When I was a kid my folks loved the tonight show with Johnny Carson. They let me stay up to watch his monologue. Then we got a VCR and I taped Late Nite with David Letterman every single night. I loved the end of the show when they always had a comic do a set. My brother Gordie’s best friend as a kid was Eric Tunney, Canadian comedy legend. He was doing stand up in Detroit even as a teenager. Being a comic always seemed like an attainable goal to me.

In my third year at UBC I took a job waitering at a fancy joint on Jericho Beach called the Brock House. One of the other waiters invited us to see him do a set at the Open Mic in Gastown. We all headed to Punchlines Comedy Theatre. I scoped out the scene and thought, “I can do this.” So I did.

A year later I tied for runner-up in the Punchlines New Talent Search. The winner got to do a set at the Improv in LA.

When I moved to Toronto after graduation, Eric showed me around a bit. I started doing sets, getting some MC gigs. I was well liked. But the comedy scene in the 90’s was not what you’d call “high brow” it was very “low brow”, a little too “low brow” for my liking. So I applied my comedy skill to the theatre world and wrote my first play, Absolutely the Last Supper.