On his socials, where he has amassed more than 7 million followers on TikTok, he self-describes as a comedian and a slut. The previous leg of his North American tour, titled “The Raw Dog Tour” was actually inspired by the many graphic DMs that female fans have sent him, imploring Durena to visit the states where they reside so that they can meet up. As a creative promotion tactic, Durena says the conceptual motive is to get laid while also doing shows. “Because I can’t get to them any other other way,” he jokes (we think). The line between his humor and his sluttiness is not entirely clear, so we took the opportunity to ask him how he feels his true personality differs from his stage persona. 

“Everything people see from my content and on stage, is just my sense of humor,” he says. “I think it’s a very honest representation of myself, but it’s just that one aspect.” As for how he established his ‘shtick,’ he says he’s always been true to that sense of humour. He’s drawn to absurdism, and finds the social stigma around sex particularly absurd. “It’s funny that there’s a thing that everyone’s doing and that everyone wants to do, that has a place in everything from dating and intimacy to sales and product placement, but we’re supposed to feel ashamed of it,” he laughs. 

Durena consumed a lot of stand-up as a kid, but he didn’t start performing until his early twenties after earning a scuba diving instructor certificate while attending the University of British Columbia. He appreciates education, but hates the school system, so it’s safe to say he did it for fun. Taking the credentials to Mexico, he performed stand up for tourists for a year and a half before moving to Toronto for eight years. Now he resides in New York full-time. While much of his audience is American, Durena is excited to return to Canada, especially since his Vancouver performance will be the largest show he’s performed in his home province.

He says it’s always a little weird to perform in front of people who have known him a long time because they can see through his exaggerated stage persona. At the same time, he’s confident that his Vancouver performance will be better than anything his audience has seen him do before. “Most people don’t realize that I’ve been doing stand up way longer than I’ve been creating online content,” he says. “And although I really enjoy making the online content, what I do as a stand up comic is far superior.” 

Since he’s amassed such a large social following, we asked him if he often gets recognized on the street. “It happens every day now,” he says, “I was on a date yesterday and it happened like four times, which is sick.” Durena loves his fans and finds that he shares a certain care-free, fun energy with them, so he enjoys it when they come up to say hi. 

After the festival, he’s hopeful the next move will be a special. “We’re shopping around something currently, and if it takes and someone’s interested in it, then we’ll go for it,” he says. If not, he’ll consider self-financing and publishing it to YouTube because at the end of the day, Durena just wants to have a good time. “I want it to feel like we’re hanging out and we’re having fun,” he says. 

To be clear about the nature of the hang, Durena’s Canadian tour dates are not inspired by DMs from women, though we doubt he’d be opposed. His new North American tour poster features the comic riding an eagle holding a Canadian flag, while a horde of Canadian geese follow in pursuit. “It’s the same content, it’s not a cleaner show, but I wanted to leverage that I’m coming back to Canada for the first time since I’ve left,” Durena says proudly.