Canada dry

Hello Hot Press! How are ya? My name is Steve Patterson and I’m a Canadian comic (now let’s let the therapy begin).

I’m the youngest of five sons and my next brother up is nine years older. He is also a boxer, which made for very painful “play fights” when I was young. I mention this because it pretty much answers the question “how do you deal with hecklers?” When you’ve been the recipient of years of hard, well-placed right hooks, some guy yelling ‘that’s not funny’ doesn’t really faze you.
A lot of people ask me, ‘Steve’, because that is my name, “How do you do it? How do you stand in front of people, people from another country even, and make them laugh? Aren’t you terrified it’ll go badly?’
When people ask this they make me think about it, and it terrifies me. But truth be known, I don’t think about it because the comedy stage is my happy place. Just as some people are happy counting numbers, some are happy building houses and some find all their happy time outside of work, I’m happier making people laugh than doing anything else. There’s also the little matter that I have no other real life skills to fall back on. My father tried to teach me about plumbing and power tools when I was young, but all I did was drill holes in the pipes, so he gave up.
I’m on my fourth or fifth tour over here (Guinness may be good for you but it’s bad for my memory) and, as usual, I’m loving it. So far I’ve played Trinity College, The Model Arts Centre in Sligo and Galways Cuba Bar and I’m looking very forward to shows around Dublin at The International Bar (run by the very talented Des Bishop) and at Gibneys in Malahide (with the very talented Brendan Burke), very soon.
The reason I love touring Ireland is because the people here have a great sense of humour, comics and audiences alike. They don’t give you easy laughs, but once you earn their respect, they’re willing to go a long way with you (I’m single by the way ladies… this is just a poorly executed subliminal message).
I also love the concept of the “lock-in”. I was fortunate enough to experience one in Sligo this past weekend with Limerick’s hilarious Karl Spain (if we were gay, we would be married). There’s something truly special about being locked inside a place others can’t get to with great people, great music and lots of alcohol. I’ll take this over a night out in Temple Bar any time. For the amount some of those places charge you for a drink, you should be the drinkee instead of the drinker if you know what I mean.
Anyway, I hope you’ll come laugh at me while I’m here, I appreciate you’re taking the time to read this, and I’d like to note that there’s a hole in your left sock.

www.stevepatterson.ca See Steve live at: The International Comedy Club, Wicklow St., Dublin (Jan 22); Gibney’s, Malahide (23); The International Comedy Club, Wicklow St. (24); Dot Comedy Club, Dolans, Dock Road, Limerick (29); Dot Comedy Club, Oakwood Arms Hotel, Shannon (30); Gibneys, Malahide (Feb 6)