Last Tuesday night I performed along with 5 other up and coming Canadian comedians and host Mike Bullard at Casino Nova Scotia.

  After years of dreaming about performing at the Halifax Comedy Fest in front of my hometown, it finally happened.

Although the show started at 8pm, we are asked to show up at 4pm for a sound check.  I go through a piece of my routine and I use the mic like a hammer on the stool. (BAM!)

"Ok, during showtime, can you do that on your hand instead of the stool?  I don't want you breaking my mic."

I say, "No, I have to do it this way, its important to the joke."

There was some grumbling and some moving around after my reply, but they said "Ok, we'll figure something out" 

I then go backstage where there is coffee, tea, donuts, muffins, sandwhiches, red bull, orange and apple juice, water and cheesecake.  We take turns eating like we're homeless and then watch the monitor while the other guys on the show go through their soundchecks.  I strike up a short and akward conversation with fellow comedian and ex-nun Jacquie O'keefe about her time in a convent and then head back to my hotel room to relax for an hour or so.

At about 6:30pm I show up for my make up call.  I haven't worn make-up since I was dracula for hallowe'en about 20 years ago.  I don't know how women do that everyday.

8pm comes and Mark Critch warms up the crowd and announces the fest sponsors, then he brings Mike Bullard on, who is as fast as anybody on his feet, saying to a man named "Ali" that he doesn't have to worry about security checks since he married a CanJet employee. 

I'm scheduled to be the first performer up. Mike wraps up while I'm waiting in the wings with the lady with a headset.  Mike announces my name, the crowd begins to applaud, but I am held up by the lady with the headset, because they don't want me to take the stage until they switch stools.  A stage hand has specially made a stool for me with a cushion top so I can smash it with the mic and not do any damage. This is great, but it takes him a good minute to make the switch, so by the time they let me take the stage, the audience has been silent for 15 seconds and thinks I got lost on the way to the show.

I finally take the stage, arms above my head, like an olympic athlete to a second, but smaller wave of applause.  I go through my7 min set, get the light and get off.  I did well, but with 4 and a half years worth of work invested into this moment, and 3 hours worth of make up, sound check, and waiting around, I was hoping for more.  7min went fast.  I just remember thinking my entire festival was already half over.

Everybody did well that night, but Jeff McEnery and Trevor Boris were the no doubt hits.

In Nova Scotia there are 2 main newspapers.  The Chronicle Herald, and the Daily News.  I checked the next day for a heading like "Hometown boy makes good as a Fresh Face in Canadian comedy!"   I was as blindly optimistic as a bride on the eve of her wedding to an NHL star.  The Chronicle Herald didn't mention anything and the Daily news put 2 lines of my jokes in a small article. For a brief moment I forgot about how apathetic the Canadian culture is.  If nobody in this country gives a shit about genocide, why did I expect them to care about 5min of jokes? 

Andrew Evans