April 5, 2007
Growth spurt
The Guardian, Charlottetown, P.E.I.
by Sally Cole

For Patrick Ledwell, April is not the cruelest month. On the contrary, it's filled with growth and new opportunities.

"I prefer the later part in the same poem that line comes from, where T. S. Eliot talks about flowers pushing through the dry ground. April has been like that for me — good news popping up out of nowhere," says the P.E.I. comic who has been invited to perform at the Halifax Comedy Festival later this month.

He's hoping that the experience will be fruitful.

"With so many things popping out of the ground, there's lots of opportunity for cross pollination," says Ledwell.

Besides appearing on the Comedy for Lunch and Rising Stars stages on Thursday, April 26, he has been invited to perform on CBC Radio's Hilarious and Homegrown comedy with host John Wing on Monday, April 23, in Halifax.

"This isn't something that I've had a lot of opportunity to do, so I'm looking forward to seeing what my mind and my pen and my body language can come up with before the end of the month," says Ledwell.

As a warm-up to the event, Ledwell has gathered some of his favourite performers together to perform in The Easter Funny at The Guild in Charlottetown tonight at 8 p.m.

"I need to perform at least once before I go and I just happened to be graced with a collection of creative friends that I just love to hear. So I worked the phones and we're going to have a great night," says Ledwell, who will share the stage with Margie Carmichael, Richard Schroeter, Taylor Carver and an improv group featuring Nancy McLure, Patti Larsen, Jamie MacSwain and Mike Scott.

The comedy show will look at the traditions and conventions surrounding the spring holiday.

"Imagine that you've just dropped from the sky as an alien and you've just heard about a rabbit who not only lays eggs but hides them. By what weird daisy chain of culture have we been delivered this thing?" says Ledwell, sipping a coffee at The Marketplace in Charlottetown.

His latest burst of creativity is the result of working with David Malahoff, an agent and creative consultant with Campbell Webster Entertainment.

"We have been doing some writing development and editing. There's no writer who doesn't have an editor, not to clean the punctuation but to perform some alchemy on the ideas. And I knew that if I wanted to explore the process a bit more I needed an ear that was tuned but also a pen that was sharp, so David has been both," says the Holland College interactive multimedia instructor.

Watching Ledwell grow as a writer and a performer has been rewarding for musician Margie Carmichael. They met while attending Laurie Murphy's improv classes in 2003.

"When I first met Patrick, he was quite shy. The improv helped to bring him out. Today his performance is a real measure of his intelligence, wit and creativity. It's great to see him get this opportunity," she says.

Ledwell remembers those classes well. That's where the seeds of comedy took root. "After going through those early experiments and sketches, Laurie organized an event at UPEI called Humour Us," he says.

It was the first time he had done any stand-up and he was quickly bitten by the comedy bug.

"There was a good response, so I just kept scribbling ideas on post-it notes and the back of my bank receipts and stuffing them into my pockets," says Ledwell.

Next he had the chance to perform on the stage with comedian Lorne Elliott during the Comedy Care Unit, a QEH fundraiser, in the summer of 2005. After the show, Elliott gave him one piece of advice — send his material to the producers of Madly Off In All Directions. He did and he was invited to be one of the guest performers.

"After that experience, things started to happen," says Ledwell, who gained national attention when he appeared on the CBC national program in January 2006.

Now with the Halifax Comedy Festival looming there's more opportunity for growth.

"For me, it's the childhood dream of climbing inside the television with the people. I can see people on the docket that I've admired over the years, like Mark Critch and Irwin Barker, and I'm in there with them," says Ledwell.