Toronto comedian Chris Locke is returning to St. John’s to perform at the LSPU Hall on May 28th at 7:00pm. Locke will be joined by local comedians Amanda Bulman and Mike Hammond, Mike Fardy will emcee the evening.

“The show’s gonna be insane, my brain is broken. The stand-up comes from an observational place but it gets pretty surreal and wacky and loose. I’m excited to have fun,” Locke said.

Locke has been working as a comedic actor, writer, and performer for the past seventeen years. His career started when he decided to try telling some jokes at an open mic he found listed in the back of Toronto’s NOW Magazine.

“I was always a goof, my favourite part of high school was the part where me and my friends would skip class and get high in the woods and joke around. Then I went to university for one year and dropped out and started doing open mics,” Locke said.

After almost two decades in the industry, Locke’s comedy has been featured on Just For Laughs, Vice, The Debaters, CBC, Comedy Network, Mr. D and MTV Canada. His work as an actor has landed him parts on a slew of TV shows including Filth City, The Amazing Gayl Pile and The Strain. His short films have screened at TIFF, Just For Laughs, and CFC’s World Of Shorts festival at the NFB.

“My inspiration comes from my world view and my day to day experience, I sort of think of everything as absurd and funny,” Locke said.

Locke is currently working in the writing room of the popular CBC Comedy Show Baroness Von Sketch, which is gearing up to launch its second season this summer. The sketch-comedy show stars Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeil, Aurora Browne and Jennifer Whalen who all play multiple characters in each episode.

“I’ve known these ladies for years and I love them, I think they’re so funny and the show is genuinely funny,” Locke said.

Most of the sketches poke fun at a very particular type of middle class, middle-aged, Ontarian woman. Locke says that although he’s not a woman, he’s closed to being middle-aged so he can relate to a lot of the material.

“I’m psyched to be a part of it and contribute. It’s fun, it’s loose, we all have a good time and we all help each other build our sketches to make sure they’re the funniest they can be,” Locke said.

Locke has already visited St. John’s several times to perform at Yuk Yuk’s. He’s looking forward to coming back and seeing how the comedy scene has evolved since his last trip to Newfoundland.

“I always meet local comics that I really like… I know the comedy scene in St. John’s has grown a lot over the past couple years, it’s going to be a pleasure to meet new people,” Locke said.