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Camilla Jones bringing lots of laughter to Rimbey Women’s Conference

Comedian Camilla Jones knows a thing or two about making people laugh. She’s also had quite the busy and adventurous life.
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Camilla Jones with her three grandchildren. She will be heading to the Rimbey Women’s Conference as the keynote speaker April 13. (Photo submitted by Camilla Jones)

Comedian Camilla Jones knows a thing or two about making people laugh. She’s also had quite the busy and adventurous life.

Growing up on a farm west of Bowden, Jones was the middle child of five girls, but she herself ended up being a mom to four boys, with lots of hilarity from those moments in her life brought to her various speaking gigs. This spring her boys will be 30, 31, 32 and 33.

“They are nine months and 20 minutes apart, so I say in my comedy, you can get pregnant while you’re sleeping,” said Jones.

Her boys are just one of the topics she jokes about in her comedy. The rest is every day events that have happened to her including a stroke, divorce, life’s challenges and more.

Jones will be the keynote speaker at the Rimbey Women’s Conference coming up on April 13 at the Peter Lougheed Community Centre. She will doing a quick rundown of how she tackles every day problems.

“When they leave the room they’re going to feel great, because they’re going to know, ‘we’re not as messed up as she is and she’s still laughing.’ That’s my main goal is to make people feel good at the end.”

Jones first got into the world of comedy in the 90s. She was dared to go into a contest at Yuk Yuk’s.

“It was in Calgary and they were searching for Canada’s newest, funniest comic.”

There were around 53 competitors at the time and Jones made it to the top three.

Rather than working for Yuk Yuk’s, Jones figured she’d see what would happen through word of mouth, which turned out great for her.

Someone from FCSS had heard she did really good in that contest, so she was later asked to put a show together for a small women’s event to add some humour.

She came up with a one hour show called The Gift of Laughter.

“All I got from that first show was a hanging basket of flowers, which were just beautiful. I felt so good, I made everyone laugh so hard. They all stood up and everyone loved it,” she said.

To this day, Jones has been lucky enough to not pay for one penny of advertising as all of her work has been through word of mouth.

Jones has also attended lots of corporate gigs, but later ended up having a bad stroke due to a birth defect she never knew she had at about 41 years old.

“I was totally paralyzed on my left side.”

Her son, who she referred to as her comedy critic, told her she needed her Gift of Laughter to get through it and told her she’d probably end up writing some new material, and she did just that.

“I got a new show out of it and I called it Different Strokes for Different Folks. It was a more serious show. It kind of yanked at people’s emotions more.”

Before being a comedian she was a dairy inspector for many years and also did some work in sales.

Jones said her genetics were blessed with comedy. She said back in the day humour for women was deemed inappropriate, but her grandma broke all of those barriers and passed it on to her mom.

“I’m so glad for that genetic gift of humour from my mom and my grandma,” she said, adding that she too will pass it down to her grandkids.

“My biggest goal is to make sure they all have that sense of humour.”

Looking back, Jones says she spent most of her time in Grade 1 in the corner, and used humour as a survival skill.

“I’ve been honing that skill for 50 years now.”

Fast forward to today, Jones said the thing that brings her the most joy is her grandkids.

“I’ve never experienced joy like this. I have so much fun with them already.”

The title of her next show was even inspired by her one grandson, who slapped her on the butt in a funny situation recently and said ‘you’re a good boy grandma,’ which is now the title of her next show.

“I’ve always been a tomboy. It was just so fitting. It was just perfect.”

Jones continues to make people laugh through conventions, fundraisers and more.

For more information on Jones, people can visit her website at thefeelgoodnetwork.ca.