Montreal-born Angelo Tsarouchas is known as The Funny Greek. He cut his teeth in the comedy clubs of Ottawa and Toronto before heading to the United States, where he now lives. And his Greek heritage has been centre-stage in his comedy for over three decades. In this conversation with Philip Moscovitch, host of Countless Journey’s companion French podcast, D'innombrables Voyages, Angelo talks about how he draws on themes of home and heritage to hilarious effect.
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
When I do my comedy, I’m always saying, look, you saw my name Tsarouchas. So, he goes, is that Greek? I go, it’s Irish. I mean, seriously? 18 vowels four consonants? Yeah.
TINA PITTAWAY
Angelo Tsarouchas is definitely not Irish. He’s a Canadian comedian who plays up his Greek roots to very funny effect. We’ll meet Angelo and learn how he went from being a travel agent and tanning salon owner to touring with Russel Peters and performing his Greek show to audiences all over the world. In Canada, the US, Australia, South Africa, and beyond. That’s coming up on this episode of Countless Journeys.
[Intro music]
I’m Tina Pittaway, welcome to Countless Journeys from the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. On this episode of the podcast, we’re speaking with stand-up comic Angelo Tsarouchas. He was born in Montreal, grew up in Ottawa and now lives in Los Angeles. The son of immigrants and now an immigrant himself. I’m joined by Philip Moscovitch who hosts the French language counterpart of Countless Journeys. He caught up with Angelo at home in LA, the day after he’d returned from a gig performing on a cruise ship.
TINA PITTAWAY
Hi, Philip.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
Hi Tina, great to be here.
TINA PITTAWAY
Now, before we get to the interview with Angelo, tell us a bit about his background.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
Sure. Well, Angelo’s always been funny but he took a bit of a roundabout route to making his career in comedy. Like a lot of Greeks, his dad made a living selling food, at one point, he had one of those mobile canteens that go around to construction sites. And, Angelo, when he was living in Ottawa, he ran a travel agency, he owned a bowling alley, a diner, yeah, like pretty much anything to make a living. But, he never lost that dream of becoming a professional comic. You know, it’s funny, one of the top comments on a YouTube video of his is from someone saying: true story, this guy used to be my travel agent.
TINA PITTAWAY
That’s awesome. Now, what role does his heritage play in his comedy? I noticed his website is funnygreek.com, so it’s obviously an important part of his identity.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
Yeah, and it also helps that people don’t have to spell it, Tsarouchas.
TINA PITTAWAY
Right, haha that’s true.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
I mean, Angelo is very proud of his Greek heritage. His father is from a village near Sparta, his mothers from the island of Lesbos. But he also likes to poke fun at his heritage. Sometimes he’ll joke about the literal translations of Greek expressions. One of them is: I’m going to grill the fish on your lips.
And he jokes about how his parents gave him a name that guaranteed he would never fit in with any of the other kids.
TINA PITTAWAY
Now, you have a Greek background yourself.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
That’s right. And – and people will always go; “Moscovitch? That doesn’t sound very Greek.” And that’s true, but my mum is Greek and I have a lot of family in Greece including actually my mum and my sister who both live there now.
TINA PITTAWAY
Now, you said that Angelo’s dad is from a village near Sparta.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
Yeah, it’s a village called “Vaphni (?),” and it’s actually a very short drive, like maybe 15 or 20 minutes from where my grandparents live, to where my mother grew up. Yeah, I’ve never actually been to the village but same area. Lots of olive trees, you know. We used to go visit in the summers.
TINA PITTAWAY
So, when, when we were planning out this season you brought up Angelo, he was someone who was on your radar. Can you relate to Angelo’s comedy?
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
Oh yeah. I mean, he has a talent for finding absurdity in things that we take for granted and never really talk about. Like, things that are as simple as, you know, trying to take a cab when you’re in Greece.
TINA PITTAWAY
Oh okay, taking a cab.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
He has this whole bit, you can find it on YouTube about how Greek cab drivers will refuse you if they don’t feel like driving to your destination. They’ll just go like, no, I’m not going there. And, you know, he compares that to taking a cab here. You know, this has happened to me actually many times. That you’d want to take a cab somewhere and the driver is like, nope not going there. And so, he captures that attitude and the facial expressions and the gestures. It’s really very funny.
TINA PITTAWAY
Well, that sounds excellent. Let’s have a listen to your conversation with Angelo.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
To start off with, can you just tell me about, how did you start doing comedy? And were you one of those kids like who was just funny in high school and kept going? How did it come about?
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
You know, when I was younger, my parents were in the restaurant business like most Greek immigrants and a guy would come into my dad's restaurant. He was moving and he said “Hey, I got these comedy albums. Do you want them?” And these were old albums of Redd Foxx, Bill Cosby, uh Mort Sahl, you know, Jackie Mason.
Then some early Dangerfield and I would go on my record player, and I would sit - all the other kids were outside playing – I’d sit there and listen to these old comedy albums.
And I love what I felt was so empowering is how these guys would go up there tell stories and jokes and people would laugh and I always thought there's something euphoric about it, right?
When you can make people laugh or if you laugh if somebody makes me laugh, I just I just feel better. It’s like a natural drug. And then I started doing it at my dad's restaurant. Customers would come in. We'd always joke around.
And then my first dare was in Ridgemont High School in the 80s in Ottawa.
And my friend says, Ang your always - you know - I used to go in front of the classroom and teach the class. Like the teacher would come in late and I go, “Can you have a seat please Miss Spilling, please have a seat. Mr. Whiteman, can you have a seat? I'll excuse you this time.”
And the teachers played along with it. They’d sit down and I’d start talking to them about the relevance and how important it is that we have a Greek speaking Canada.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
There’s a story – you drove across the country at one point with a friend, right? Can you tell me about that trip and when it was?
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
…And two guys, young guys going across the country. He was in love with a pharmacist, in uh, that we went to school with in Ottawa, and she had moved back with her family to Vancouver. So, he goes, he had a mission to go see this woman he’s in love with. It’s a love story. And I was like, hey I’m coming along for the ride, I’m the buddy.
1969 Pontiac Parisian convertible. The thing looked like a small ship it was a boat all white, red interior.
And we drove this thing we smoked weed and we listened to George Thurgood, and we drove across the country.
And then I got a job working at Harvey's Hamburgers. And then there was a comedy club at the time. Now, at that time there was only Yuk Yuk’s in Canada, but there was a place called Punchlines Comedy, 21 Water Street in Vancouver.
And that's where I really got on stage for the first time – And that was, like, to me, that was pivotal.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
So, but it took you a while to get back comedy, right? So, can you tell me about those years in between?
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
It did. Well, then I mean then I went back. I was still doing comedy,
I started an amateur night in Ottawa with Norm Macdonald, Jeremy Hotz, Lisa Gay Trombley, I can tell you, Brad Lions, I remember the lineups, it's vivid in my head.
And Norm Macdonald, we started together on new talent, at the time it was called Amateur Night.
But then I realized okay. Well, I need to finish business school. I was working. I was in travel and tourism and then I worked at Travel Cuts. Canadian University Travel Services and I also administrated a program called SWAP - Student Work Abroad Program. Where we exchange students with countries like Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, England, America, you know.
And then eventually opened my own travel business in Ottawa. And then I reconnected with a high school sweetheart. We got married. And then, I opened my own business, we owned part of a restaurant, we had tanning salon, all that stuff, like all, you know, all Greeks, we're getting a business because it's in our DNA to make money, Philip, we have to make money.
It's been ingrained in our brain, right?
And 1993 in 1993, funny little Indian man comes into Ottawa, 1992, ’93, by the name of Russell Peters. He goes, “Hey malaka. How you doing?”
Malaka? How does he know that? He goes, I work with a Greek restaurant.
So “Malaka” for people who don't understand it means friend. (both laugh)
No, it doesn't. It means wanker or idiot.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH:
It's an all-purpose expression.
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
It is. It's all purpose, like, you know, shithead.
We became and we're still uh… 31 years later best friends. I was with Russell when his career took off.
And then later on, the marriage didn't work out - I’ll condense it - it didn't work out and what happened was I pretty much bottomed out. I bottomed out and then you know what? My friend gave me his beat up 84 Buick Regal and I had 900 bucks cash, and I went to Toronto. Uh, broke! I mean after having this life, you know, I was comedy just part-time again, right? I got married and I had business, I thought I’ll settle down, you know, I’m always gonna do a little bit of comedy but it was more like a hobby? And then boom, overnight everything changed in my life. Moved to Toronto, I couldn't find a place. I lived in my car for a couple of days. I’d hit up Russell after. Russell was in England.
He came back. He says come to my place for a week until you get a place.
Then I got an agent. Then I started doing commercials, then I started doing movies.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
So, tell me about how the Greek show came about. Your story about, like, you know when you went out to see Poseidon, right?
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
So, Poseidon is a Greek Canadian band. They were doing a show in Calgary, and I could get on standby with WestJet for 30 dollars.
My friends Nick and Kathy Pantieras and he goes, come out, we crash in one of our rooms. And they were there so,
And Tony the brother was a great bouzouki player - blew a fuse in the amp. Now there's 500 Greek Canadians in this hall. So, the guy goes well, I need to go like, to whoever, you know, like Radio Shack or Best Buy at the time, whatever it’s called, to get a fuse we gotta wait. But the mics were still working.
So, Nick and Chris the lead singer, uh, Chris Bezoulas, he said Ang, you do comedy. Why don't you go do like 15, 20 minutes?
So, at that moment, I went up in Calgary, and I thought there are 500 people of Greek descent like me. So, this is a perfect crowd to just talk about my Greek family. So consciously, subconsciously, I went up there and started talking about, you know, my name is Angelo Tsarouchas.I'm from Ottawa. My dad's from Sparta. My mom's from Lesbos, blah, blah, blah.
I always would do a couple of generic Greek jokes, but I never did a full act on why. But then I felt I'm talking to my own people now.
They understand everything I'm saying. They have a Greek mother. They have a, yeah, yeah. They have a Papu. They've been to Greece. They eat feta cheese. They've had shit thrown at them. You know, they get it. And that’s how that started. That’s how it all started.
Half an hour later, talking to these people in Calgary. Greek community and, a standing ovation. And I walked off to a standing O of 500 people, 4 or 5 hundred people in Calgary, and the guy the guys just looked at me going, what- what the hell was that?
I don't know. I said, I just I never thought of it. And that’s when- that was the coming of age.
See, because for the longest time, if you're ethnic in Canada you could do jokes, but you know like Russell did Indian, Frank Spadone would do Italian. I do Greek. You know, Jewish, you know, they were there, but we weren't really getting recognized.
But what happened was now our generation was coming up.
Our generation’s educated our generation and all these people now we're coming to the point and that's the nice thing about Canada. And thank you for that Canada, is that it gave us those opportunities.
That's what my dad- you know, said he came to Canada- he goes, Canada is going to give me the opportunities we didn't get in Greece. We didn't have food. Here you can do something, he goes, do it and then – that was why I was able to do that and I was able to put it together, Philip. And I said, wow.
[Stand-up clip]
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
There’s a place in Manchester. In Manchester, that’s how they say it, Manchester, it’s called Katsouri’s Deli, right? I walk by Katsouri’s and you gotta be careful ‘cuz Lithuanians have, like, Greek sounding names? Right? Katsouri’s, K-, A-, sooori’s…Maybe it’s Greek. But I gotta do the check. So, when I went in I looked underneath the door, I could see the kehri and the savroul, bar, right?
Where it’s been marked with the – ok? Okay?
I went inside there’s the icon, the icona? Team Elaas soccer club? The acropolis? A no smoking sign, a guy smoking a cigarette. Right? So then, I went and sat, you know, I walked by a Greek flag 24 feet by 24 feet. Greece. The waiter had a shirt on that said; “Kiss me, I’m Greek.”
So, I looked at the guy and I go to the guy, I go are you Greek? He goes, how did you know? I go, I took a check. He goes, are you Greek? I say, yeah. He takes the menus back -[speaking in Greek]. That food is for the tourists. Greeks eat in the kitchen. [Speaking in Greek] Greeks won’t serve crap to Greeks. ‘Cuz we could be related. [Speaking in Greek]. I love that.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
How would you describe the Greek show for someone who hasn't seen any of it?
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
Well, here's the thing. See the Greek show now it's evolved, right?
Cause you know, they always want to repatriate you to Greece, right? Why don't you go to Greece and do a show?
So I, to the Greeks, I was doing jokes about how we have sayings in Greek, but when you translate them in English, they're absurd. And that started that. And I did that years ago in Greece.
Going there and doing that I was able to - I was nervous - are they going to understand what I'm saying to them? They do. Because see we were forced to go to Greek school we didn’t like regular school – our parents and their infinite wisdom – we’re gonna send you to Greek school, and then, because we had to go to Greek school every Saturday.
So we could be Greek and go to Greece and talk Greek and now these Greeks are all talking English. No, no, no, you're not talking English to me.
You're going to talk Greek. We suffered with Kira Olga every freaking Saturday in Ottawa and then we come to Greece, and you want to talk to me in English. It's not gonna happen, buddy.
I never coined the phrase Greek Canadian comic. The media did. They love the word – they love gr- and I said to Jim Slotek at the Toronto Sun, he goes, “I like the Greeks.” - he goes “You know, I would normally not put someone's ethnicity in it but you own it. I went to Danforth with you. I saw the way people talk to you in Greek town, Toronto, nobody wanted to take money from you from where we went to eat. And I like the fact that you're proud of that culture. You're proud of the, when you had the Olympics, you're proud when you won the 2004 Euro cup.” Which you and I both know will never happen again, but it doesn't matter.
We won it. And it was a hundred thousand people. The best time of my life, 2004 on Danforth Avenue, Greek town, Toronto, over a hundred thousand people celebrating Greece Euro cup victory. .
But the thing is is that I never coined it. The media liked it. CBC liked it. Just for Laughs liked it. Uh, Halifax Comedy- you can see that they like it. So to me, I thought, well look, if they like it, why would I- I mean I have no problem with it. But, you know, ‘cuz I know some people, like, don't want to be labeled Italian or Greek or Indian or Portuguese or whatever.
But for me, Philip, I embrace it, man. I love it. And my friends love it. Even Russell to this day, Russell meets a Greek person anywhere. He calls me, Hey, this guy's Greek. Talk to him. So, you know, and I did the same to him. I was on a ship. There was an Indian guy that knew him. They knew who he was from Mumbai.
I called him up. He goes, all right. You want to meet Russell because you know, yeah, I’ll call him up. I go. Hey, this Indian man wants to say hi to you. He goes you're such a malaka I go. Yeah, but you do it to me all the time. But we do that. But Russell's another good example. He embraces it. He doesn’t he doesn't shy away from it, you know, and I do the same thing.
[Comedy clip]
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
I grew up with sayings. There’s a lot of sayings that Greeks would say. I grew up listening to these sayings in Canada. With [speaking in Greek] all my aunt and uncles. I never knew if you translate them, the sayings, I knew what they meant in Greek, they had- they meant nothing in English.
I’ll give you some examples. Of the sayings. [Speaks in Greek] You’re. Bad. Weather. Shit’s coming your way, buddy. [Repeats saying]. I can hear my mother saying it. [Speaking Greek] The swing that swings you. What does it mean? The swiingg that swwings you. [Speaking in Greek]. The Greeks do it with such passion [continues in Greek]. I’m gonna cook some fish on your lips…Who cooks fish on lips? [Muttering in Greek]. [Saying in Greek] hear that one? I said, [Repeats saying]. I’m gonna make you dance on a frying pan! And my favourite on of all time. [Speaking in Greek] Your ass has too much air in it. Deflate it.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
It’s so funny. Like, what makes it so funny do you think?
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
Okay. So here's the thing because Shakespeare coined the phrase. “It's all Greek to me”, right. If you didn't understand something it was Greek. From the days of Shakespeare. Because it wasn't Latin based it's Greek.
It's its own thing. So, for me when I say to somebody “Petachtike san tin pourdi” –He popped out like a fart.
That means: Nobody asked you your opinion. You just gave your opinion. You don't have to say, Hey, shut up. You said, “Petachtike san tin pourdi”, he popped out like a fart. Like, it's like accidental, but why'd you open your mouth?
Or “Katse sta auga sou.”
Sit on your eggs.
There's in Greek, as you know, it has a different meaning. Sit on your eggs means - it could be mind your business. It could mean, relax, we're not getting there yet. There's a bit, you know if you ask Greeks, there's different meanings to it you know.
The same with songs because Greek music sounds so sweet. But the lyrics are sour. You know Uh Vasili Karras who's now a legend who passed away, you know you know, he would sing, “Ne peite chairetismata, pes’tis oti pethaino.”
And the guy goes, oh my God, it sounds so sweet. What is he saying?
“When you see her, give her my best regards. Tell the bitch I'm dying.” That's what he's saying in the song. But you see for the Greeks, you're like, well, what's wrong with that? No, there's nothing wrong with it. He's a national treasure.
But when you listen to Greek music, Philip, it's depressing as hell. But when you translate it to English and I sing the songs and I translate, they laugh because see, they never, they don't see themselves from an Anglo perspective.
So in an English-speaking society, that's where the comedy comes in. And I think the Greeks at first thought I was making fun of them. Until they realize wait a second. He's not making fun of us. He's making fun of the translation of our language.
So, when you break down comedy, so the successful comedy is visual When you see something, how do you break it down? And then that's what I did with the Greek stuff. And then, growing up in Canada I was able to see that with my uncles. My Dad would go play poker every week.
My dad liked to go hunting. You know, he kept a shotgun in his car in case he saw jackrabbits out in the woods in Ottawa. He'd pull us over his kids and start shooting into the woods.
Nowadays they put you in jail. I got my crazy Spartan father shooting jackrabbits in the forest from the highway.
So, you know, something's off here, you know, but you look back now. That's how it was.
PHILIP MOSCOVITCH
My mom used to go pick greens by the highway with her suburban neighbors.
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
Yeah. Yeah. Chorta. Or, but we used to go to the airport with the butter knife.
Picking dandelions and my friend saw us one day. What are you guys doing? We're environmentalists. We're just helping pick the weeds out of the fields. What am I going to tell these people? Oh, we bring them home. We boil them. We boil the dandelions and then we put lemon and olive oil and oregano on them and then we eat them. They're going to think what are you guys in poverty? You're eating dandelions.
PHILIP MOSCOVITCH
So now you live in L.A. and so you're an immigrant. Like how, how does that play into your, your comedy or your material?
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
It does. Well, here's the difference now. I mean I'm living in L.A. as a Canadian.
And, you know, L.A. is the fourth largest Canadian city. Nobody knows that. There's over one point something million Canadians in Southern California.
So I know I say I joke about it.
I go, I’m an immigrant here. The plight of the immigrant is not easy. Now my wife's Armenian American. Very similar to the Greeks - similar cultures food everything family values, you know, so, I found somebody like minded.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
You had a story about that you've used in your comedy about- this goes back to the question of you being an immigrant in L.A.- about the Labada, the Easter candle in the car.
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
The Easter candle, yeah. So people can understand, we're on two different calendars. So there's the Gregorian calendar and the Julian.
Back, I don't know how many centuries ago Pope Gregory decides I’m going to change the calendar. So, the Greek Easter - and I always call it the original Easter - follows the Jewish Passover. So our Easter follows Passover.
So this year Greek easter falls on Cinco de Mayo, which is the fifth of May, but it's five weeks later because it's a leap year whenever it's a leap year.
So one leap year I'm with my wife. She's pregnant. I have the candle in the car. We've got the light. We always get the light at midnight. Then we take that light and the candle we take it home to bless our homes. That's what we do.
I'm driving down Normandy and Pico boulevard and there’s LAPD. I’m like, Oh, Saturday night 12:30, Normandy and Pico. This is L.A. dude, this isn’t Ottawa, this isn’t Halifax. This is L.A.
They don't know what's going on. So, I get out of the car.
And I had the candle under my face the guy goes roll the window down. So, I roll the window down, and I put my face out the window with the candle underneath my face. He goes what the hell's going on in there.
I look at him. I go “Christ has risen.” He thinks it's some weird cult. He pulls his gun. I was getting out of the car. We got out of the car and everybody's driving by going “Christ is risen”.
Yes, he has risen and they're all holding a candle, and these guys are confused, and officer Hernandez was his name - clearly Catholic Latino And he's confused now what's going on?
Then all these people are going by and here they think because it's a freak show. All right. Is this a cult? Is this some kind of uh, are they followers of the grateful dead? What are these people these people in their cars with candles? On May, the Cinco de Mayo. Driving around downtown. They were just like, what the hell is going on?
But I wouldn't put- I didn't put the candle down. I did not put it down. Just put it. No. No, you can shoot me. Jesus is protecting me right now I'm, not putting this candle down. And I didn’t. I go officer, I can't put it down I have to go home and bless my house.
When he heard me say that, you could see where he looked at his partner like oh. Okay, he's got to go home to bless his house with a candle like you could see he's trying. Whatever fear they had kind of got diffused and my wife's like five or six months pregnant and we're just standing there in our nice suits and stuff going we're just going home to bless our homes, man.
I said it's Greek Orthodox Christian Easter. Oh. And that's when he said to me. “Why is Greek Jesus five weeks later?”
And I didn't know what to say to him. I said, well, he's busy. He had to do his taxes. He had things to do. You know and then he started laughing at me. We gave him bread and stuff and it was so funny like I mean- and that whole story actually happened.
You think of LA at 12:30 on a Saturday night. You're walking around in your car with a candle in your hands. Think about it.
What's going on in there?
PHILIP MOSCOVITCH
I just want to ask you about when you were at the museum of immigration at Pier 21 a few years ago and the show you did there.
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
That was last year.
PHILIP MOSCOVITCH
Okay last year and just why that was special to you.
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
I'm gonna tell you what was special.
Maybe I told you this something weird happened at that time.
Okay, so as you know, we're Greeks were very superstitious people. And when we talk about freaky stuff, spirits and this and that.
So, I’m doing Halifax Comedy Festival, which is awesome - Christina Edwards - all these wonderful people andwe're taping it for CBC. Okay.
Now for people who may not know, Pier 21 in Canada is Ellis Island of America. Most new immigrants to Canada came through Pier 21.
My dad and my theia Eleni were two of them. So, when she told me - she was like, “Would you host the show?”
And it was Arthur Simeon and you know, all the comedians were Ugandan, Greek, Italian, you know, Thai. It was all you know, Canadian. Canada. Comedians.
Of course. Yeah, I’ll host it. So, then I said to Christina I said, you know, you know December 6, 1949, my father and my auntie came through here and she goes oh, I didn't know that.
I go. Yeah, I said my dad was 15 years old right after civil war in Greece, which was more devastating than World War 2. He was 15.
My theia was I think 17 or 18.
They got on the Queen Frederica from Piraeus Greece to Naples Italy to Southampton England to Halifax. And they came to Canada in those days the train station was right there and they took the train and my dad's uncle. My great uncle was in Montreal.
So in those days they left, they went somewhere where they knew people.
So, um, my dad came through here. So she goes, I'm going to talk to the lady at the immigration. So they called me, and they said, give us some information about your dad. I said, well, I said, I gave him December 6th, 1949, blah, blah, blah, the whole thing.
And I said, isn't it interesting?
I said, 78 years ago, my father came through here through Halifax. And as a result of that, I'm here now doing a comedy show. And I said, and this is, I think where it resonated with them. I said, if my father never, never came up Pier 21, I would never be back here. I would never, you know.
I'm proof that immigration works. Look 78 plus years later I’m back.
What do they do? At the end of the show, there's about four or five hundred people. They have that nice theater at the immigration museum the lady I can't remember her name, really sweet lady, goes gets a picture of the ship. And they said:
“December 6, 1949, Canada became a better place when Peter Petros Tsarouchas came here to start his new life as a Canadian citizen.They hand me this picture and I choke up I’m like, you know, I didn't know I didn't know how to react, but I think my reaction was perfect.
That's what resonated with the crowd because I said, “Had he not come here I wouldn't be here, so.”
It's so weird, isn't it that things go around so I never expected that. I know - now again, here's where the story gets freakier.
Um, I get emotional when I think about it. Two nights later, we're taping the special, the gala, for CBC Halifax Comedy Special. They've been doing it for years, right?
In the middle of my set – I go up, 2000 people, lights, cameras, everything. In the middle of my set is a complete blackout.
All the lights go off, everything shuts down for about two or three seconds. In the middle of my set, I’m taping for a national television audience blackout three seconds. Then it comes back on and I sat there and I’m like what the hell just happened?
And I was like so I made a joke I go and yes, I do make miracles happen and I will bring you Jesus. I just need your dollars to be sent… I did a televangelist thing like those guys on the Righteous Gemstones.
I went back and I said to the guy, what happened. The guy from CBC the technician, they have the trucks and all the people he goes there was no blackout. There was no power surge, if there was a power surge - it would have taken him 8 to 12 minutes to reboot it. No blackout. No power surge. No nothing.
Oh, I know what it is.
And he goes what?
That was my father.
He goes what?
It was my father giving me a signal.
It was my father. He's telling me he's okay.
I think it's my dad saying, “Good for you.” Because he never really said it when I was doing, you know, Greek parents or they don't really praise you. You're like, yeah Malaka, you can do better.
It was him looking at me saying “Good for you. You're doing - you're at the top of your game. You're taping a show for television in Canada - I came through there that city.”
That's why it's special to me Pier 21. “You're back here. You're doing the show. And I’m just giving you a wink.”
The lights three seconds blackout. That you- [speaking Greek] you’re okay.
And look at me, I’m back here as a result of him trekking across the world at a time where he didn't know where the hell he was going.
And then look where we are now. But you see, someone has to take the plunge.
Someone has to take that trip. Somebody in your family. That's why I always tell - I took my daughter to Greece. I took her to her papu's village. I go, “This is where your grandfather's from.” Everybody in the world should take a journey back to where their family's from because you really don't know who you are until you really know where you're from.
It doesn't matter what culture anyone's from. Don't fight who you are, embrace it.
You’d be surprised what you’re gonna discover about yourself. Because
A lot of people say; “I have emotional problems. I need therapy.” No, you don't need therapy. You need a vacation. You need to go where your family's from. Go there. I mean, the therapy's good, but even a therapist eventually is going to tell you, okay, you have a lot of unanswered questions. I can't answer them. Go there.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
Alright, well take care. Thank you so much.
ANGELO TSAROUCHAS
Thank you, Philip.
TINA PITTAWAY
And that’s a wrap for this season of Countless Journeys. I hope you’ve enjoyed the stories and conversations that we’ve shared and if you’re a new listener, there are four previous seasons in our back catalogue if you’d like to hear more. If you want to help new listeners discover this podcast, make sure to rate Countless Journeys on your favourite podcast app, or leave us a review.
Countless Journeys comes to you from the Canada Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, located at the Halifax Seaport. I’m Tina Pittaway. Bye for now.