With the summer now in full swing, it may feel as though perhaps the winds of change are finally sweeping through the arts in Montreal.

If you think you’re enlightened, the saying goes, go spend time with your family. Obviously it will take a different length of time for each person to get caught in their egos. If you do it consciously enough though, you can clock the moment you slip into the battles you left behind but were apparently just on pause all these years.

I don't want to evoke memories of those bleak times a few years ago when we couldn't gather and have fun, but that's where this story begins.

Y’all were so supportive and patient while I was apartment hunting and packing (and stressing so hard), that you deserve an update.

In some ways, we live in a world of over-emotionality. We want to tell our coworkers and bosses about how we feel, and what they said that offended us…and that's probably for the best.

I met Vance Michel at a wild time in my life. Fresh off a disastrous two-year run of comedy club management, I was teetering on the edge of permanent banishment from Montreal’s stand-up scene.

Nestled on Montreal’s bustling Saint Laurent Boulevard lies a hidden gem known as The Wiggle Room—a venue steeped in cabaret charm, burlesque feathers and wayward rhinestones.

My grandmother dropped this heavy wisdom on me when I was very young. Too young to affect my smile, too young to believe her. It wouldn't be until my pre-teens that I started to realize that cool kids don't smile.

This week, Dear Readers, I am writing you a permission slip. I'm giving you permission to step away, to step up, to cancel plans, to make better plans. Of course, you don't need permission, but sometimes it feels like we do, doesn't it?

Montreal loves festivals. Montreal loves comedy. In fact, it feels like we should have some sort of comedy festival, like a week long, featuring different comedians doing their unique thing. It feels like that would be super successful, the kind of thing you’d have to try really hard to fuck up.