Comedian Bill Engvall has aged gracefully in the past 30 years of doing stand-up comedy.
“  I do a lot of jokes about being an empty nester,” noted Engvall, calling from California an hour early due to a golf game.
“I’ve developed some selective hearing. We’re getting older and she wants to go on a diet. So I have to go on a diet too because she says ‘ I think we’re going on a diet because I don't like the way we look.’ And I say ‘we think I look good,’” he laughed.

 He first became known for his “Here’s Your Sign” routine but is now known for his jokes and stories involving exploring interesting anecdotes about family, children and dogs which everybody can identify with. He performs at the Enmax Centre with Larry The Cable Guy and Reno Collier, Jan. 13.

“It will be three guys with three completely different points of view,” observed  Engvall.
“Reno will do 15 minutes. I’ll do 35 minutes and Larry the Cable Guy will be doing 35,” he said.

“It will be three completely different perspectives. I’m a storyteller. I’ll talk about my family. Reno is a storyteller too, but not as extensive as me and Larry is more of a one liner guy. Joke, joke, joke,” he said.

“Reno is a new father and my children are in college, so it’s two different perspectives,” said the Galveston, Texas born comedian, who moved to Dallas and later to Los Angeles.
He has appeared on TV on several different shows including the Jeff Foxworthy show, and  Blue Collar Comedy with Foxworthy and Larry The Cable Guy.

If you give a mouse a cookie, it will leave a trail of  crumbs, hair and half of the kitchen on the floor.
 That’s the premise of New West Theatre latest theatre for young audiences production of  “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie , based on the popular Laura Numeroff penned children”s book.

 The show runs in the Sterndale Bennett Theatre until Jan. 7.

The two man production starring Willie Banfield as a manic young mouse and Kelsey Flower as the boy, trying to keep the mouse under control, starts innocuously enough with the innocent mouse asking the boy for a cookie, which quickly accelerates into complete chaos.

In the process of getting the mouse a glass of milk, helping him cut his hair and attempting to clean up the kitchen, the two bond, the boy learns about the mouse’s parents and life and starts to identify with him, but things spiral out of control in a  blur of  cartwheels, leaps and pratfalls.

 If you are looking for a fun family New Year’s Eve, then check out the sixteenth annual New Year‘s Eve Family Fest at Exhibition Park.
The popular annual event  attracts an average of 6,500 people each year who enjoy a variety of  family-friendly activities geared toward the 12 and under set,  including face-painting,  numerous astro jumps and clowns roaming through the crowd.

“Sixteen years ago, we asked ourselves what could we do for the kids,” noted Doug  Kryzanowski manager if corporate relations, marketing  Events and Entertainment. He noted the family festival is a way for Exhibition Park to give back to the community, so all of the activities are free.

“It’s our contribution to the community,” he said.

He noted  since the Exhibition was formed, their mandate has been  to provide a gathering place for the community.

“So this event is just fulfilling our mandate,” he said.

“ We have a plethora of astro jumps, and perennial favourite Rainbow the Clown is back,” he enthused.

They have a lot of generous local businesses who step up to help fund the event.