Hope, heart and hearty laughter are coming to Simcoe Street Theatre next month in the form of Bobby Boyd.
Collingwood resident Joe Coolahan will be performing his one-man comedy show Bobby Boyd: Kompliance King on May 5 at Simcoe Street Theatre. Coolahan wrote the show based on his experiences in the insurance industry, and stories he’s collected along the way.
His hope through doing the show is to encourage people to go to work everyday with a sense of purpose. When asked why he’s transitioned from a white-collar job to performance, Coolahan responds with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek.
“Because I’m strange, I guess,” Coolahan said, with a laugh. “We had a great run. My wife worked for me. When State Farm left Canada ... there were all these new systems kicking in.”
“I’m more of a people person, so that was hard for me. In 2014, I found a new purpose,” he said.
Coolahan and his wife moved to Collingwood seven years ago after Coolahan retired from his job with State Farm Insurance, one he’d held since 1986.
Throughout his career, Coolahan recalls bonding with clients through the stories they would tell him, for example if a client had just separated from their spouse or was going through hard times and needed to adjust their insurance. He said he always responded with empathy and care, which is a trait he feels is missing in the current state of the industry.
“Ours wasn’t a normal agency. There was hugging, and we would be invited to weddings,” said Coolahan. “I wanted to do something about this.”
Coolahan set out originally to collect real customer service stories of insurance agents helping clients through some of the worst times in their lives, intending to make them into an inspirational talk he could tour around insurance industry conferences.
However, once he had all the stories in one place, a friend told him it needed to be a comedy show. Coolahan had a background in comedy, as in his 20s he studied at Second City.
He set to work crafting a storyline. In the insurance business, compliance meetings happen annually, and Coolahan had the idea to have sleazy character Bobby Boyd run the meeting at a fictitious company.
“He’s no longer licensed to sell insurance. It’s a comedy show about the business,” he explained.
Coolahan said audiences can expect to feel the gamut of emotions throughout the course of the one-hour show.
“I hope they’re entertained. At the end, there’s a glimmer of hope,” he said.
In addition to Collingwood, the show will also be making stops in Kitchener and London. Coolahan said he hopes to take it to corporate events to create some change within the industry through laughs.
“I want to make them laugh, but I also want to make them think when they leave,” he said.
For more information on Bobby Boyd: Kompliance King, click here.
