JONES GETS PERSONAL
Solo show hits Firehall
When asked about her new onewoman show, Cathy Jones is clear on one very important point: “I will not make you wish you brought your airplane pillow with you. I will not bore you.”
An original member of CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Jones is on the phone from Halifax. To be more specific, she was on the phone from the mattress department at a Sears store as she called to talk about her new live show, Stranger to Hard Work. It officially opens on Sept. 28 at Firehall Arts Centre, but a preview performance and Firehall fundraiser is on Sept. 27 and includes a conversation and cocktails with Jones (tickets are $65 to $75).
Through a mix of standup and sketches, the new show, directed by Anne-Marie Kerr, has Jones talking about what she knows best: herself.
“I get to pretend and I get to exaggerate. I am basically telling a story about me and being kind of funny at it,” the Newfoundland native said. “It’s (a) show about how I really feel about stuff and how I don’t really fit into life the way other people do, and how I handle loneliness and being single.
“I guess I talk a lot about feeling like I am not a normal person.”
Normal or not, she is a busy person. Right now, she said, she is working on a novel and a selfhelp book called Get Help, You Sick F---.
“It’s the book you buy for someone else,” said Jones, a mother of two daughters and grandmother to three boys.
She is also lending her voice to women’s health issues.
“I am the spokesperson for postmenopausal vaginal health, if you can f------ dig that,” Jones said, adding she was worried about controlling her mouth — which she said is like “10 sailors.”
Continuing with the theme of personal exposure, Jones reported she is looking to enter the world of reality TV. Since the summer, she has allowed cameras to follow her around. A show is being developed and pitched.
“My eldest said it could be like the Kardashians,” Jones said.
While her daughter sees Kardashian coin, Jones said she finds the over-exposure of some reality stars crazy.
“My fear is I am going to become Gary Busey,” said Jones, who softened that view after she was reminded Busey suffered a traumatic brain injury decades ago.
A mainstay of sketch comedy (Jones goes back to Codco), Jones would love to build on a recent small turn she had in the new Bruce McDonald feature Weirdos.
“I was so excited to get to work with Bruce McDonald. I am so hungry to work with directors and learn something about the craft. All I have ever done is these short sketches. If I could learn something about acting, I would just love it,” Jones said.
Does she have an idea of a type of role she’d excel in?
“What I really want to play is older ladies who still like sex,” Jones said. “I want to be like Diane Keaton in Something’s Gotta Give. I want to play women who still want to get laid, but not terribly much.”