I Am YEG Arts: Jana O’Connor

A beloved member of The Irrelevant Show cast, Jana O’Connor brings heart and humour to everything she does as a performer, producer, theatre instructor, writer, and administrator. With her disarming charm and wit, Jana takes audiences on joyful and often unexpected journeys. In this week’s I Am YEG Arts story, Jana tells us about the teacher who got her into theatre, getting The Irrelevant Show cast back together for a sold-out show at the Arden, and her up-and-coming brand-new show at Rapid Fire Theatre. 

Tell us about how you got your start in the arts. Were you known as a funny kid? Was humour your entry point into performing and writing?

It’s funny because I look back at myself, I was, and I still am, weirdly introverted. That’s ultimately who I am. But also, I was an early bloomer, and my coping mechanism was humour. I was definitely always making jokes. I loved theatre, and my first performance in elementary school was doing Who’s on First, which was weird! 

I was really lucky in Grade 8, my original drama teacher had a breakdown — that’s not the lucky part, that’s terrible! The lucky part was that we got this really incredible drama teacher who worked in the community. She was stage managing two Fringe shows and she brought me to the Fringe, which was my first time there. I grew up with a nurse mom and an electrician dad and we weren’t involved in the arts at all. I didn’t do the Citadel Theatre School and things like that that a lot of other people did, just by virtue of the fact my parents weren’t really aware of it. So being part of the Fringe that year as an assistant stage manager on two productions was so eye-opening for me. She also convinced my parents to let me go to Vic [Victoria School of the Arts] for high school. It was such an incredibly creative time and I was so grateful for it. 

Where it really truly started for me was right out of high school. My friend said we should take a workshop with Rapid Fire because I always enjoyed improv in school. Everything came out of that first workshop with Rapid Fire. I got to play in the second half of Theatre Sports. I was part of a sketch comedy show called The 11:02 Show that had Mark Meer and Jacob Banigan and lots of other amazing folks in it. And they would bring in a guest director every month. So, I got to work with Heather Swain and Marty Chan and very importantly, Jeff Haslam and Stewart Lemoine. That was my introduction to them and into such a meaningful relationship with Teatro Live! and Die-Nasty. It was through performing at Die-Nasty that I was first sort of noticed by Peter Brown, and that’s how The Irrelevant Show came about. Also, that’s where I met my husband. 

All those things came out of improv, which continues to be the lifeblood of what I do. Even at the time, I was just so grateful for any opportunities that came my way, but I was also ready to meet them. 

You’ve worn many hats during your career, including improv, acting, writing, and arts admin. Thinking back to these roles, tell us about some of the common themes or stories that you’re drawn to sharing.

Everything I do has that element of improv, even when I am working outside of the arts. It’s generally me going, ​“I think I can do that” and figuring it out as I go along. I’ve been really blessed in that sense of trusting in transferable skills. I use comedy to explore difficult topics and talk about things that people aren’t really talking about. My happiest moments are when I can use comedy as a tool for something that needs to be addressed or to start a conversation. To paraphrase a quote I read from Marina Abramovic: ​“Through laughter, you can take much more truth than you can normally.” I think that is absolutely true. Comedy can disarm people and before you know it, you’re staring something in the face that you would have avoided if it wasn’t fun along the way.

Congratulations on The Irrelevant Show’s 20^th anniversary! Can you take us back to the very beginning and tell us about when you first knew you were a part of something big? 

We were part of Definitely Not the Opera [on CBC Radio] in the beginning. We did a New Year’s Eve special and short runs on CBC Radio, usually affiliated with Definitely Not the Opera before we got our own series. I remember recordings at the Milner Library Theatre with the original cast — and part of the original cast is still the cast. But then we really got to ramp up and have our own season. We would have these incredible sold-out recordings at the Arden, and other venues around town. We would have full houses of people laughing and it was just this incredible feeling. Sometimes you’d forget that it was also a radio show because the actual performance of it was so satisfying at the live recordings. In the moment I was like, ​“Wow, if this is the best it gets for me as a performer, I’m kind of okay with it.”

Family and friends across the country were able to connect with what I was doing in a way that doesn’t really happen as a theatre artist. To have them be able to tune in was so meaningful. Even internationally, we would get letters from people farther afield once it was being broadcast on satellite radio. 

A moment where I recognized, ​“Oh, this is bigger than I realized,” was at a Booster Juice while I was talking to someone in line with me. And this person ahead of me whipped around because they heard Jana from The Irrelevant Show. They’d heard my voice and recognized it; they hadn’t even been looking my way. 

And it’s funny because I didn’t grow up with CBC in my life. My husband did, and so he remembers listening to the Air Farce cast back when it was a radio show, and it was formative in his mind. Now I love CBC, but as a kid, I didn’t have the same attachment to it. That was really cool to realize that there’s obviously this huge legacy of CBC, so to have been a tiny part of that is so meaningful. 

What has it been like to get the gang back together for the 20^th anniversary show? 

I’m so excited because I really do love everyone in the show so much. When we did our last recording, we didn’t know that it would be our last recording and our final season. It feels so meaningful to have the chance to give thanks to the audience. We’ve been doing some things at the Fringe that felt that way too, where we want to thank people for supporting us for all those years and that’s what this feels like too. It’s a larger-scale opportunity to say thank you to the listeners who are so supportive and really the reason that the show lasted as long as it did. 

I have to say, as much as I love so many of the venues, in my heart, there was something magical about those shows at the Arden. It’s such a beautiful venue and so warm — I’m really excited to have that experience. My daughter saw the show when she was six years old. And she had an old iPod of my husband’s that had a bunch of episodes saved on it and has listened to them. But my son hasn’t seen it, and he doesn’t have the same frame of reference for it. It would be really special to be able to share it with him for sure. I only ever missed two recordings; it was while I was on bed rest when I was pregnant with my son. But I was able to do one more before he was born, and it was at the Arden Theatre so it’s nice that that comes full circle too. 

What advice do you have for other artists looking to sustain a career in the arts? 

Speaking from experience, try to diversify your skills as much as possible, recognizing that you likely won’t find regular employment in any one given aspect of the arts. The more that you can open yourself up to other opportunities, the better. When COVID hit, I oddly had more opportunities because I am also a writer. Through my connection at CBC, I was able to reach out to Because News and say, ​“I love game shows; I love the news; you’re meeting remotely, can I contribute?” Also, I had produced years of the game show Oh Susanna at the Varscona. That was completely a voluntary kind of thing that you never would think would lead to skills that later become applicable in other ways. 

Put yourself out there as much as possible and don’t be afraid to raise your hand and say what you want. I had done a couple of tours of Are We There Yet at Concrete Theatre, and later on while working in the office I said, ​“I’d love to try writing a short play for young audiences.” I’d never done that before, but because of my relationship with Concrete, and since they were looking for new voices, I was able to write my first Theatre for Young Audiences play. 

I’ll also say, it’s all about relationships. Find the people that inspire you. When you find really genuinely good people to work with and good environments, those things are gold. The friends that you make early on in the arts are often the people that you will work with again and again — and who will think of you. They will also say your name when they’re in a room and you’re not. Those are the people that will speak up for you and champion you. 

Recognize that you may not make a career solely in the arts; I certainly haven’t. I’ve been really blessed to maintain these two parallel careers — a professional career in the arts, and then in communications and event planning. All those things that I’ve done to sustain my arts career are often arts adjacent, but sometimes not at all. I see so much value in that because as artists, we have so much to bring to different sectors. We’re always artists; my sensibility will always be as an artist because it’s just who I am. It’s valuable to be part of broader society because we make an impact, but also, we take back interesting things. We’re connected with the people that we’re hoping will be our audiences one day. We’re so passionate about the arts and we see its importance, but it’s valuable to work somewhere where that isn’t necessarily perceived in that way. You start to get a sense of what actually is important to people and how you can translate that into your work. Even if you step away from doing whatever art that you do for a while that doesn’t mean you’re not an artist. 

Tell us a little bit about what you’re currently working on and what’s next for you. 

I’ve had a long-term association with Evergreen Theatre in Calgary, they do science-based scripts for young audiences. I’ve written a few scripts for them and there’s a new one coming out in the early new year. 

I’m going to be Zooming into the Because News writers’ room again. With the way things are going in Alberta, Because News made me feel like I was contributing to the conversation in a medium that I’m most comfortable in. I was really missing it, so I’m really glad to be able to contribute again for a bit. 

I’m also going to be doing a show at Rapid Fire in February with Belinda Cornish. Matt Schuurman reached out and asked us if we wanted to be part of their amazing work that they do in bringing new formats to the stage. I’m really excited about that because Belinda has been one of my longest friends and inspirations and I just adore her. We’re calling it Three Ladies. We’re looking at a ​’50s housewives vibe where we’ll be sitting down for tea with a third improviser. It will be a different person every night and we’ll do some long-form improv based on whatever they’re chatting about with us. I’m so excited to have this on the horizon and for the time spent with my friend. 

Catch Jana’s new show Three Ladies at Rapid Fire Exchange this February! Get ready for a hilarious evening of improvised comedy as three incredible women take the stage! Three Ladies stars two Rapid Fire alum; the sharp-witted Belinda Cornish (artistic director at Teatro Live), and the ever-hilarious Jana O’Connor, (star of CBC’s The Irrelevant Show), joined by a surprise special guest. 

About Jana O’Connor

Jana O’Connor is a writer, performer, producer, and events director based in Edmonton. Jana is a member of the ensemble of artists at Teatro Live!, and is nationally known as a guest contributor to CBC Radio’s satirical news quiz Because News, and as a cast member/​writer on CBC Radio’s The Irrelevant Show and writer/​performer on CAUTION: May Contain Nuts on APTN. She is the proud recipient of the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund award in 2015, and a Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award in 2010 as an emerging writer.