. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The assemblage of 40 Canadian artists will be narrowed down by the 205-member Polaris Prize jury to 10 finalists on July 10, when the Polaris Prize short list is set to be revealed. Along with the long list, the new SOCAN Polaris Song Prize category was announced. The first expansion to the prize since the hall of fame Heritage Prize was launched in 2015, the song prize will be adjudicated by the members of the Polaris jury to determine the Canadian song of the year. Criteria considered is similar to the main award, based only on artistic merit, without any regard given to genre or commercial success. The Song Prize will feature a 20-nominee Long List to be revealed on July 29. Winners of the inaugural SOCAN Polaris Song Prize will receive $10,000 split between the song's Canadian performers and credited Canadian songwriter or songwriters. The prize money is courtesy of SOCAN. The Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize will reveal its 12 nominated heritage recordings in July. The winners of that award are to be announced in October. An 11-member grand jury selected from the greater juror pool will make the final vote for the 2025 Polaris Music Prize winner to be announced on Sept. 16 at Toronto's Massey Hall. Tickets to the Polaris concert and awards ceremony are on sale at . A 15 per cent Long List discount is available using the code POLARIS15. Here is the complete list of 40 Canadian artists selected by the 205 member jury: • Art d'Ecco — Serene Demon • Backxwash — Only Dust Remains • Quinton Barnes — CODE NOIR • Bibi Club — Feu de garde • Basia Bulat — Basia's Palace • Caribou — Honey • Lou-Adriane Cassidy — Journal d'un Loup-Garou • Choses Sauvages — Choses Sauvages III • Cold Specks — Light For The Midnight • Antoine Corriveau — Oiseau de Nuit • Marie Davidson — City of Clowns • Destroyer — Dan's Boogie • Myriam Gendron — Mayday • Gloin — All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry) • Saya Gray — SAYA • Hildegard — Jour 1596 • Yves Jarvis — All Cylinders • Kaia Kater — Strange Medicine • Bells Larsen — Blurring Time • Richard Laviolette — All Wild Things Are Shy • Wyatt C. Louis — Chandler • Kelly McMichael — After The Sting Of It Men I Trust – Equus Asinus • Mustafa — Dunya • N NAO — Nouveau language • Nemahsis — Verbathim • Eliza Niemi — Progress Bakery • The OBGMs — SORRY, IT'S OVER • Dorothea Paas — Think Of Mist • Klô Pelgag — Abracadabra • Population II — Maintenant Jamais • Ribbon Skirt — Bite Down • Ariane Roy — Dogue • Mike Shabb — Sewaside III • Sister Ray — Believer • Snotty Nose Rez Kids — RED FUTURE • The Weather Station — Humanhood • Rick White and The Sadies — Rick White and The Sadies • Donovan Woods — Things Were Never Good If They're Not Good Now • Yoo Doo Right — From the Heights of Our Pastureland sderdeyn@

Teddy Swims was terrified to shift from covers to his own songs
Teddy Swims was terrified to shift from covers to his own songs

CBC

time2 hours ago

  • CBC

Teddy Swims was terrified to shift from covers to his own songs

You might know Teddy Swims as the Grammy-nominated artist behind the megahit Lose Control, which was the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2024. Later this month, Swims will release the complete edition of his two-part debut album, I've Tried Everything But Therapy, which has already turned him into a global superstar. But despite his success, Swims hasn't always been confident about writing original music because he got his start performing cover songs on YouTube. On June 25, 2019, he uploaded his first video: a cover of Michael Jackson's Rock with You. "It was 10 years from Michael Jackson's passing," Swims recalls in an interview with Q 's Tom Power. "I was just like, 'Let's just upload it and let's sing it and put it up and see what happens.' And then sure enough, like overnight, it had 10,000 views…. I was in bands at the time, so we were writing all the time … but I didn't expect [cover songs] to be the thing that connected." WATCH | Teddy Swims's full interview with Tom Power: After the success of his first video, Swims gave himself six months to make it in the music business by spending all of his free time recording more YouTube covers. In October of 2019, he uploaded a tender and powerful cover of You're Still The One by Shania Twain, which went massively viral and ultimately landed him a record deal. Today, the video has more than 200 million views on YouTube. "Me and Luke, my manager, I remember our first trips to L.A. and New York and we're meeting with everyone," Swims tells Power. "We would never take flights or hotel rooms from them … because we wanted to convince them that, 'Oh, we got this amazing YouTube business … so we don't need any of you.' But this whole time, we're going to L.A. and we're sleeping on the floor of Luke's sister's house and we're really roughing it." WATCH | Teddy Swims - You're Still The One (Shania Twain Cover): Swims is now famous for writing soulful anthems about his personal experiences with toxic relationships and healing. But he says the transition to writing his own music felt "terrifying" because he was constantly comparing his songs to some of the greatest songs ever written. That's the most relatable thing — the thing that you think only you are going through. - Teddy Swims "I can see why so many people get stuck in a cover world where they never break out," he says. "It tore me up to be like, 'How the hell am I ever going to write a [ You're ] Still the One?'" The other challenge was that Swims didn't know at first how to write an authentic song that his fans could connect to in the same way as they did with his cover songs. "It turns out when you're trying to write something to be relatable, that is so not the relatable thing," he says. "I find that if you write things so, so super-ly specific about you, that's the most relatable thing — the thing that you think only you are going through, because it turns out everybody's going through the same damn thing." I've Tried Everything But Therapy (Complete Edition) is out everywhere on June 27.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store