I just heard today that another comic left Yuk Yuks, the biggest comedy club company in Canada. I don't know if he left on his own merit or not but it's none of my business anyway.

They are the biggest comedy club in Canada and it's either you work for them or work on the independent scene. I've worked on the independent scene my whole career. When I started in Ottawa I worked the open-mic nights at the Yuks club in Ottawa. I asked for an opening spot and never got one. I may not have deserved one - I do not know. I didn't think of it as a career back then - it was just something fun to do every second Wednesday.

When Kathleen and I moved to Toronto I decided to give it a real shot. We both quit our jobs in Ottawa and moved out here so I could do comedy and she would be closer to Peterborough where her family was from. Hey - if you're ever moving - try to get a transfer....don't just quit your job. Lesson learned.

I did try out the New Talent nights at the Yuk Yuks in Toronto and met Mark Breslin who watched my set. He gave me a speech, which I'm sure he's told many times, about there being a all of these comedians trying to squeeze out of a bottle and many are caught in the bottle-neck. OK, so I don't remember how the story completely went but I got the gist of it. The gist was - he wasn't going to put me on his roster anytime soon. Which is fine - I'd rather someone be honest with me up front instead of saying "call next Tuesday" or something like that. Much better to know right away - that was in 2003 as I remember that I pretty well just moved there.

Although I did find it a little weird as Mark did mention to me that he was happy to see that I did not make fun of him on a comedy website that we went on which was www.torontocomedy.com. He said that he didn't read it but his lawyers did. My eyes just kind of stayed on the door - hoping someone would come in to break up this conversation. Maybe just get up and leave and receive the dead fish handshake goodbye.

So I went the Independent route. Which I'm VERY happy I did. I love working the clubs and the one-nighters that I do and I can book my own shows without any consequences.

There are pros and cons to both.

A lot of people bash Yuk Yuks - especially people that don't work for them anymore - but I have never had a problem with them. They do have quite an advantage over the indie scene. Ontario alone has at least 8 clubs so that is 8-16 weeks of work right there. Absolute Comedy has 2 clubs so that would be 2-4 weeks of work a year. I do love Absolute though - it's such a fun club - especially the Ottawa one. www.absolutecomedy.ca

Working for Yuks would be a great way to start. You get SO much more stage time. I may be doing one show on a Saturday night while someone else is doing 5 shows over the same weekend. But, due to a couple of reasons, I have absolutely zero desire to work for them. I'd be happy to do their clubs but I wouldn't sign onto their roster if I was asked.

I can see a lot of people outgrowing Yuk Yuks and moving on to their own thing but I doubt any one of them regret ever working there. I could be wrong - but I never have been before.

We got 2 great feedback emails from the shows on the weekend and we will be booked by the groups again so that's awesome.

Tomorrow I will be on CKWS in Kingston doing a TV interview to promote the show happening at Time To Laugh Comedy Club on Wednesday. The show is run by James Uloth and is called The Boob Tour. Should be a hoot.

I missed 2 days in a row on my blog BUT I do have a valid excuse. Well...not completely valid - but we had 2 shows on the weekend. Great shows I must say.

The first was in Belleville at the Empire Theatre - there were about 450 people at the show and they loved it. I booked the show but I was not onstage as I did the show last year. That's the rule - if you did it the year before then you don't do it again for at least about 5 years. Some comics don't follow that rule, do the shows themselves again and will eventually not get booked at the venue. So....long story short - I just went to watch.

The line-up was David Tsonos, Darryl Purvis and Ward Anderson. Fun times had by all - especially on the car ride back as we poked fun at Tsonos for about an hour and a half. He can take it - he's Ukranian or something like that.

I stayed the night in Belleville with the guys and they ended up ordering a pizza at 2:15. At 3am Darryl had fallen asleep and Dave cancelled the pizza. It was a little bit of a challenge to cancel the pizza at first as they ordered from Pizza Pizza but Dave kept calling Pizza Hut.

On Saturday morning I drove home at around 6:15, picked up some Timmy's for Ethan, Kat and I and hung out at the house for the afternoon. I left again around 2pm, picked up Darryl and Dave and made our way to Hamilton. We dropped Tsonos off on the way to the show as we had Dave Paterson booked on the Hamilton show.

That show was ALSO great. I didn't know how this show was going to turn out but they ended up selling out the venue. Darryl and I got there at around 6:30pm and I brought my speaker in as we had our own sound system. I thought it was for 120 people - but it was for 230 people. So our sound system would SUCK. It's good for about 150 people maximum. Luckily the Hall we were in had a sound system so after fiddling with it for an hour we finally got it going. That's why you should always get to the venue early. If we got there at 7:30 we would have been screwed. I thank Dave Paterson for pressing the magic button to get it going.

Dave and Darryl weren't happy with their sets but they did well. It's just hard to follow such an awesome, good-looking MC. Oh, and I went over time so I probably screwed them over. I was supposed to do 20 minutes off the top but i forgot to start my watch so I had no clue where I was for time. Turns out I did 30 minutes to start off the show. I had an awesome time though - Dave taped some of it so I'll post a clip in the next couple of days.

I drove back from Hamilton last night and got in around 2am. Ethan came into my room at 5am asking me if I wanted to play. Luckily he got the clue that I wasn't in a playing mood and he let me sleep until about 7. I know - sleeping in. We went outside for a little bit and he tried to help me make cookies.

I'm trying to get my blog to look somewhat cool so you'll see it change a few times over the next couple of weeks. I e-mailed Dayna to see how she got hers to look so good - you can click on her blog on the top-right of mine. I've also added my brother's website, Blanchard's and Dave Paterson's blog.

I just found out tonight that I may have to go and buy a new microphone. Not the biggest issue in the world but we do need one for Saturday so I'll have to run out pretty quick if we can't locate it. So - I need to learn in the next 16 hours what a good brand of microphone is. I know that ones that say "karaoke" are NOT good. There - I hope you learned something today.

Kathleen's last day of work is tomorrow - we're pumped up. We figure she'll have one or two weeks off and then.....BABY!

We've toyed around with names for the past couple of months and there is one that we both love. It just kind of came out of nowhere (and no - she won't be named "Rainbow") but it's a cool name, I've yelled it a few times to test it out and it is "mad approved", so we are good to go. We haven't told anyone the name yet and we are going to wait until the baby is born before we let everyone know.

Well - apparently I was only sick for one day. I called my buddy Chris because whenever something is going wrong with me - there's always something worse with him. It's not that he's trying to "one-up" me - he just doesn't have great luck.

I called him to tell him that I was sick and he told me his roof was leaking. Definitely having a worse day.

I helped my grandmother with tech support. She is the only person who thinks that I am a genius with a computer so I always try and do my best. She clicked on something and her e-mail disappeared so I worked on it and got her e-mail back. She gave me a box of Pringles for my assistance. Fair deal me thinks.

I somehow got sick. I woke up and thought I was going to throw up - perfect way to start off a Tuesday. I did lose 2 pounds though - who would have thought not eating would make you lose weight? What a brilliant concept!

I had the washer repairman over this morning as our washing machine wouldn't drain. I tried to fix it myself and quickly watched 30 litres of water pour onto the basement floor. Luckily there's no carpet in the laundry room (although I don't remember ever seeing carpet it any laundry room) so I just had to put down a few dozen towels and I was good to go. The washer repairman used a different tactic - know as his "experience" - and fixed it immediately. Good guy and gave me some great tips. First tip - don't try and fix it myself.

Kathleen is done work in 3 days - we're pretty pumped!

The power went out on our block today. There was a light post on fire and Hydro One thought it would be best to shut off the power for 2 hours in - 30 weather. I hope they needed to do that.

We ended up lighting candles in the basement and having a good time talking and Ethan enjoyed it after his meltdown. He cried because we couldn't turn the lights on....it's tough to explain to a 3 year old why you can't turn the lights on. "Ya because Hydro One had to shut the pow.." "Daddy - turn the lights on!". That's pretty well how the conversation went.

My teams in football are the 49ers and the Raiders so I really don't have a team to cheer for, nor have I for the past 10 years, in the playoffs. Having said that - I'm glad to see the Packers win (I'm anti-Favre) and I'm hoping the Jets win for the Super Bowl in two weeks. I might not be able to see the Super Bowl as I may be in a delivery room - that I do not know.

I was supposed to head up to Gravenhurst for our friend Michelle's 40th birthday but Kathleen hasn't been feeling well so I stayed with the fam today. We did check and got tickets to go see a Sesame Street play which Ethan loved. There were about 1,000 people there I think - quite a few less than I thought there would be. I think all of the adults had kids with them - if they did not then it would be a little worrisome.

I saw the show with Mike Wilmot, Mike Beatty and Terry Clement last night. Nick Carter did an opening spot in Ottawa and it's one of the best, if not the best, show I've seen at the Kingston club. Great crowd for the most part until towards the end when the front row got a wee bit too drunk but for the most part it was awesome. I have no clue why people go out and try and ruin a show - but you should never try that with Wilmot. You will not win.

Comedian Idol in Kingston last night was.....interesting. It's the amateur contest that they have in the city and Kingston breeds some weird folks. A few were funny and a lot were not - which is what you do expect at a competition like this. It is fun to watch guys go up for their first time.

I'm pretty well going to the opposite of Comedian Idol tonight - it's with Mike Wilmot, Mike Beatty and Terry Clement. A fantastic show and I hope the audience comes out to see these guys as this might be the best show they've had in a couple of years. Might....I've only been here 7 months so they might have had a better show but I can't think of one.

Going to Time To Laugh in Kingston tonight with my buddy Steve to check out the Comedian Idol amateur night. It's always interesting. There's usually AT LEAST one pretty racist guy or girl and we'll see if this holds true.

Here's a link to my blog's Gallery page - it has a radio interview on there that I did in November and it was one of the more fun ones to do. One - because I just got back from Afghanistan so I got to talk about that for a bit - and Two - it was relaxed. It was promotion for a show in Cornwall.

http://www.brianhopecomedy.com/gallery

You don't have to press play - it automatically plays.

Oh - and CORRECTION - I've actually lost 40 pounds - I forgot that the scale I had was 3 pounds off. I'm very obsessive about this as I actually have 2 scales in the bathroom. One to show my weight and the other to confirm that the first scale is correct. Now if they are both wrong - hell I'll never know.

It's official - 3 days in a row I weighed in at 175 pounds. SO that means I have lost 37 pounds since 2008. Not too shabby. So how did we celebrate? We had McDonald's. Brilliant. That's like a guy quitting smoking and celebrating with chewing tobacco.

Jason Blanchard (www.jasonblanchard.com) booked me on a gig for Monday in downtown Toronto. I love the last-minute pop-up bookings and I heard from him that it was a good show last year so....this year will be iffy. It always is. Whenever you show up to a show it's always one person that says "man - it was SO PACKED last year - I don't know why no one showed up this year". This show is more like a corporate show I guess so people will show up but hopefully it will be as fun as last year.

I'm doing the show with Darryl Purvis - a guy I've known for 6 or 7 years I think. The last time we met up was at a golf tournament in the summer with Don and Minnie Courts. That was fun - the only thing was that I was apparently the best golfer - and DAT AIN'T GOOD. I shoot mid-90's but most of the good golfers are in the 70's. We had fun regardless and took advantage of the open-bar that was open one hour before the tourney.

We're doing 2 shows together next week and I also booked him on a 3rd show in the same week but i won't be performing as I did it last year. That show is on Friday, January 28th in Belleville at the Empire Theatre and it is by far our most successful show. I'm going to show up to see how the turnout is and how the show goes. Belleville's only 45 minutes away so it's a pretty easy drive.

Just so you know - if you do a show one year - you should not do the show the next year. If it's an annual event no one wants to see the same guy again. FYI.

Had my parents over for their farewell dinner before they take off to Scotland on Thursday. My oldest brother lives there with his wife and 3 kids and I wish we could go over there too but it's a little tough to travel right now....maybe after the baby is....17. Or 2.

We had sweet chili Thai chicken for dinner. Me made it and I'll definitely have it again. Considering we have leftovers we'll probably be having it tomorrow.

I just got booked for a show on Monday in Toronto so I'll be heading up that way once again. I'm on a mission to find a Danier leather jacket so if there are any outlets along the way I may swing by. I have two already but I'm going to give those away and get another one that's more my style.

It's Monday - a few more Mondays to be a father of one. Soon - there will be a brand new baby girl in the house - that's going to be crazy! We're excited and Kathleen has gotten the baby's room mostly ready. I helped out by lifting a box of books, dropping it and leaving the room. That was a few days ago - I've got a feeling that she hasn't moved the books....considering she's 8 1/2 months pregnant.

Kat and I were playing Jeopardy on the tv tonight - I'm not sure why but we just have a competition to get the right answer. After playing the game we both realized that we need to learn quite a few things.

The pic above makes it look like he lost a battle with a snowmobile.

Went out and wandered the streets with Ethan. We went to shovel the driveway but our neighbor was awesome and snow-blowed it for us beforehand. Everything was pretty well done by the time we got out there. I do feel bad but he says that he loves to use the snowblower AND I've been sick all weekend so I will accept that. I think he has beer coming his way.

Ethan and I went for a walk. It should only take 10 minutes to walk around the block but it took us just over an hour. He would stop, pick up some snow, see a bigger snowball, put his down and grab that one, and repeat.

When Ethan was down for his nap Kathleen and I were in the basement and heard a really loud noise. Kind of sounded like a window breaking so we raced up the stairs. Turns out - in the sunroom - we had a plastic bottle of diet coke out there that just EXPLODED. When you open up the door the only thing you can smell is coke. I took a couple of pics - with the second pic if you just look at the ground you'll see what looks like brown ice - well it is brown ice now. I have no idea how I am going to clean that up. And yes - I will leave the coke and the apple juice bottle in the sunroom just to see what happens.

I don't know how I got sick but I did. Kathleen and Ethan are fine....but me? Stuffed up and wanted bed-rest for the day. I work from home so it's not like I could have caught something at the office.

Having a 2 year old prevents any sort of rest though so we played hide and seek (Ethan told me where to hide and then would look for me - reminds me of Louis CK's bit - if you haven't seen it I can send you the youtube link) and built a castle with his blocks. It doesn't really look like a castle but he mainly just stacks them up and then says "BOOM!" and knocks them all down.

I was all set to have Quickbooks set-up on my computer - ready to buy it and everything.....then I found out that they don't make Quickbooks for Mac. Brutal. It is available in the US but not in Canada. Sonofa. Oh well - I'll work off Excel spreadsheets until I get something good.

Well - our little business is slowly taking off. Andrew Evans and I have been prospecting clients for the past couple of years. In 2008 we had 4 bookings, in 2009 we had 11 booking. In 2010 we had 21 bookings so our goal for this year is 26 bookings for our comedy agency.

Can it be done? Quite simply - yes. The foundation has been set so we are receiving inquiries via our website now which is fantastic. We have some repeat clients and we have had referrals as well. The quality of our shows are pretty darn good so we do expect to get the call again when a company is looking to book another function.

We set the goal in December for 26 bookings - it's now the second week of January and we already have 10 bookings. If we don't achieve our goal...I'll blame Andrew.

I did not find anything cool on Kijiji but Kathleen did - so on my way back from Mississauga to Kingston I picked up a stroller from a house in Oshawa. Normally $300 and they sold it for $120. I checked to make sure it had all 4 wheels and it did so we should be good to go. I'll wait for the "stroller recall" e-mail to come tomorrow.

Had a fun show at the Mississauga Convention Centre today. I was with Andrew Evans and we performed for a software company. I'm not sure what it was but Andrew's and my voice both completely dried up during our set. Very odd. I got Andrew a water while he was onstage. He did not extend me the same courtesy. What a guy.

That's the last show for me until the 29th. I have booked 2 shows but I'm not performing on them as it's a little to close to our baby's arrival. Baby is due on February 14th (which means I won't have to celebrate Valentine's Day I think) but my bet is on February 4th. You heard it here first. Of course - if the baby is born on the 6th then I will just edit this post accordingly.

I will be in Mississauga tomorrow for a show with Andrew Evans. I now am on a mission to check Kijiji to see if there is any cool stuff that I can pick up along the way. I may be addicted to Kijiji.

I bought a war game for PS3 - Call of Duty - World at War. Haven't tried it yet and probably won't even play it. I just bought it because everyone seems to own a Call of Duty game so I want to fit in with all of the "cool people".

I bought it off Kijiji - and ummm...there are some shady areas in Kingston. I will leave it at that. The guy answering the door was 80 years old and in his pyjamas. I don't think he knew what a video game was - maybe that's why it was so cheap.

The show on Sunday was awesome in Kitchener. We already got the reference letter back from the group and a little bit of it is below:

"His show was one that had everybody engaged and laughing. Brian was able to include the audience in a way that is still being talked about in a positive manner days after the event."

That will definitely help with future corporate shows. AND we got another reference letter today from a group that we performed for in December - and it was Andrew's and my favourite corporate of the year. And here is a quote from them:

"What a performance! They had everyone in tears laughing so hard! The jokes were appropriate for the guests, and the group got involved, which made for some great entertainment. We received many phone calls and emails from our employees, thanking us for the best Christmas party in recent memory."

I don't know why I posted stuff - maybe I'm just bragging. No....just happy. And a little bit of bragging.

This is Ethan in our backyard.

I'm off to Kitchener tomorrow to perform at the same Holiday Inn that I did in mid-December. I do have a hotel room there but I will be driving back on the same night just so I can be back for work on Monday morning. I should theoretically be home around midnight so I will successfully miss all of the Sunday football.

On the menu tonight - sour-cream mashed potatoes, Mediterranean pork tenderloin and coleslaw. I also, for the first time, made brownies. And I will again as they turned out perfectly BUT they were a little too good so in order to keep my weight in check I'll aim to make them once every couple of weeks.

Saw Bobby Mair and Darren Frost tonight at Time To Laugh. Both great comics and it's great to see them do their full sets. I don't work for Yuk Yuk's so I don't get to see them too often other than the open-mics in Toronto but they are both great to watch. You can check out Darren at www.comedywhore.com - he's filmed 3 DVD's so far - more than any other Canadian comic I know.

I'm happy to say that we are done Season 4 of Dexter and I did not have the ending spoiled for me. I heard a couple people mention a shocking ending but I never heard what happened. We've got Season 3 & 4 of Weeds so we will start watching those - I'd never watched Weeds before but we've really gotten into it. Highly recommended....if you're under 40.

I'm going to see Darren Frost and Bobby Mair tomorrow night at Time to Laugh - it's Darren's first time since having a wee bit of an altercation in Kingston. You can check out his website at www.comedywhore.com - he's got 3 DVD's out now I believe and he is constantly writing new material which is awesome.

This is my favourite video of Ethan by far - re-enacting Bert & Ernie's "Banana in my ear".

Macbook is working again - life can officially move on. I don't know how it started working again - but it did and that's all that matters. The picture above is of Ethan looking for a crayon that does not exist. If I took a pic after you would see the markers and crayons lying on the floor as he went nuts and started throwing them.

I just got this message from my buddy Pete who works for a hotel in Ottawa. This message was out of the blue.

"My colleague was telling me about this guy at a comedy show he saw who he thought was awesome. It was you! He saw your NYE show. He loves you"

I can't speak for all comedians - but I really don't like feedback right after I do my set. As in, I don't feel comfortable when people walk up and say "great show" as they may have been saying that because they were walking by and they felt that they had to say it. This quote, on the other hand, is awesome and it really did make my day. Hopefully I don't get another message saying that he thought I was someone else.

I'm 0 for 2 with the slow-cooker. Chicken was dry last night and tonight I made applesauce for the first time. I put a cup of sugar in for it.....yup, you can only taste a little bit of apple. So - to the garbage it goes. I'll probably only need a 1/4 cup me thinks for next time...if there is a next time.

I also don't know why it's red. I don't think I could have screwed up that bad.

Houston, we have a problem. MACBOOK PRO DOWN, MACBOOK PRO DOWN. You don't understand - Ethan watches this every night before bed. He watches Sesame Street on the computer. How he somehow managed to own that computer instead of the PC I do not know. But he did. So....the screen isn't working right now. Everything else works - just not the screen....so I went on the Apple Support forums and tons of people have the same problems - yet no one has the solution.

That ain't good. Plus - it's a $2,000 computer so I really don't want to buy another. But if worse comes to worse....we're getting another.

It's like someone's trying to tell me not to update my blog. But I will - I just feel dirty though typing on the PC. I'm way too high-class for this.

Here's the dinner we had tonight in keeping with some good eatin. Not the healthiest eating mind you - it's chicken, cream of chicken soup and stuffing...but at least it's somewhat home made (with the exception of the soup and the stuffing....and well, I didn't kill the chicken myself).

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I bought Kathleen a coffee at Starbucks and I thought I'd be nice and leave a tip for the person at the drive-thru. I said "keep the change" but I didn't give her enough money. Brilliant.

As everyone else is - I am starting up the health-kick again. It took a break from December 19-31 - and during that time I ate and drank what I pleased. Oops. Oh well, twas fun. Now back to the grind. This is what I made for dinner - I made my own pesto for the first time and it turned out pretty darn good. Basil leaves, olive oil, red pepper, garlic.

Kathleen and I are back to work tomorrow and Ethan is going back to daycare. Kat has another month off before she goes on Mat Leave again. I think our lives will be a little hectic in February but it's going to be awesome. Day 2 of thinking of the potential baby name and I still like it.

Yup - avoiding the breakfast sandwich but I'm not avoiding breakfast. I made crepes and pemeal bacon for our weekend brunch. Best. Brunch. Ever. And really easy to make. I've never made pancakes (aside from the pancake mix box) but I can make crepes no problem. Well...even a monkey can.

I'm the cook of the family - Kathleen does not like to cook but I do so it works out. I'll post up what I've made throughout the next week or so and if you're interested in how to make it just let me know.

Comedy show wise - I have a show on the 9th, 13th and 29th this month. February will be a bit quieter as DA BABY is coming! I think we've settled on a name which is great as we were running out of time. I think we have one now that both of us will like.

I'll put up one clip per week of my stand-up on here - that will force me to actually edit stuff and upload it on to Youtube. This one was filmed in November 2010 - and it is the first time that I had actually done this "bit". The bit failed but turned out pretty good at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkcZ5pNQ2Wg

I had the fantastic experience of performing at Absolute Comedy on the New Year's Eve show - that just topped off a fantastic 2010. Here are a few pics of the evening - I did the countdown to New Year's on the downstairs show.

Daren, Brenda, Moi Jason (owner of Absolute Comedy) and moi

Met up with Daren and Brenda (friends from Ottawa) and we hung around the club until....I don't know what time. What I do know is that if someone says that they will order a pizza - I should not say that I don't care what is on the pizza. I must remember to say "no olives". That's the only food that really triggers my gag reflex. What fun!

It's the first time I've been to the club since Jocko Alston passed away. He was like family at the club and him and I got along great. I would trash=talk him on Blackberry Messenger as he was a Broncos fan and an Edmonton Oilers fan. He had a heart attack and it's left everyone in shock. I still am - it's the first time a friend of mine has passed away. We spoke on email on Monday and he died on the Tuesday. Really makes you think.

New Years Resolutions?

Well - I aim to only have 12 breakfast sandwiches in 2011. So I'm pretty well going from 2 per month to 1 per month. I figure that would help the weight loss. I've lost 32 pounds in about a year and a half or so so I do need to keep that up. Ideally I'd like to lose 5 more and then I'm at my ideal weight. So....taking out 12 breakfast sandwiches should keep me on that goal.

My resolution isn't to lose weight - that can easily be broken. But if I set up some smaller resolutions it will eventually lead to a healthier lifestyle. Right? Right.

That's pretty well the only one I have. I've been fairly decent eating-wise but I do fall off the wagon sometimes (as in ordering a pizza last night).

Here's a pic of Ethan with his Grover mitts and a couple others with Kat. If you want to get anything for Ethan - just have Grover on it and he will love it.