Cathy Jones

Biography

Ms. Jones joined the Newfoundland Travelling Theatre Co. in 1973 and performed in The Starrigan. Moving to Toronto and helping to found CODCO, she worked on the troupe's earliest show Cod on a Stick and performed in both Toronto and Newfoundland.

After 1980 Ms. Jones worked with the Sheila's Brush company, performing in Jack Meets the Cat and Midsummer Nightmare. She also acted in Resource Centre for the Arts productions and appeared in the television series The Wonderful Grand Band and CODCO.

Ms. Jones' one-woman show Wedding In Texas was a smash hit across Canada, showcasing her ability to take pot shots at the war between the sexes without alienating either sex.

Her film career includes the lead role in the Mike Jones film Secret Nation and a role as a professional wrestler in Mark Tolefson's film Desiree's Wish.

In 1995, Ms. Jones co-hosted the Juno Awards with the rest of the cast of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Beyond her work on that popular television show Ms. Jones co-hosted the live gala presentation of the 1998 Gemini Awards with Steve Smith. Ms. Jones has recently completed a one hour comedy special, Cathy Jones Gets a Special featuring top comedians from across Canada to be broadcast on CBC TV.

Ms. Jones will receive an honorary doctor of letters degree.

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Oration honouring Catherine Frederica Jones

If form were but a fiction this woman's form would fool the world of mirrors. She fools, however, in the manner of her saint, Benedict Labre, patron of tramps and beggars. Labre, the son of a shopkeeper, was rejected as a novice by several religious orders and so took the pilgrim road, wandering the shrines of Europe. The resemblance to Cathy Jones's life and career is so striking that one has to conclude that she has been under Labre's guidance all her life. Beloved youngest daughter of a shopkeeper, she struck out on a theatrical road that took her all over this continent. There is, however, one qualification necessary — it does appear unlikely that, as distinct from her other patron, Bernadette of Lourdes, she ever applied to be a postulant with the Sisters of Charity. But she, like Labre and like the Greek saloi or Russian yurodicy, are “fools for Christ's sake.” Cathy Jones has, as have all the finest readers of the world of wit, subtly read the human book and so drawn out all its characteristics that she can replay them in mock manner and enlighten us on our own foibles. The mirror the comic holds up to nature is one that allows us to stand beside her and to laugh with her at those aspects of ourselves that she does mock. The closer she approximates ourselves, the shallower our laughter becomes until the mirror ceases to distort but only truly reflects — at which time we resent the image there. Yet still we learn and we accept the fact that Babe Bennett is really only a Mother Superior in the convent of life.

Mr. Chancellor, there is another dimension to Cathy Jones, one that is not often remarked upon — her musical ability. This was very apparent from the beginning when, in Cod on a Stick, she sang that haunting and prescient ballad of the “Wild Cod.” In a production filled with the most wonderful comic commentaries on Newfoundland life, her performance of this song brought the laughter to a stop. It told, in mime and music, of the demise of the fishery — 26 years before the real obituaries were written. And it told the story with a remarkable art, for the movement and the music (and the comedy within it) blended so beautifully that we knew we were seeing not just cabaret players but actors with a real and full sense of their craft. She moved us because we were encountering a woman whose art did not just reflect our culture by provoking a deep laughter but because her reflections were lit beyond learning by her own knowledge of humanity, by the warmth of a sometimes too-susceptible heart. What she reveals is that music is the discovery of harmony in hollowness: in a guitar, a drum, a flute. And so, too, is comedy. For comedy shows not only the hollowness, that vanity of human wishes, but, by turn, discovers the harmony within: the sad-seeking that reveals the humanity of beings. This she demonstrated brilliantly with her internationally acclaimed one woman show, Wedding in Texas.

We have here a woman who has vamped her way onto the national screen, who represented her own nation of Newfoundland as Frieda Vokey, the heroine of the film, Secret Nation; who has played and played with every gender on stage and television; who is outrageous yet beloved — something a bit like yourself, Mr. Chancellor, so I present her to you, for the degree of doctor of letters (honoris causa), Catherine Frederica Jones.

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Convocation address by Dr. Cathy Jones

It's a great pleasure that I receive this honour. Many thanks to the Senate of Memorial University for bestowing this degree on me. It's funny because I've always thought of myself as a doctor. I carry band-aids, Mercurochrome, everywhere I go, so this comes as no surprise. I've always had a challenging relationships with education so I have a lot of respect for students and other people who can concentrate. I had a hard time in school. In high school, my hobbies were, somewhat like Mary, I suppose, my hobbies were taking acid and lighting smokes off the toaster. Most of my memories of school are in strobe, unfortunately. I thought, actually, that math was a language. Teacher would say to me, “Miss Jones, if Y is the square root of the hypotenuse, and G is the cosine, solve for X.” And I would say, “Elizabeth has a blue hat.”

I have been very fortunate to be in the company of some very brilliant, kind and talented people who have encouraged me and believed in me and I am indebted to these people. My colleagues here today and, of course, Tommy (Sexton) and Bob Joy, and Diane Olsen who also were in the original CODCO group.

I think that one of the greatest gifts in my life has been my sense of humour and I guess by way of offering advice to the graduating class, I would simply encourage you to live your lives with curiousity no matter what comes, keeping an open heart, try to be kind and gentle to yourselves, and maintaining a sense of humour. That's, I guess, what I figure is probably the key to dealing with everything. Best of luck to you.

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Dr. Michel Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Monique Bégin
Andy Jones
Cathy Jones
Mary Walsh
Greg Malone
William Hubert Rompkey
John David Allison Widdowson
Craig Laurence Dobbin
Dr. Peter Francis Neary