It didn't take long for the laughter to start from the audience attending the Louie Anderson show at the Gold Eagle Casino Friday night.
Right after being introduced by Saskatoon comedian Myles Morrison, who was the warm-up act for the evening, the main headliner walked onto the Gold Ridge Centre stage wearing the most ridiculous-looking Saskatchewan Roughriders toque you could imagine, in anticipation of the Grey Cup game - or as Anderson called it, the Gravy Cup.
"Who are you beating - the Tiger-Bears?" asked Anderson, who referred to the Honey Graham Tiger-Bears in talking about the Roughriders' opponents in the game.
That was how things got started for Anderson before an appreciative North Battleford audience. Anderson, of course, is well known for his past gigs as host of Family Feud on TV and as the subject of the animated series Life with Louie. Recently he participated in the reality TV show Splash as a contestant.
He has been seen in the movies and quite often on late night talk shows, going back to the 1980s when he appeared on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson.
More consistently, the California-based comedian has been a regular performer for years in showrooms in Las Vegas. He is currently a regular featured headliner at the Plaza Hotel and Casino, but his performance resumé includes casinos all over Las Vegas - so many, in fact, that it's probably easier to list the places he hasn't done.
Not surprisingly, given the number of showroom audiences he has performed for, Anderson had plenty of casino jokes as part of his act; about how he's a terrible loser and so on.
His latest casino tour included Dakota Dunes on Whitecap First Nation, and of course, this venue at the Gold Eagle which seemed to suit Anderson well on this night. Tables were set up throughout the hall to give the venue more of a comedy club feel.
The bright lights of Hollywood or Las Vegas this was not, though. "I don't know where I am but they brought me here," Anderson said.
That led straight into a lot of "cold" jokes, with Anderson joking about the bone-chilling cold weather experienced that day in Saskatchewan.
"I grew up in Minnesota but this is different" he remarked. Here, you needed "space gear," he said.
He had plenty of jokes about the airport and airport security, lots of jokes about his weight, and a lot - I mean a lot - of food references.
Anderson spoke about his love for food. He talked about what the prices used to be at McDonalds in the day - 12 cents for hamburgers and eight cents for fries. Now they were eight cents a fry. "Worth every penny," he said.
To give you an idea of what a Louie Anderson show is like, imagine a combination of a physical humor and facial expressions, combined with some well-timed high pitched voices.
Anderson isn't one to scream at the top of his lungs at his audience, and you aren't going to get much from him in the way of swearing or in the way of bathroom or gross-out humor. That's part of his appeal - he is regarded as a "clean" comedian, most of the time, anyway.
He did have a few jokes about marijuana, though, and about what might happen when it became legal. "Imagine how bad the traffic will be," he said.
He joked about his age - he just turned 60 - and also spoke of how when you're young you want drugs so strong they can kill you, but now when you get older you want drugs that will keep you alive. Full circle, he said.
He spoke of how drugstores are now the new Discos and then sang part of the Bee Gees' "Stayin Alive" to make his point.
It was a fun-filled night for Louie Anderson fans in North Battleford. The enduring memory people will have, though, is of Anderson doing his act, complete with goofy Roughriders hat, on what ended up being one of the most memorable weekends in Roughriders history.
Maybe wearing that toque brought the team a little luck. For sure, though, Louie Anderson fans in North Battleford will never look at gravy the same way again.
