Halifax mayor moonlights as stand-up comic for comedy festival Saturday

Halifax’s mayor will try his hand at stand-up comedy this weekend.

Mike Savage, known for his off-the-cuff jokes and one-liners in council chambers, will take his humour to the stage of the Halifax Comedy Fest.

His two-minute routine will kick off the festival’s Gala of Laughs finale at the Spatz Theatre Saturday night.

Savage said preparing for the stage is different than making jokes in the political sphere.

“It’s one thing being funny spontaneously,” he said in an interview. “It’s a whole other thing trying to be funny on demand.”

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He said he does great impersonations of some Halifax councillors, but that this humour might not “go over well” with a national audience.

Comedian Mark Critch of “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” is hosting the event and is expected to join Savage on stage after a couple minutes.

Coun. Tony Mancini, a former Halifax Comedy Festival Society board member, said he lined up the gig up for Savage.

“He mentioned to me once that he’s always wanted to try stand-up,” the Dartmouth-area councillor said. “Every year, the comedy festival has a surprise guest so I put the mayor’s name forward.”

Mancini said Savage has good comic timing and a witty sense of humour.

“We run a billion-dollar corporation in our community and we deal with some very serious stuff,” he said. “The mayor manages to bring both leadership and laughs to the debates at council.”

Savage has served as a judge for the local fundraiser Dancing With Our Stars and hosted the variety show A Different Stage of Mind.

Brett Bundale, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said Savage served as a judge on the televised dance competition Dancing With the Stars.