Montreal-born Angelo Tsarouchas' career as a comedian has come a long way since it began. The way he tells it, his career started when he was a child. "I was in grade five and I was telling some jokes (to my classmates) and my teacher said 'Angelo Tsarouchas, if you think you're so funny, why don't you come to the front of the class?' She thought it would discourage me, but I did 20 minutes. That was my first gig."

Around a decade ago, he was performing at Comedy Nooners in Forwell Hall here at Fanshawe College. More recently, he has played the lead in the film Fred & Vinnie, been a special guest on Russell Peters' world tour and appeared in the film Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. He has also travelled internationally performing his stand-up routine.

Tsarouchas is charming, charismatic and, of course, hilarious. He gets inspiration for his comedy from his experiences growing up in a Greek family and working at his dad's Greek restaurant. He jokes about how his name, Evangelos Petros Tsarouchas, sounds like a disease. He also gets material from his international travels and from being overweight (some people in Scotland mistook him for the singer Meatloaf).

He described his slightly selfdeprecating comedic style as happy-go-lucky. "Happy in the sense that I'm doing what I love, but I'm calling people on their bullshit," he said. "You want your comedy to be thought-provoking, too."

The highlight of his career so far was the 100th anniversary of his favourite hockey team, the Montreal Canadiens. "I got to do a show with Russell Peters at the Bell Center in front of 10,000 people. That's the closest I'll ever get to playing in the NHL," he joked, also noting how much he enjoyed performing for his family and friends in his hometown.

Tsarouchas has a history with London and reminisced about the time he has spent here. "I'm looking forward to coming to London. My memories of London are Sammy's Souvlaki, watching people fight at the Ceeps, hanging at Mac's Milk at Dundas and Wellington and watching more people fight ... I get a lot of material from London," he laughed.

Lil Angelo's Big Canada Show is coming to the Grand Theatre on December 4. The show is at 8 p.m. and tickets are available at tickets. grandtheatre.com. For more information on Angelo Tsarouchas, visit his website at funnygreek.com.