The Fergus Grand Theatre stage will have a debut performance on their hands Friday night from an out-of-area talent.

Ottawa's Rory Gardiner will be bringing his performance Tornado Troubles to town in a fusion of country music and comedic content.

Gardiner's journey, he says, began with something simple: trying to make people laugh in a time of need following a tornado in his hometown.

The tornado in 2018, he says left his house destroyed. "Instead of crying and drinking," he decided to make people laugh.

"I created this silly little video trying to make the neighbours laugh and get them through a tough time," Gardiner mentioned.

The video, he says, was a parody of a house tour in the remains of his house, destroyed by fallen trees.

"That thing got picked up on Youtube and just went viral. The people at TED Talk were like 'hey, we'd love for you to come speak at one of our conferences on resilience,' and it just kind of escalated from there," he went on.

In a media release from the Township of Centre Wellington, Theatre Coordinator Eric Goudie said, “I first saw Rory when he faced a really tough crowd.”

“Not only did he break through to them, he did it as soon as he walked on stage, and he kept everyone in stitches until he took his bow at the end. He is an incredible performer,” Goudie added.

The performance, Gardiner says, spans from tales of the storm to raising children during a pandemic and beyond.

Gardiner says he hadn't heard of Fergus before but said he thinks Fergus might have heard of him.

"I didn't even hear of what a Fergus was until I was invited to perform there," Gardiner joked.

"So, I'm looking forward to it. As it turns out I've got a little bit of a fanbase there. People come out of the woodwork and say I live in Fergus. So, I'm happy to know  people actually live there, and they're happy to come out. I'm looking forward to reuniting with folks," he added.

He added after the tornado in his hometown, joking around was a key way to manage.

"It destroyed my neighbourhood. It took it apart," Gardiner reflected.

"I didn't know how to deal with that, but I think comedy was the coping mechanism I used to really get through that time," he added.

The show kicks off Friday evening at 8 p.m.

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