April 27, 2007
No FREE LUNCH
Halifax Daily News, Halifax, N.S.
by Dean Lisk

The smell of steaming bowls of chowder and greasy pizza slices wasn't the only thing tickling the noses of lunchgoers at the Harbourside Market yesterday.

"You'll have some giggles, have some food," host Mark Critch told the standing room only crowd of more than 250.

In suits and strollers, they arrived at Historic Properties yesterday for the Halifax Comedy Fest's free Comedy for Lunch show - a second of which takes place today at Scotia Square Mall.

Lasting 45 minutes, it featured four comedians given the task of providing a side of yuks with lunch.

"Do you have to go back to work?" Calgary's Jebb Fink asked the crowd. If this was Alberta, he told them, they could just not show up and have a new job tomorrow.

Mainly doing his comedy routine at night, Fink said that during the days, he likes to go on job interviews. "When they ask me to do something, I just say 'No' and quit."

The theme of the oil-rich west was kept alive by Prince Edward Island's Patrick Ledwell.

"There is no one left there," he said about his Island home. "They've all moved to Alberta - even the babies."

Other comedians on yesterday's lunch bill included Ottawa's Carrie Gaetz - who mused about the difficulties finding a decent guy once you're in your 30s - and Moncton's Marc Sauve.

A father of four, he joked about marriage, childbirth, and how interesting it was having to take his six-year-old into a mall bathroom because the toddler had to poop.

"How long could does it take a kid to pass a Happy Meal?" he asked, adding that his son took of all his clothes and started singing O Canada while he was on the toilet.

"You laugh, but he was standing up because it was the national anthem."