In 2010, when Ardell Brophy stepped on stage to claim her YWCA Women of Distinction award, the pulmonary fibrosis was well underway. She wheeled her oxygen concentrator behind her, with its thin, clear tube feeding air into her nostrils.
“Does this oxygen tank make me look fat?” she asked.
Laugher, applause - that was Brophy, best known for her work as a union activist, NDP supporter and comedienne extraordinaire.
Brophy died on Oct. 27 after several years of living with pulmonary fibrosis. She got her start in comedy in 1988, when a friend dragged her out to an open mike night. Brophy was afraid of bombing, so she used a stage name - Ardell Fitzpatrick. From the first laugh, she was hooked.
“You’re funny,” she was told, “but we already have one female comic.”
The sexism was frustrating, Brophy told the NOW in 2010, but she persevered and in 1997 started the Laff Riot Girls, an all-female comedy collective that often performed at Lafflines Comedy Club in New Westminster. She also organized B.C. Funniest New Female Comic, an annual competition for new female talent, and through both mentored hundreds of female comics (and some men), giving them the space, encouragement and coaching to perform.
When people thought upcoming comedian Tanyalee Davis, a woman with dwarfism, wasn’t strong enough to headline, Brophy said, “Fine. I’ll book the club, I’ll produce the shows … and she’ll headline my show.” Davis filled the room and received a standing ovation; she now performs on the international circuit.
“(Brophy) absolutely carved out a space that didn’t exist before,” said ex-wife and fellow comedian Lee Ann Keple. “It goes back to her social justice roots. It allowed for a space of fairness, that someone was seeing you fairly. It gave you a chance,” Keple said. “She provided a home. She really did give us all that safe place to grow.”
That space promoted women, people with disabilities and mental illnesses, and folks from the LGBT community. (Brophy herself had come out on stage in the 1990s as a self-proclaimed “lipstick lesbian.”) She built a dedicated audience that followed from venue to venue.
Keple and Brophy were married for 13 years, with Keple handling the marketing and business side of the Laff Riot Girls.
“It was such a great space,” Keple said. “The ultimate honour was to be told: You’re a card-carrying Laff Riot Girl now. It was kind of like being knighted.”
Comedy wasn’t the only thing Brophy was famous for. She was also a longtime union activist who worked with the Hastings racetrack and ICBC before she got a job as a representative with COPE 378, which recently changed its name to MoveUP. She was also vice-president of United Steelworkers Local 2009, which represents staff at MoveUP.
MoveUP president David Black said Brophy was one of the most compassionate people he’s ever met.
“She was a force,” said Black, recalling how Brophy was helping a young woman who had gotten into trouble at work because of something her boyfriend had done. Brophy helped with the workplace problem and with what Black described as an unhealthy relationship.
“She wanted to help people. She wasn’t just worried what their problems were at work; she wanted to help them in their life,” he said.
Brophy was also a dedicated New Democrat. She was involved with the party’s Burnaby North constituency association and helped the Burnaby Citizens Association with leafletting, door-knocking, fundraising, you name it. She encouraged others to get out and vote, and in May 2013, while in hospital, she arranged for a ballot to be brought to her bedside and said: “I did it. You have no excuse now.”
“She was incredibly politically committed and she definitely wore her heart on her sleeve as far as her politics were concerned,” said Mayor Derek Corrigan.
Both Black and Corrigan commented on Brophy’s perseverance in the face of adversity.
“Ardell was really quite impressive,” Corrigan said. “She just didn’t let it stop here. She just kept going and going and going, despite those physical challenges.”
Brophy also sat on the board of directors of Burnaby’s Charlford House, a 15-bed post-detox home for women recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Brophy had a drinking problem herself and sobered up in the late ‘80s, something she spoke about candidly in her comedy routines.
At Charlford, she used her community connections and fundraising skills to help the home and was named a Charlford Angel, a distinction held by only three people.
Miranda Vecchio, the society’s executive director, described Brophy was a “real spitfire,” determined to help despite her failing health.
One year, Brophy was set to MC a fundraiser but collapsed. As the paramedics took her out on a stretcher, Brophy raised her head and said, “Dig deep people, spend lots of money.”
“That was just her fighting spirit wanting the most from people and the best from people and willing to give that herself,” Vecchio said.
“Her body betrayed her so badly, but her spirit just said, ‘No, you’re not going to get me that easily.’ … She fought completely all the way. That never died, and it never will.”
On Aug. 4, 2012, Brophy went into hospital for a double-lung transplant. The transplant was a success, but there were just too many complications and her health deteriorated. She spent her last years in various forms of care, eventually moving to Kelowna to be closer to her brother, but she passed away there on Oct. 27.
“She was such a strong woman,” Keple said, “any normal mortal would have been felled six, 12, 16 times. She fought back every time. It was such BS after all that fighting. It just wasn’t possible to get to a stage where she could live independently.”
“The woman is a legend. It was a lot of fun to be along for a lot of that ride, because they don’t make ‘em like her,” Keple said.
There will be a celebration of Brophy’s life on Sunday, Nov. 22, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Confederation Community Centre, in the banquet hall, at 4585 Albert St. People can donate to Charlford House in lieu of flowers.
Some of the awards Ardell Brophy earned over the years:
- YWCA Women of Distinction 2010
- Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal
- Xtra West Queer Hero of the Year Award
- Royal City Pride Rainbow Award
- Charlford Angel designation for people who have done extraordinary work to help Charlford House
- New Westminster and District Labour Council Award
- MoveUP (formely COPE 378) created an award in Brophy’s honour for union reps who go beyond the call of duty and display strong leadership skills.
