Hourglass

The first sentence uttered by the first professor of the first lecture of the first class of the first year of my first university career was a question: "What do you think of when I say the word 'Stroumboulopoulos'?"

He was referring, of course, to George Stroumboulopoulos (hard word to type, I should set up a macro), host of CBC's nightly talk show 'The Hour'.

At the time, I had a vague familiarity with Stromboli (macro, abbreviation, whatever) and his show, but had never actually seen it. In the ensuing two-point-five years, I've watched the show on occasion, usually when I'm interested in the guest.

Why have I not watched it more often? Well, every time I do watch it, something seems lacking. Something about The Hour makes is blatantly inferior to David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, or any of the American late-night shows.

It wasn't until earlier this week that I figured out what it was. I'll start with what it wasn't.

It wasn't the guests. While some guests are unknown to me or the tired old fake Canadian 'celebrities' (Paul Gross, for one), The Hour does attract genuine Canadian celebrities (Robert Munsch!) and even American A-listers (Tom Cruise! Jimmy Carter!).

It wasn't the host. Stromboli is only 37 years old, and able to connect to people half his age with ease. He has a strong screen presence, and is at once intelligent, curious, and funny (the three best traits for someone in his job).

It wasn't the writing. Most of the jokes and one-liners he gives, it's not the least bit difficult to hear the same joke in a Jay Leno or Jon Stewart voice.

It was the reaction to those jokes that clued me in. Stromboli saying something hilarious does not lead into the same amount of audience guffawing that David Letterman gets when he drops something off the roof of his studio.

Two reasons for this. One, look at the audience next time the camera pans over to them - it's a really tiny group, maybe a quarter the size of a Letterman or Stewart audience. Secondly...they're Canadian.

If there's one major difference between Americans and Canadians that both sides can usually agree on, it's that Americans are louder. And they like to laugh more. So David Letterman can tell a joke, Stromboli can tell the same joke, and Letterman will get a much better reaction - not because of his delivery, but because his audience is full of loud, boisterous Americans. For once, our reservedness is a negative.

(The same thing applies to sitcoms - notice that Corner Gas and Little Mosque on the Prairie don't have laugh tracks, while most American sitcoms do?)

--Ryan