Port Hawkesbury’s Carriage House may no longer be a stable, but self-proclaimed “horse girl” and comedian Lindsay Endersby is coming to its stage with Aaron Hopkins and Alan Hopkins for the only Cape Breton stop on the Some Good Comedy Tour on Friday, Aug. 14.
In fact, it’s one of only two Nova Scotia stops on the Maritimes tour by the three Ontario standups, two of whom also happen to be brothers, but each has their own unique style that will make for an entertaining and engaging night of humour, I’m sure.
Plus, it’s always a surprise with visiting comedians who don’t often play down this way, whether they’re going to rely on material they’ve been honing for months back in Upper Canada, or take a flyer on some new stuff they haven’t tried out at home yet. Endersby has a penchant for absurd situations and characters, Aaron Hopkins likes storytelling with a sneaky low-key sense of timing, and Alan Hopkins describes himself as “loud and anxious” as he talks about childhood and coming of age while coping with Crohn’s disease.
One show description describes them as “up-and-coming”, but the Sarnia-based Hopkins have been doing comedy for more than a decade, and Torontonian Endersby has a background in sketch as well as stand-up, and comes east fresh from her Guelph Fringe Festival production of The Curse of Girl Night which is a sketch show about doing stand-up comedy, just to bring it all full circle.
Showtime for the Some Good Comedy Tour at the Carriage House is 7:30 p.m., and tickets (including a special two-for-one deal) are available at eventbrite.ca. For more info, visit the Carriage House page on Facebook.
Also, this weekend, you can follow up Friday night jokes with jigs and reels at New Glasgow’s Glasgow Square Theatre as the Festival of the Tartans Presents: A Saturday Night Ceilidh on Aug. 15 at 7: 30 p.m.
The venue describes the event as “star-studded” and it’s not hard to argue, with uber-talented fiddler Chrissy Crowley and master of the keys Jason Roach from the Juno Award-nominated Cape Breton supergroup Coig leading the charge.
Also on hand are Antigonish multi-talent Mary Beth Carty and Pictou County champion fiddler/violinist Amelia Parker, and the duo of Pictou County fiddler/singer/dancer Heather Cameron and Cape Breton guitarist Kenny Stewart, who’ve been performing together for nearly a decade.
The Saturday Night Ceilidh is a triple-play of terrific duos to close out Glasgow Square’s summer run of shows, and it’s also a 19+ event. For more details and advance tickets, visit GlasgowSquare.com.
And speaking of closing out the summer, if you haven’t made any Labour Day weekend plans, have you considered attending Giantstock IV in Merigomish, from Friday, Sept. 4 to Monday, Sept. 7?
It’s the fourth year of four days of music, camping and wrestling on the shore of the Northumberland Strait, brought to you by Andre Pettipas & the Giants.
Now I know that barely a week goes by that Pettipas doesn’t get a mention of some sort in this space, but what are you supposed to do when he’s always up to something?
In this case, it’s picking up where the Stanfields’ Blacktop Ball left off, on the same Mason family farmland overlooking the ocean with a mix of rock and rasslin’ that is also a non-profit event in support of SIDS awareness, in memory of Pettipas’ niece, Blake Everleigh.
The band’s guests include Juno Award-winner Morgan Toney, Wintersleep/Contrived drummer Loel Campbell, Tyler Mullendore, ALT CTRL, Nick Earle & the Reckless Hearts, Frank Sultana and more.
Inside the ring, the stars of New Breed Wrestling will provide the bodyslamming on Shore Road with all the high energy, audience interaction and braggadocio you could hope for.
In-between bouts and bands, you play on the beach, visit the food trucks and vendors, and bid farewell to summer in style.
Pop in for a day or stay for the weekend, you can find out more details at www.andrepettipasandthegiants.com or go straight to the Giantstock IV page at eventbrite.ca for ticket info and more.