Author Will Ferguson entertains with anecdotes and jokes

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Canadian humourist  Will Ferguson, enraptured a good sized crowd at the Galt Museum, Sunday, May 20 during the museum’s Will Ferguson speaking at the Galt Museum. Photo by Richard AmeryDiamond Jubilee celebrations which also featured Project Muse.


 There wasn’t a lot of talk about the Queen at the Queen’s Jubilee, however Ferguson has a million stories about having adventures travelling around Canada and told a few of, them punctuating them with his self-deprecating humour, which had the enraptured audience chuckling along with him.


 He joked about being asked to  show a South American delegation a “Canadian dance.”


“There isn’t one. They think we can all square dance, so we just made one up,” he related.

He spoke briefly about living in Japan and moving to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the cradle of Confederation.


He noted his first job was as a translator. He laughed as he recalled asking a group of Japanese businessmen/ tourists to not tell his boss that he wasn’t as fluent in Japanese as he said to get the job.


He reminisced about breaking into  writing by writing a column in Charlottetown about Japanese customs and getting let go  after asking his boss for a raise as his boss didn’t know  Ferguson was being paid for his column in the first place.


 He observed things worked out in the end as he ended up getting a job writing a travel/ adventure column for Macleans magazine.


“ They told me to write it from the perspective of a tourist to Canada, which is how I always kind of felt anyway,” he said.
 Then he laughed he had an expense account, covering “all reasonable expenses,” and put a helicopter ride on it so he could see a historic fort near Churchill, Manitoba.
“They asked me about it and I said ‘all reasonable expenses.’ They said ‘It‘s a helicopter ride.’ So I don’t work at Macleans anymore,” he laughed. However that lead to a gig with Flare Magazine, which lead to  memorable trips all across the country including Moose Jaw.

Once that ended, he started compiling  his columns into a books.


 He wound up his presentation by joking about Cracker Jacks, laughing “ You used to get a toy in them which you put together, now it comes in a bag and all you get is a piece of paper with a quote on it,” he said.
 The  Project Muse chamber music group ended the afternoon with a set of pretty classical music.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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