My Little Brother Brian: An Amazing Guy

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June 28, 1982 – August 24, 2009

This is the saddest blog I have ever had to write. My brother Brian Gordon Comrie passed away on August 24th. Brian was a big part of Intense Individuals and I felt I needed to post my eulogy I read at his funeral yesterday. While I am so incredibly heartbroken I know he will live inside of me forever and will inspire me to keep writing.

To honor Brian you may make a donation to the either two of the following charities in his name if you’d like.

1) 826National

A nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students, aged 6-18, with expository and creative writing.

Brian was writing and creating since he was a young kid. We know he would love to be able to help children express their creativity.

2) The ASPCA

An organization that fights animal cruelty and a rescue center for abandoned or injured animals.

Brian loved animals.

On behalf of my family, thank you for your love and support.

My Eulogy To My Wonderful Little Brother:

As I look out here today and see all of your faces…family and friends of Brian’s from all parts of his life I cannot begin to describe the love my family and I feel. If we feel this much love Brian is feeling it even ten times more. Thank you so much for being here and celebrating a truly extraordinary man who lived 27 beautiful years and touched so many lives.

Brian loved people. And boy, did he love to make people laugh. As siblings Rick, Dan, Matt, Jill and I looked up to him in so many ways. I know I am the oldest, but I still looked up to him. From 1994, the year he says, “started it all” he had a video camera in his hand and was always getting us together to create the most ridiculous videos. That was the year You Know It Productions was created. At the end of every video we would pick someone to look right into the camera and say “You Know It.” That was his slogan in life. You Know It.

Brian was so quick witted and had such a dry sense of humor, finding something funny in the most random things. He entertained a lot of people with those videos we made growing up and continued to entertain people with the videos he made later on in his life. When I was in college I received a package in the mail from my siblings that said Happy Halloween. Inside was a VHS tape with the title “The Ball” on it. The video was of unbelievable. While it was just Brian, Rick, Dan, Jill and Matt throwing a ball around to each other the way they edited it and the music they picked was absolutely priceless. I watched it over and over as I sat on my dorm room floor laughing with tears running down my cheeks. My friends would always ask to watch The Ball video so when the art of DVD burning came around I asked Brian to compile all the You Know It Production videos for me so my friends at school could watch them. That DVD was worn out by the time I left college. Everyone was always asking to watch it. I remember sitting on the couch in my apartment watching all my friends cracking up at all the videos. Those videos had Brian’s humor all over them. He just knew how to make people laugh.

I learned a lot about humor from my little brother. I loved driving in the car with him and seeing something very subtly funny out the window. Without saying anything we would look at each other and bust up laughing. We just got the same humor. One summer back in 2002, we found out our gym had a swing dancing workout class. We decided to go check it out…but first we needed an outfit. We couldn’t just go to a swing dancing class at 24 Hour Fitness in regular gym clothes. So we headed down to the thrift store and pulled together two swing-dancing outfits. We drove over to the gym that evening decked out to the nines. I will never forget the look on the face of the woman behind the counter. Ummmm, hello? We just gave her our membership cards and with a straight face like only Brian could do he said “we are here for the 6pm Swing Dancing Class.” Arm and arm we strolled through the gym that day, him in a suit and a hat me in a green flowing dress getting reactions from all the people on the equipment. We had the time of our life that day at that class. It was an hour long dance with him I will never forget.

As a person, Brian was the most generous guy in the world. He never forgot a birthday and would always order way in advance the most perfect gift he found on eBay. Like the t-shirt he bought me for my birthday with the acronym I.I.W.I.I.

It is what it is. Another one of his favorite sayings.

Brian was a lover of all animals. Especially kittens. I swear of all the cats we had, they always seemed to go to Brian first. I would try and get one to sit on my lap but they’d immediately jump off and hop on Brian’s lap and start purring. He always gave the cats the funniest names. There was Uncle Rico, Lafanda, Preens and Ninez … Oh the list goes on and on. I swear our neighbors must of thought we were so weird when we would yell for Uncle Rico outside every night. Like who is this Uncle of theirs that they can never find.

Another animal that Brian was a huge fan of was Meerkats. You may know what a Meerkat is because of their recent fame on television but Brian liked Meerkats way before they were popular. He called them nervous animals because they walked around with their paws up all the time. He even coined a verb, Meerkating. When someone was nervous he’d say they were meerkating. He always came up with quirky new words that would catch on. Just the other day I was with Stephanie and one of her friends who didn’t even know Brian said, “Oh I was totally meerkating last night.”

Brian was so intelligent, sensitive, and had a heart of gold. He was also an incredibly talented athlete. From Soccer to Baseball to Tennis to Ping Pong (it was really hard to beat him in Ping Pong), and especially his hockey he loved a competition. He met so many wonderful life long friends through these sports. Friends that meant the world to him. He loved playing roller hockey in the backyard with his friends and our brothers. It was one of my favorite things to watch. Sometimes Jill and I would even play but they’d usually suite us up in goalie gear…but it sure was fun! When our cousins from Canada would come to visit there was always a big roller hockey game between the American Comries and the Canadian Comries that we called The Comrie Cup.

As a kid Brian was just always up to something. Every year brought a new adventure. One year he invented TUPA, T-U-P-A …The Unknown Pointing Arrow. Like I said he loved acronyms. TUPA was a secret place in the canyon behind our house where he would take my siblings and his friends out to just talk, explore nature and have lunch.

My brother was an incredible brother but he was also just an unbelievable son. The relationship he had with my mom and dad was beyond words. They were so close. Mom and Dad I admire you so much for the strength you provided him throughout his life. Your warmth, your hugs, your support and love were immeasurable. He loved you guys so much and always had such a fun time with you. So much laughter!! God, he just spoke the world of you both.

Brian was a confidant, a best friend to me, someone who I could trust with anything and there is a big loss in my heart and the hearts of many. Over the past couple days many people have written us, called us, and stopped by to tell us what Brian meant to them. All we keep hearing is “oh that smile! He had the best smile….He made me laugh so much ….he was so sweet.” The other night my mom walked outside to our porch and saw a candle burning that said forever Brian on it. It did not say who it was from or anything. Whoever did that, thank you…you are an angel.

In the program we listed the things Brian loved. He loved so many things that we could have filled many pages but we listed some of the top ones. I would like to read them out loud for you.

Brian loved:

Comedies, Comedians, and laughing hysterically.

He loved Chile Peppers bean burritos and 1.99s.

He loved cats and kittens.

He loved Ace Ventura and could quote that movie line by line.

He loved The Intense Individual Parties. He even won first place last year as Lieutenant Dan from Forrest Gump never broke character all night.

He loved thrift shops. Jill was telling us the other day that when he went to visit her in Arizona last year the first thing he asked was where the thrift shops were. He loved to go to thrift shops in the cities he would visit.

He loved awkward moments.

He loved writing, creating, and making films and shorts. He was such a genius. So talented.

He loved fresh berries…especially raspberries from Grandma’s garden. Grandpa he enjoyed our vacations up to Edmonton each summer out to see you so much. I know he is with Grandma now.

He loved the year 1994. To explain that would take too long but we can talk about it later!

He loved hockey and the number 19.

He loved Ali G.

He loved the letter K. He would end sentences with k all the time because it made us laugh.

He loved lemonade. This probably started when we were younger when we had lemonade stands every weekend outside our house. My mom would make the lemonade and then she’d end up buying all of it anyway. We made five bucks.

He loved the Canadian Flag and Canada in general. He loved Canada so much that when he was sixteen he developed a Canadian accent. He had moved from Canada when he was 2 ½ but suddenly he talked like a Canadian. He decorated his room with maple leafs, the Canadian flag hung above his bed, hockey pictures everywhere…it was what he called the GWN. Great White North. I am sure every hockey friend out there right now remembers the Air Canada baggage tape he used to tape his hockey socks and his hockey stick with.

He loved giving people nicknames. It was a connection he made with people.

But most importantly…above all he loved his friends and his family. They meant the world to him.

Brian will be so terribly missed. But I know he will live within all of us forever. And I know for sure that anytime I hear laughter I know he will be right there.

I love you, Beast.

Some pics:

Intense Individual Party #3: