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Comedian Irwin Barker dead at 54
MONTREAL, (UPI) -- Canadian comedian-writer Irwin Barker has died in Toronto after a long battle with leiomyosarcoma, his family said. He was 54.
The Winnipeg Free Press said Barker was diagnosed with the rare form of soft-tissue cancer in June 2007.
Although told he had a year to live, Barker survived much longer than expected and continued to work as a writer on the CBC's "The Rick Mercer Report."
He also continued to tour, performing at cancer research fundraisers and for Canadian troops stationed in Afghanistan, the newspaper said.
"His comedy was incredibly intelligent; he's somebody who obviously had a very high IQ," Winnipeg Comedy Festival artistic director Al Rae told the Free Press. "He was obviously a very concrete thinker ... but he also had to be a profoundly good abstract thinker in order to look at things in other ways, which is the secret to comedy. In that sense, I would say he was probably the most well-rounded, intelligent person I've ever had a close relationship with."
MONTREAL, (UPI) -- Canadian comedian-writer Irwin Barker has died in Toronto after a long battle with leiomyosarcoma, his family said. He was 54.
The Winnipeg Free Press said Barker was diagnosed with the rare form of soft-tissue cancer in June 2007.
Although told he had a year to live, Barker survived much longer than expected and continued to work as a writer on the CBC's "The Rick Mercer Report."
He also continued to tour, performing at cancer research fundraisers and for Canadian troops stationed in Afghanistan, the newspaper said.
"His comedy was incredibly intelligent; he's somebody who obviously had a very high IQ," Winnipeg Comedy Festival artistic director Al Rae told the Free Press. "He was obviously a very concrete thinker ... but he also had to be a profoundly good abstract thinker in order to look at things in other ways, which is the secret to comedy. In that sense, I would say he was probably the most well-rounded, intelligent person I've ever had a close relationship with."