Starting Out

This week on Starting Out it’s another just incredible comedian who loves talking comedy, as you’ll hear, it’s Thomas Calnan! I have gotten to know Tom a bit from Absolute, but we’ve never had the chance to have a deep comedy talk and we do talk a lot about his jokes, so please seek him out and hear this amazing storyteller. We have so much in common in our starting out stories, so that was cool t...

This week on Starting Out it’s another double down as I have my friends and Toronto-based comics Ian Fergus and Daniel Sanker on. We talk starting in Niagara and Brampton, the big move to Toronto, and when it felt like things were maybe coming together for us. There’s a lot of self-consciousness talk on this too. Ferg and Sanker are 2/3s of the hosts of the podcast Flicks with Dicks, maybe the bes...

On this week’s episode of Starting Out it’s Niagara Falls comedian and all around great person, David Green! David is the creator of the Garden City Comedy Festival, and is an incredibly successful, self-admitted, stubborn, word-smith comedian originally from the UK. David has been referred to as the “Punniest Comedian in Canada” and we talk about what it was like starting in the UK where pun-base...

This week on Starting Out it’s the amazing Toronto-based comedian, one of the most unique acts we have, Mr. Ernie Vicente. We do start on a somewhat sad note as Ernie recently lost his father, and he talked about it extensively on his podcast BFF Episodes, and I wanted to hear what that experience of talking about loss so openly was like for him. We then talk about him bombing in front of friends...

Full disclosure - I sound very confused at the outset of this week’s episode, but there’s a very good reason for that. There are two Matt Carters in the comedy scene, one from Ottawa that I’ve worked with, and another I knew by the name Charlie Carter. It turns out that Charlie is a Matt and he’s the one on this week’s episode, not the Ottawa one. Make sense? No of course not. But I was so happy t...

Episode 69 of Starting Out features a guest that's been on my list for so long, and as I admitted to him I was intimidated to ask because he’s so good, one of the truly best standups in the country. But it made absolute zero sense that I’d be scared because he’s also one of the truly best people out there, it’s Nick Reynoldson. Nick has done literally everything you can do in this country - S...

This week on Starting Out it’s comedian and all around awesome person, Jen Sakato! I’ve known Jen since I started doing standup as I used to watch her web series "ComInk" to learn about local comedians. Jen is a fantastic comedian, who is also married to another fantastic comedian Patrick Hakeem. We talk about that dynamic a lot. We also talk about bombing in front of an ex, and how comi...

My guest this week on Starting Out is another one of my comedy brothers - we started around the same time doing similar shows, only he is so naturally a standup and so good that he is now the regularly touring comic and opener for episode 49’s guest Jeff Leeson, it’s the lovely Tige Wright. Tige talks about growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness and how that prepared and dissuaded him from comedy, and...

This week my guest is comedian and writer, Keith Andrews. I have always appreciated Keith’s hustle and approach to standup as a relatively newer comic like me, and one of the things I was excited to talk about is he comes from a standup lineage. His father, Jim McAleese was one of the six original Yuk Yuks comics back in the late 70s and early 80s, and we talk about what it was like growing up wit...

My very special guest this week on Starting Out came requested! He's someone I've wanted to have on from the start, but he is one of my two favorite comedians in the scene, and frankly I was nervous to ask him. But I did and it's Todd Graham!! Todd has come up several times on this pod, he’s an artist, a comedian, as you’ll hear he’s been referred to as the Grandaddy of Mashups. Tod...

My friend George Burgess is my guest this week on Starting Out. If you don’t know George, he’s only a few years into standup, but his unique style of one-liner comedy, his complete dedication to it, and his comfort in negative space makes him one of those comics that even the other comics stop and listen to. (He’ll explain what negative space is). I didn’t even really know he’s a fan of this pod w...

I reached out to Simon Rakoff to see if he wanted to come on after reading a Facebook post that he was celebrating his 44th year as a comedian. Simon walks me through what it was like when no comedy scene existed at all in Toronto, as he was one of about a dozen people who started the scene when the first comedy club opened in 1978. Simon has achieved just about everything you can in comedy, even...

My guest this week on Starting Out is the comedian, amazing producer, and soon to be entertainment king of Kitchener-Waterloo, Sandy McFarlane. Like me, standup came to Sandy later in life and we talk a bit about managing regret. Sandy produces by far the best shows in Kitchener-Waterloo,  and if you’re ever in K-W and need a laugh, Sandy’s show Rusty Nail at the Crazy Canuck will not disappoint....

This week my guest is a comedian, a prolific comedy show producer, a father of three girls, and the first decathlete ever to appear on Starting Out, it’s my friend Patrick Russell. Patrick was a member of the Canadian Junior Olympic team before retiring at 25, putting himself through teacher’s college, starting a family, all before deciding to try his hand at standup at age 32. He set a ten year g...

I ran into this week’s guests at a show a little while ago, and since they have just released their new podcast, I thought let’s do another two-fer episode. It’s my friends Doug Koning and Tim Nicholson. Doug and Tim’s pod is called the Best Worst Friends, where they basically see how mean they can be to each other while still being sensitive guys. It’s absolutely hysterical, and as you’ll hear in...

My guest on episode 59 of Starting Out is my friend, fellow comedian, graphic designer of this podcast’s logo, and producer of one of the best comedy shows in Toronto, Jeff Tseng. Jeff and I have been doing standup almost the same amount of time, and we talk a lot about our own insecurities, anxieties, and about being shy as a comedian. This was an awesome talk and I was so thankful to catch up wi...

My guest this week is a TEDx Speaker, coach, teacher, and standup comedian, Joze Piranian. I met Joze at The Corner Comedy Club, where he approached me and immediately sucked me in with his charm, openness, and mostly his self-deprecating way of addressing his lifelong stutter. Winner of the Inspirational Speaker of the Year award in 2017, Joze has shared the stage with Drake music video producer...

This week’s guest on Starting Out is a guy I was so excited for you to hear his story because it’s a unique one, it’s my comedy brother Pete Van Dyk. Pete was a commercial banker with the goal of quitting after 5 years. 5 years turned to 15 and Pete did it, he quit his corporate job to pursue something creative. Starting in 2013 with a podcast - The Dutch Hall, which is still going strong - Pete t...

It’s a first for the pod as I have not one, but two excellent comedians on Starting Out this week. It’s the comedy partnership of Brandon Sobel and Ariel Kagan, aka Bubbie's Boys.  Originally from Hamilton, Brandon has always been drawn to team work and team building, and he found an excellent one in the South African-born Ariel. We get into their individual stories, when they first clicked a...

This week on Starting Out it’s another guest I’ve wanted to have on for a while, comedian, co-founder of Comedy Records, former DJ on 102.1 The Edge, and all around amazing dude, Barry Taylor. Barry talks about managing a record label through the pandemic, along with some excellent advice for newer comics thinking about putting their material out there. Too quiet and shy to try standup when he was...

This week on Starting Out my guest is standup and sketch comedian, and perhaps even more importantly the founder of Hub of the Hammer, Matthew Surina. Matt started Hub of the Hammer, an event company that specializes in trivia and comedy nights, a few years before the pandemic hit, and as you can imagine the last few years have been quite hard. Matt started writing for radio, then found standup in...

My guest this week on Starting Out is the hilarious Hamilton comedian who recently made the big move to Toronto, Kev Sheeler. Kev is also the host of one of my favourite, irregularly scheduled podcast “Kevy’s Country Breakfast”. To know Kev is to know he approaches things differently than most, be it standup, podcasting, or even this interview. So I thought I’d do something different this episode...

I really wasn’t going to do anything to mark doing 52 episodes of the pod, but what the hell. This is a special episode because I had been wanting to have the amazing comedian Al Val on for a while. And the timing of this was even more special as she has recently come out as trans and is in the process of transitioning to female. Al talks about being cast as a munchkin in Jr. Kindergarten as her f...

This week on Starting Out it’s the incredibly talented, funny-in-two-languages, and social media verified Carol Zoccoli! Carol (aka The Little Potato) was born and raised in Brazil, where a burgeoning comedy scene proved to be a nice distraction from her academic pursuits. Carol became one of the first comedians in Brazil, one of only two women, and her obsession with comedy led her to learn some...

I waited a long time to have Black Zeus on the pod, because I wanted to make sure we set it at  a time when you all could experience what it’s like to have an authentic Black Zeus experience, and I’m so happy we did. Born in Greece to Ethiopian parents, Mike Demissie, aka Black Zeus, had a mid-life crisis at 22 following a car accident that left him looking for his authentic self. We talk about mo...