A Conversation With Joel West

Joel West is a comedian and writer and has been known to talk to lamp posts. He was born in Montreal in 1961 and as a child appeared in the Oscar nominated film “Lies my Father Told Me”. In 1976, while Joel was at summer camp, his parents moved to Toronto. Having tracked them down, Joel also relocated. At the University of Toronto he received several scholarships and awards, made the Dean’s list and, fearing that he might actually complete something, dropped out in his third year. He has worked as a short order cook, salesman, bookkeeper, messenger, technical support person and has received unemployment benefits on more than one occasion.

Joel has performed extensively in the Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto corridor and has also performed in Vancouver, Kitchener, Waterloo, Hamilton, London and Niagara Falls. He appeared in the, soon to be released film, Four Squared production’s “Conversion” a dark comedy of manners, written by Canadian author Kate MacDonald. He has also appeared at the Montreal Fringe Theatre Festival.

Joel has recently lost close to 100 lbs and is writing a book about his experience.