D.J. Demers of "One More Time" poses for a photograph in Toronto on Wednesday, December 6, 2023. The new half-hour sitcom premiers Jan. 9. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

TORONTO - D.J. Demers is willing to joke about almost anything, though it took him a while to feel at ease poking fun at his hearing loss.

“I didn't necessarily want to talk about my hearing aids right away in standup,” says the Kitchener, Ont.-born comedian, 37, who was diagnosed with severe-to-profound hearing loss at age four.

“I didn't want it to be a gimmick or a crutch. But then once you feel confident in your abilities, you go, ‘Well, I'll find a way to make this funny, and it's a big part of who I am.’ So, I learned pretty early on that there was a lot of humour in it, and a lot of people would relate to it. I like to believe I learned to make it relatable for people who don't even have hearing loss.”

It’s safe to say Demers’ comedy is resonating; his standup career has earned him appearances on “America’s Got Talent" and “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.” Now, he has his own CBC sitcom.

In “One More Time,” premiering Jan. 9, Demers sometimes makes his disability the punchline. The half-hour comedy, written by Demers and showrunner Jessie Gabe, sees him take the lead as D.J., a hard-of-hearing manager of a second-hand sporting goods store.

Along with a ragtag team of eccentric employees – including Geri Hall as assistant manager Cynthia and Dan Beirne as sales associate Wayne – D.J. navigates the daily hurdles of sustaining a small business.

"We went for big swings, taking some comedic risks," says Gabe, whose producing credits also include "Workin' Moms" and "Run the Burbs."

"Our hope was to just have a show that makes you feel good and makes you laugh and escape reality right now."

In the pilot, D.J.'s hearing aids malfunction after he loses a dunk tank competition, and he proceeds to give customers bad advice based on his poor lip-reading skills.

Demers often takes a self-deprecating approach. A through line in his comedy is that he’s "bad at being deaf."

“I grew up with a hearing family and I was never taught sign language, and I barely even acknowledged my hearing aids when I was young," he says.

He recalls playing a standup set at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. – touted as the only university in the world designed to be accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing students – and being surprised to learn the architecture of the building was customized for deaf people.

“I just realized this is a world that I don't actually belong to,” says Demers. “I probably have one toe in it, and I'm probably closer to it than hearing people. I definitely am, but I'm not fully of that world. But I'm also not hearing; a lot of times I'm missing stuff. So, it’s funny being in that middle ground between the two, and there's a lot of jokes to be mined there.”

In one episode, D.J. gets jealous of another character for being deafer than him.

“It’s like, ‘Oh man, this person is stealing my deaf thunder!” he says. “I think we cleverly played with the hearing loss in the show. I think not taking it too seriously is actually what makes it, I don't want to say powerful, but palatable. Somewhere between powerful and palatable.”

While Demers may consider himself an outsider, he often receives messages of support from the deaf community for his standup. He hopes the representation he gives in “One More Time” will provide more inspiration.

“I've never seen somebody with hearing aids in such a prominent role on TV,” he says. “So I'm hoping that some 10-year-old kid watching TV sees me with hearing aids and feels some sort of positive way about that.

"That would be a cool byproduct of this funny show we're trying to make.”

"One More Time" airs Tuesday nights on CBC and will be available to stream on CBC Gem.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 4, 2024.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2024