Joey Elias

At Ernie Butler's Comedy Nest November 4, 5, and 6

Montreal stand-up comic Joey Elias is coming home, not so much to roost, or even to lay eggs. He's probably Montreal's best-known stand-up comedian, right now, and he's taking time out from his touring schedule to headline at Ernie Butler's Comedy Nest.

Joey was born and raised in Montreal, and started doing stand-up comedy after losing a bet. He'd been shooting pool with some friends who knew that he'd always wanted to try comedy. A couple of tables over from them was a rather well-known local comic (Joey won't tell me who). If Joey lost the game, his friends told him, he'd have to go over and talk to the comedian about getting into the biz. And the rest, as they say, is history.

I remember the first time I saw Joey Elias perform comedy. It was at the summer camp where I worked in the early 1990s, and I'm sure it wasn't his favourite gig ever. But since then he's been to the Just For Laughs Festival 12 times (here he is at a JFL Gala (YouTube)), and like other great Canadian comics, has his own Comedy Now TV special.

He also went to Afghanistan twice to entertain the troops, once in 2004 and again three years later. And last year Joey finally recorded and released his first DVD, Joey Elias: Douchebag.

When he's not running around the country, or flying off to China, to do comedy, Joey, who has been living with type 2 diabetes for the past few years, runs the Joey Elias Charity Golf Classic with the hopes of raising money for a cure. And if that's not busy enough, he also hosts a nightly comedy show on Montreal's CJAD Radio. He's also been teaching, turning out (if unleashing isn't a better word) crops of new, budding stand-up comedians with what he calls the Joey Elias Comedy Writing Class.

Joey is a local favourite and always gets great reviews. His material runs the gamut from musings on today's youth, to his forays into the gym. And he warns that “Angry Joe,” his inner comedy voice, sometimes slips out to great effect.

He's a committed Montreal Canadiens fan, so it's fitting that the Comedy Nest is situated in the Pepsi Forum, so called because it's on the site of the old Montreal Forum, where the Habs won 22 of their 24 Stanley Cups. Joey will be there November 4, 5, and 6.