Rainbow Camp the big winner of Last One Laughing Canada

Rainbow Camp co-founders Chris Southin and Harry Stewart were getting ready to watch the final episodes of Last One Laughing Canada when the messages of congratulations started pouring.

The show pitted 10 of Canada's top comedians against each other to see who could keep a straight face the longest and not break. At stake was $100,000 for the winner's charity of choice.

“We had planned a watch party for midnight because they had been putting out episodes at 12:01 and I posted that I can’t wait to watch it and somebody said congratulations and I was like what?" said Stewart by phone on Friday.

In the fall, Southin and Stewart were contacted by producers of the show to tell them Rainbow Camp had been selected as the charity of choice by one of the comedians, but didn't know for sure it was Colin Mochrie until the show was announced.

Mochrie and his wife Debra McGrath have long supported the summer camp, which offers LGBTQ kids age 12-17 from across Canada and the U.S. the outdoor experience. Mochrie is best known as a master improvisational comedian from shows like Whose Line is it Anyway.

Founded in 2012 by Stewart and Southin, Rainbow Camp is located east of Sault Ste. Marie. The $100,000 prize is the largest-ever private donation to the camp.

"This camp is referred to by our return campers as home," said Southin. "This is a safe place for them where they can find themselves and be themselves.The $100,000 definitely helps secure that for them."

“They asked a couple of years ago if they could be our national spokespeople and they have gone well above and beyond," said Stewart of Mochrie and McGrath. "We assumed it was Colin if he was in it, but we didn’t ask."

“We spoke to Debra this morning and she said when it came down to choosing which charity, if he had won, that they would give it to, she said there was no question. It was going to be Rainbow Camp," said Southin. “They are amazing people with big hearts."

The six-episode show aired two episodes every Friday for the past three weeks on the Amazon Prime streaming service.

“One of the things we realized right away is even if he didn’t win, the publicity we are getting — the hits on our web site have been wonderful," said Stewart. “We really tried not to get our hopes up. We were counting on him, but at the same time it just seemed to get harder as it went along."

In the end, Mochrie was able to keep a straight face the longest and was crowned the winner. An oversized $100,000 cheque was presented to him with Rainbow Camp's name on it.

The prize money is a huge boost for the organization's upcoming camping season, but Southin notes Rainbow Camp still has a lot of work to do in order to meet its goals.

“The $100,000 is a good launching pad and a good start but we still have a ways to go and still need the donations," said Southin.

One of the mandates of the camp is to make sure no kid is turned away because they can't afford it. Meeting that goal is becomming more difficult as Rainbow Camp grows.

"In our first year we had 14 campers. In 2019 at the last live camp we had 200 campers," said Southin.

Stewart said Rainbow Camp's goal is to host a total of 700 campers over the next four years.

"This money is earmarked to help pay for camper registration and camper travel," said Stewart of the prize money. “It is a start for this year. We have a target and this definitely takes a bit of pressure off, but we still have a long way to go."