Halifax Comedy Fest!

Ok. So I haven't blogged since I was in L.A. and now I'm in Halifax... Quite the little traveler aren't I!

I arrived to Halifax on Tuesday, with My friend Bobbie. She has been a wonderful travel partner thus far.... I do miss Jolene, though. I wish she were here too, :-(

On Tuesday, we arrived, checked into our Hotel (the Four Points Sheraton) and were incredibly impressed by the 5 (count 'em-5!) pillows of various shapes and sizes on each of our beds. We've come to the conclusion that it is impossible to not have a good night's sleep in these beds....

We are here for Comedy Fest, which is a series of shows featuring stand up comics from all over the place. Seeing as I am usually one who doesn't have a very good memory, I have come prepared with a notebook, to write down who's good and who's not, and am aided by a program which has all of the performers pics and bios.

Tuesday night the show was so good that our bellies and cheeks hurt like crazy.... We were asked if we wanted to be moved to the front, which I always said I would never want to do at a comedy show, but I thought, hey-why not? You only live once... So we did. I got picked on a bit for bringing a notebook to the show, but I knew THAT would happen....

One of the best acts that evening was Matt Sadlier, a guy from Ireland. Incredibly funny guy, and I'm really hoping to see much much more of him. We saw him again last night (more on that later).

The MC on Tuesday was Steve Patterson. He was great too. Especially his rap ("Hop Hip", lol). We also loved Trevor Boris and Casey Corbin. There were a few acts on Tuesday that I haven't decided I love yet, but am looking forward to seeing them again before I really make my final judgment.

After the show we were famished, not having eaten since breakfast. It was now 11 pm! So we went to my favorite lebanese place in Halifax, Venus Pizza, for some chicken Shawarmas, Stuffed grape leaves and Hommous. mmmmmmmmm

Yesterday, we got a late start on the day (we are going to bed really late these days....) so we didn't get out of the room until about 1:00pm. We went down to the boardwalk and headed towards the Historic Properties for lunch. While I was waiting for mine, I saw a guy sitting by the window, and I was sure I had seen him in the program. So, program in hand (brought it along justin case a situation like this arose) I asked Bobbie to go for a walk and take a look. She came back and we agreed he really looked like one of two guys in the book, actually. I kept wanting to go up and ask him if he was part of the Festival, but was too shy to do so (in case he wasn't because that would be dreadly embarrassing).

At one point, I had gotten up to get something and decided I would go up to him and ask. The worse he could say was no! When I returned, though, I saw he wasn't sitting in his spot anymore. But I did see where he was and he was on the way out. So I grabbed my courage with both hands and asked him if he was part of Comedy Fest. He said he was. I asked who he was and he said Jebb Funk. That's who I had picked him out for from the program pic. He asked who I was, and I told him my name and that I was a lawyer from PEI here for the duration of the Festival. I don't really remember what happened next, but for some reason, I asked if he wanted my business card (I'm really good at that, lol) and he said yes, so I had to go back to our table to get one. He followed me back to our table.

Now try to imagine what Bobbie saw... We had been obsessed with figuring out who this guy was and then I leave for a second and she sees me coming back with him in tow! lol So I gave him my card and he chatted with us for a few minutes. Then I realized that what I had ordered for lunch must have been up, so I said I had to go get it, but asked if he wanted to sit down with us. He had a seat and I went to grab my lunch. He chatted with us for a good hour, I'm sure. He was really swet and a great story teller, but also well-versed in so many things. He was a great help to me in helping me understand some parts of the industry and name-dropped like crazy, lol (we prompted a little too, but just once-asking what Russell Peters is like in person, of course, lol) .

So before he left, we asked him to autograph our programs, and he did. He was such a sweetheart. Check him out at www.jebbfink.com .

Then we went out shopping, stopping (of course) at Freak's Lunchbox, an amazing candy store on Barrington. It's tradition to stop there.... One of the things I bought, that made me laugh like crazy, was a couple of packages of gag "Irish Mints" said to give you an instant Irish accent. lol I bought one for me and one for Matt Sadlier, in case I got to meet him, because I thought he would get a kick out of them.

We went shopping on Spring Garden Road and went out for supper at a 2 for 1 Steak place. We then got back to the Hotel, got ready for the show and off we went.

A few minutes before the show, I saw Matt Sadlier at the back! So I grabbed my mints and went up to give them to him. He read the package, and laughed. Then, in a very irish accent, said "You're a legend! Fuckin' A!" and shook my hand. I thought that was really funny because I presumed I was the only one who still said "Fuckin' A!". lol

We had decided (or convinced ourselves?) that we'd rather sit further back this time, and therefore, had no interest whatsoever in being at the front. But when they asked, I couldn't say no.... So we went up again, but this time we were front and centre! I was SURE we'd get picked on this time! But we got lucky. Not only did we not get picked on, I made really good eye contact with a few of the acts, and it was really cool, because I love to laugh and they loved to make me laugh. And I was lucky enough to have a lady further over to my left who laughed really loudly, and got picked on. And in true canadian style, apologized for laughing every time she was picked on! lol

The first act out was Matt Sadlier! And the first words out of his mouth were about the mints I gave him. He talked about a girl giving him these, and then started to scan the room, and saw me in the front row, and pointed me out (yay me!) and read the mint package out and joked about it. I thought that was soooooooooooo cool! He's awesome. He's my new hero..... lol

Then we got to see a few really good acts like Carl Banks, Mimi Gonzalez and and Bill Santiago. After the show, we got to meet (and chat with) Mimi Gonzalez, who said it was great to have me in the first row! lol I guess I laugh a lot..... We talked about PEI, and she was very well versed on canadian geography, even knowing where PEI was! Bonus points for that! We got her autograph and Bill Santiago's. Bill was awesome to us, too, giving us each a promo DVD!

Dan Nainan was scheduled to be in the show last night, but he had flight problems, so he didn't make it. We were really disappointed, but we're looking forward to seeing him on Friday.

I'm amazed at how little some comedians realize that personal contact with fans turns many into fans for life. The ones who take the time to chat and do something special for their fans are the ones who end up hooking us into coming to see them every time we can. They are the ones who, regardless of how good they are, become our favorites. I wish more of them would realize that....

So today, we're moving on to lunch time comedy, where we will see Jebb Fink again, as well as Carrie Gaetz, (we've seen her on Tuesday and she's pretty good), Patrick Ledwell (from PEI!!!) and Marc Sauvé. The MC is Mark Critch. We've been seeing him a lot.... lol

I'll blog again soon, but that should keep you all going for a while, lol.