Susan and I took a drive to Summerside on a bitterly cold
evening, so cold that my car’s display was fooled into telling me that my tires had no
air in them and that my brakes had failed. Oh well, hey-ho, at least the heated
seats warmed our posteriors. During a fifty minute trek on roads glittering
white with salt, under a near full moon, we debated the winter storm threatened
for Sunday. Some say eighteen inches, some say nine. As usual we will suck it
and see.
A Subway dinner sitting comfortably in our bellies, we
found a parking spot and trudged over tire-rutted ice at -17C towards the doors of the
Harbourfront Theatre. Our show tonight would be the English comedian, now New
Brunswick maritimer, James Mullinger. We entered and Susan skipped ahead, down
the aisle to our seats. It’s a lovely five hundred seat auditorium, small
enough to have an intimate feel and we settled in, our heads swivelling to
check the audience for buffoons. Sure enough there was an ample supply.
We were in a delightfully short, four-seat row to the far
right of the stage, three from the front. The row ahead was empty leaving us an
uninterrupted view. When a dishevelled couple arrived to occupy the two-seat
front row we wasted no time in commenting on the woman’s hand knitted dress,
reminiscent of a potato sack. The man had seen neither barber nor razor in many
months, warranting opinionated shaking of our heads.
Patrick Ledwell opened with a twenty minute slot of
sharp observational humour on Island customs, mannerisms and speech. He’s a
tall confident performer and his insight into Island life really hits the mark.
By contrast James Mullinger seemed a tad nervous. His
voice is high-pitched and he paces the stage with a shuffling gait, shoulders
slightly hunched. His act revolves around his experiences over the past four years
since immigrating to New Brunswick from London, England. We both found his
narrative included plenty of warm examples where his experiences mirrored my
own: leaving family behind, finding numerous differences in culture and language,
yet settling into this most friendly and safe, small corner of the world. He
used many English expressions and gave me a nice reminder of home. At one point he
referred to childhood summer vacations on the beach in Bournemouth! The town of
my birth, three thousand miles away!
Certainly I have been to plenty of live music concerts
and Susan has had her fair share but a stand-up comedian was a first for us
both and an evening we thoroughly enjoyed.
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