'People call me a storyteller': Island ceilidhs part of entertainer's life for 20 years
Gail Harding | CBC News | Posted: July 5, 2017 11:00 PM | Last Updated: July 5, 2017
'I wanted some humour and I wanted some good music'
Tom McSwiggan can't help himself — he loves to tell a good story and a good joke. He also loves to sing and play music.
"I like to be known as a musician and a singer but a lot of times people call me a storyteller."
It is that combination that keeps the audience entertained at ceilidhs performed at the Women's Institute halls in Malpeque, P.E.I., and Stanley Bridge, P.E.I., all summer.
McSwiggan has been performing with Mike Pendergast for 20 years since he retired to P.E.I. in 1996. He attended his first Island ceilidh at the time, saying it was quite different from the ceilidhs he went to in Ireland.
"We started the ceilidhs and I wanted some humour and I wanted some good music so it was just the two of us for the first couple of years."
They are now joined by Pendergast's son, Shane and Andy Doucet along with dancer, Veronica Murray.
'Feel blessed'
"I feel blessed that with all that talent, I can hide behind them so maybe nobody pays any attention to the old guy on the stage, hopefully."
McSwiggan said between him and Pendergast, they have great interaction with the audience and between the two of them, keep the jokes going.
"Sometimes I even enjoy them myself. I'm just joking," McSwiggan said with a laugh.
He said there is never a lack of new material and his family of five children and eight grandchildren help him out, even making it a competition over who can tell the best joke.
"My eight-year-old granddaughter said to me recently, 'Papa, I have joke for you. Did you hear the one about the butter?' And I said no and she said, 'Well I can't tell you because you might spread it around.'"
McSwiggan said the secret to joke telling is to keep them short.
The ceilidhs are performed Wednesday in Malpeque and Thursday in Stanley Bridge until the end of September. Both nights are from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
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