Career

1977–1983: Early impressionist work in Toronto

Carrey's first stand-up comedy experience took place in 1977 at the age of 15 with his father
trying to help the youngster put together a stage act, driving him to downtown Toronto to debut at
the recently-opened Yuk Yuk's comedy club operating one-night-a-week out of a community
centre's basement on Church Street.[19][21] For the performance, the teenager had his attire—a
polyester leisure suit—chosen by his mother who reasoned "that's how they dress on The Dean
Martin Celebrity Roast".[22][19] Pubescent Carrey's conventional impersonations bombed, proving
ill-suited for a club with a raunchy Belushiesque comedic sensibility and giving the youngster
doubts about his potential as a professional entertainer. [19] Decades later, recalling young
Carrey's stand-up debut, Yuk Yuk's owner Mark Breslin described it as "bad Rich Little".[19] His
family's financial struggles made it difficult for them to support Carrey's show business ambitions.
Eventually, the family's financial situation improved and they moved into a new home
in Jackson's Point.[21][23] With more domestic stability, Carrey returned to the stage in 1979 with a
more polished act that led to his first paid gig: a 20-minute spot at the Hay Loft club on Highway
48 in Scarborough for a reported C$20 compensation on a bill with the Mother of Pearl performer
from The Pig and Whistle.[24] He soon faced his fears and went back downtown to the site of his
debacle from two years earlier—Yuk Yuk's that had in the meantime moved into a permanent
location on Bay Street in the fashionable Yorkville district. In a short period of time, the
seventeen-year-old went from open-mic nights at the club to regular paid shows, building his
reputation in the process.
Parallel to his increasing local Toronto-area popularity as an impressionist stand-up comic,
Carrey tried to break into sketch comedy, auditioning to be a cast member for the 1980–81
season of NBC's Saturday Night Live. Teenage Carrey ended up not being selected by the
show's new executive producer Jean Doumanian who picked thirty-one-year-old Charles
Rocket instead.[25] Decades later, after establishing himself as a Hollywood movie star, Carrey
would host the show in May 1996, January 2011, and October 2014.[26][27] After not
getting Saturday Night Live, Carrey took a voice acting job performing Clutch Cargo-inspired bits
on The All-Night Show, an overnight program airing locally on the CFMT-TV channel branded as
Multilingual Television (MTV).[28]
Continuing to perform his stand-up act of contortionist impressions in the city of Toronto and
surrounding towns, in February 1981, nineteen-year-old Carrey was booked as the opening act
for the rock band Goddo at The Roxy Theatre in Barrie for two shows on consecutive nights; the
rock crowd booed him offstage and he refused to return for the second night. [29] Two weeks later,
however, a review of one of Carrey's spots at Yuk Yuk's—alongside a sizeable photo of him
doing a stage impression of Sammy Davis Jr.—appeared in the Toronto Star on the front page of
its entertainment section with the writer Bruce Blackadar raving about "a genuine star coming to
life".[30][31] Save for a brief mention in the Barrie Examiner, it was the very first time Carrey received
significant mainstream corporate media coverage and the glowing praise in one of Canada's
highest-circulation dailies created demand for his impressionist stand-up act throughout the
country.[31][24] In April 1981, he appeared in an episode of the televised stand-up show An Evening
at the Improv.[32] That summer, he landed one of the main roles in Introducing... Janet, a made-
for-TV movie that premiered in September 1981 on the CBC drawing more than million viewers
for its first airing in Canada.[33] Playing a struggling impressionist comic Tony Maroni, it was
Carrey's very first acting role. The CBC promotion the movie had received as well its subsequent
high nationwide viewership further solidified the youngster's comedic status in the country; by the
time the movie finished its CBC run of repeats several years later, its title for the home video
release on VHS was changed to Rubberface in order to take advantage of the comic's by then
established prominence for doing elaborate contortionist impressions. [33] Making more comedy
club appearances in the United States, Carrey was soon noticed by comedian Rodney
Dangerfield who signed the young comic to open his tour performances. By December 1981, a
well-known comic in Canada, Toronto Star reported about the youngster waiting for a United
States work permit having received interest from Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, largely off his
reputation from Canada.[34][35]
Touring venues throughout North America as the opening act for Rodney Dangerfield, Carrey
made a triumphant return home to Toronto on 19 June 1982, performing two sold-out shows
at Massey Hall.

1983–1994: Move to Hollywood

In early 1983, Carrey decided to permanently move to Hollywood where he began regularly
performing at The Comedy Store. Getting on The Tonight Show became his immediate career
goal, and, by spring 1983, he appeared to have achieved it after getting booked for a stand-up
set on the highly-rated late night show.[36] However, a lukewarm club set at The Improv got him
unbooked.[36] Though struggling to replicate his success in Los Angeles, Carrey continued being a
big hit in his hometown Toronto where he returned during late April 1983 to perform at the short-
lived B.B. Magoon's theatrical venue on Bloor Street on three consecutive nights. While in
town, CTV's flagship newsmagazine program W5 did a feature on Carrey that aired nationally in
Canada. Back in L.A., within months, he landed the main role on The Duck Factory, a sitcom
being developed for NBC, and, in late November 1983, still got to debut his impressionist act
on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson via a promotional appearance for the sitcom about
to start airing nationally in the United States on the same network. [36] In the meantime, he was
cast for a supporting role in the US$7 million Warner Bros. comedy production Finders Keepers,
shot in the Canadian province of Alberta during late summer 1983. For his Tonight
Show appearance that aired on American Thanksgiving, 21-year-old Carrey went through his
most popular impressions—Elvis Presley, Leonid Brezhnev, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Clint
Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Michael Landon, James Dean, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Charles
Nelson Reilly, characters from My Three Sons, and Kermit the Frog & Miss Piggy—in rapid
succession.[37] After completing his set, though getting the OK gesture from Carson, the
impressionist comic was notably not waved over by the host to join him on the couch—a usual
indication that while sufficiently pleased, the powerful host was probably not ecstatic about the
performance.[38] The end of 1983 saw Carrey go back home to Toronto once more for a publicized
New Years' Eve performance at the Royal York Hotel's Imperial Room.
Originally scheduled to start airing in January 1984, The Duck Factory sitcom debut in April,
airing Thursdays at 9:30pm between Cheers and Hill Street Blues.[39][40] The same month, Carrey
took a job hosting the 1984 U-Know Awards ceremony held in Toronto at the Royal York Hotel's
Ballroom.[41] By the time he made his debut appearance on NBC's Late Night with David
Letterman in late July 1984, the network had already cancelled The Duck Factory; Carrey went
back to touring with his impressionist act, including often opening for Rodney Dangerfield.
After being noticed doing stand-up by producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and contacted to audition for
a teen horror sex comedy being developed by The Samuel Goldwyn Company, Carrey landed a
starring role in Once Bitten shot in early 1985.[42] The young impressionist comic would continue
getting film roles; throughout late summer and early fall 1985, he shot a supporting part
in Francis Ford Coppola's Peggy Sue Got Married which then went into a long post-production
process.[42] In parallel, he decided to try out for Saturday Night Live again, this time ahead of the
show's 1985-86 season being prepared by returning executive producer Lorne Michaels who
was looking to hire an all-new cast. Five years removed from his previous SNL audition, twenty-
three-year-old Carrey got rejected again, reportedly never even getting the chance to audition his
material—'post-nuclear Elvis' hybrid impression and impersonation of Henry Fonda from On
Golden Pond—in front of executive producer Michaels due to the show's producers and senior
writers Al Franken, Tom Davis, and Jim Downey deciding that Michaels wouldn't like it.[43] Unlike
his previous SNL rejection, Carrey now had a bit of a movie career to fall back on in addition to
his impressionist stand-up act; Once Bitten was released in mid November 1985 and turned out
to be a modest box-office hit despite drawing poor reviews.
Back on the comedy club circuit with impressions, in fall 1986, Carrey auditioned
for SNL's upcoming season, his third attempt at getting on the ensemble sketch comedy show.
Finally managing to perform for the show's executive producer Lorne Michaels at
a Burbank studio, with returning cast members Dennis Miller, Jon Lovitz, and Nora Dunn also
watching the audition, Carrey was rejected again. [43] Among the group of hopefuls auditioning
alongside Carrey on this occasion were Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman, both of whom got hired.
[43]

Sensing that doing only impressions was turning into a career dead-end, Carrey set out to
develop a new live comedy act.[44] Much to the dismay of comedy club owners booking him, he
began abandoning trademark spastic celebrity impressions, opting instead to try
adding observational and character humour to his comedic repertoire, a process that often
involved forcing himself to improvise and scramble in front of dissatisfied live audiences that
came to see him do impressions.[44]
From 1990 to 1994, Carrey was a regular cast member of the ensemble comedy television
series In Living Color.[45] While short-lived, the popularity of this series helped him to land his first
few major film roles.