Comedy can be a tough business.Ask comedian Mark Forward. A string of comedy awards and network television appearances haven’t left him resting on his laurels.He joins the line-up of the Just for Laughs Bermuda festival comedy at the Fairmont Southampton in January.“In Canada, most comedians try to get into the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada,” said Mr Forward. “I did their Home Grown competition in 2006 where they tour the country and look for new comics.“God no, I didn’t expect I was going to win that competition. I don’t expect to work tomorrow. I am a realist.”In February he appeared on ‘The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson’. It didn’t make him feel any more confident.“The episode I was in didn’t air for three months, so I had to wait [for any positive fallout from that].“I was like ‘okay back to zero’. I think comedians are hard wired to not get too high or too low. We get low more than we get high — emotionally.”His appearance on the show did eventually lead to something good a 2012 Canadian Comedy Award.Mr Forward started out in theatre but found he didn’t enjoy theatrical performances that much.“So I found something where I could be the director and writer and producer,” he explained. “Comedy is much harder but it is much more rewarding.“There is no secret formula to comedy. I wish there was. I think partly you are just born funny.”Originally from Canada, Mr Forward realised in high school that he had a gift for comedy.He would often walk right up to the school bully and say something insulting. The bully would assume he was trying to be funny and laugh.“It is a great super power to have,” Mr Forward said.In 2010 he wrote an article for the Toronto Star newspaper about how he was retiring from comedy due to frustration.“But lately, for whatever reason — global warming, North Korea, or maybe it’s Justin Bieber — I have lost the love of performing,” he wrote. “It’s a much different world out there. People’s attitudes have changed.“People don’t seem to show up to comedy clubs just ‘wanting’ to laugh; they show up with a ‘make me laugh’ attitude.“Cellphones are left on; texting is rampant in the front row, and done with an arrogance suggesting it is their right.“So this year, I have made the decision to walk away from it all. Retire.“Don’t get me wrong, there are some shows in which the stars align and it’s truly brilliant, and you walk off loving what you do.“The problem is the 20 shows that came before. They are filled with men belching, fights, drunk hecklers.“Once a woman even walked up quietly to the front of the stage, threw a rubber chicken at my chest, and walking away without saying a word.”He ended the article by saying that he actually had a show coming up. He has been working ever since.Among other things, he plays the role of stern librarian Mr Leung on the CBC sitcom ‘Mr D’, and is a staff writer for the show.He told The Royal Gazette: “Most comedians go through that period of frustration. I think they must.“You hit the point where you think you are better than you are, and sometimes you are also playing to rooms that you have outgrown. I was playing shows that weren’t making me happy.”Sometimes he would turn up to shows where there wasn’t even a microphone, and the audience had no idea he was scheduled to perform.“I was taking every show that came my way,” he said. “Once I cut that out I was happier.“A show that is set up for standup is good. That’s better than walking into a room where people don’t even know who you are.”Other performers in the Just for Laughs Bermuda show will be Orny Adams, Danny Bhoy, Alonzo Bodden and Jonathan Young.There will be a double feature show with Mr Bodden and Mr Bhoy at City Hall on January 9, and the full line-up of comedians from January 10 to 12 at the Fairmont Southampton Mid-Ocean Amphitheatre.Tickets are on sale at www.bdatix.bm, Fabulous Fashions at Heron Bay Plaza until December 1 and then from December 1 at Sportseller in the Washington Mall.Tickets can be ordered by phone on 232-2255 ($3 extra charge per ticket applies).For more information visit www.comedyevent.bm or www.hahaha.com or call 232-8499.