Rising star Travis Lindsay brings laughs back to Halifax audiences

After a year where COVID-19 pretty much shut down most opportunities for artists to perform live, comedian Travis Lindsay is thrilled to finally be returning to the stage to make audiences laugh.

“At this point, I’ll take anything,” says Lindsay about his headlining gigs at Dartmouth’s The Comedy Cove from April 1 to 3. “(The pandemic) was my longest break in between shows in the 11 years I’ve been doing this.”

It wasn’t a break that Lindsay welcomed either. Just before the pandemic hit, the Lower Sackville stand-up was seeing his career take a rather skyward trajectory.

After being inspired by the likes of Dave Chappelle and Richard Pryor, Lindsay first discovered he could make people laugh at the early age of 16 when he performed at a school talent show.

Ever since, Lindsay has dedicated himself to honing his craft, which seemed to be ascending to a crescendo in late 2019.  At that point, he had finally started landing club gigs as a headliner and making television appearances.

Additionally, he was named the winner of the CBC Open-Mic Comedy Contest at the HUBCAP Comedy Festival and he released a debut album called The Kid is Alright, which made it all the way to the top of iTunes comedy charts.

“Even though the world stopped, there were still things going on within it so there was a ton to observe,” says Lindsay about the fact he was still at least able to write new jokes during the pandemic. “The thing we lost was trying out the material and working on it.”

That said, Lindsay says that COVID-19 has not made a big impact on his act. While the pandemic clearly has to be addressed as the “elephant in the room”, he was determined not to make it central to his stand-up.

“I have a few (jokes) but I tried not to rely too, too much on it,” admits Lindsay. “It’s one of those things — every comic will try to write stuff about it but you want to stand out so I didn’t lean too heavy into it but it is unavoidable not to talk about.”

As it turns out, the pandemic actually brought some good luck into Lindsay’s life. In November, he was asked to come perform as the warm-up act for the live audiences at tapings of CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes — a job that very quickly led him to being asked to perform on-camera and then hired as one of the show’s writers.

“I’ve done a little bit of everything in the last six months (on 22 Minutes),” says Lindsay. ”It was quite the privilege and an amazing opportunity during a ridiculous year. It was definitely a highlight of what was not the most pleasant of years for anyone.”

The experience also enabled Lindsay to “keep the joke muscle going” and refine his act so it would be ready for his return to the stage.

For his shows at The Comedy Cove, audiences should expect the same observational tales that have earned Lindsay his place as one of Halifax’s hottest funnymen.

“(Audiences) can definitely expect moments about the world around them, but at the same time I like to talk about everything,” says Lindsay about what he has in store for The Comedy Cove.

“At the root of it, it’s going to be funny and people should come out. The escape is coming out — whatever we talk about is just for laughs and jokes, but just get out and enjoy the fact that we’re living in a place that is doing this as safe as possible and that we have the option to enjoy such things when other parts of the world don’t.”