BF26: Justin Shaw turns stand-up into one-man show hilarity in Blyth

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

It was a bonafide Christmas miracle that first brought Justin Shaw to the stage at Memorial Hall. Now, for the Blyth Festival’s 2026 season, Shaw is returning to bring the people of Blyth Off-Island Odyssey - his one-person show about living in, and away from, his home province, Prince Edward Island.

 

In the summer of 2024, he was in the middle of touring a show when he learned that the Blyth Festival was in search of a Christmas show to put on in December. “I just had to shoot my shot,” he told The Citizen. “It just so happened that I did have a Christmas show that year.”

 

That show - a one-night engagement - proved to be a turning point for this entertainer from the east coast. “I get there - the place is sold out,” he recalled. “I felt like the prince of the town for the night! Wow! It was a sold-out crowd, and they loved it from bell to bell - you don’t always get that kind of treatment in Canadian comedy. I’ve gone from doing a lot of stand-up shows into the world of theatre, and just to have the respect and attention that the show was given by the audience, the organizers and the administrators - it was such a breath of fresh air. I really felt like I was part of Christmas in Blyth.”

 

After watching the Blyth Santa Claus parade, Shaw was hooked. “I was like, ‘This is great! I want more of this.’ And thankfully, the feeling was mutual,” he confessed. “I guess I now just associate the feelings of Christmas with the feelings of Blyth.”

 

Now, Shaw is hoping that lightning will strike twice with his new show: Off-Island Odyssey. “Initially, when I was developing this show, it came out of a commission from the Confederation Centre of the Arts, via my relationship with Adam Brazier and the Charlottetown Festival. He said ‘I bet Blyth would be interested in supporting a commission’, and he was correct,” Shaw explained. 

 

Once he decided to do a show, Shaw had to decide what the show would be about. “All I knew was that I’ve got a lot of experience travelling all the different parts of Canada. And I wondered, ‘Is this relevant?’ And then suddenly, right around that same time, Canadian identity really came into the forefront of the national discussion. I think it was when Mike Myers said ‘Elbows Up,’ on Saturday Night Live. It felt like, for the first time, my work really felt ‘capital P’ political,” he pointed out. “What is home? What does that mean to us? What are the things we seek to link our identities to home?”

 

Those questions sit at the heart of the show, which traces his journey from Prince Edward Island to places like Montreal, Fort McMurray and Hamilton. “I’m continuing to explore how our identity is linked to home,” he said. “I’m talking about Canadian towns, in respect to Canada looking at itself, and not trying to define itself in relation to the United States, or any other places. And there is fear at this time about what Canada’s relationship with our neighbour to the south is. So, this story that I’m telling is about living in different parts of Canada and the wildly different experiences people have in different corners of the country.”
Performing alone on stage brings both freedom and pressure - both of which Shaw embraces. “If it works, great, I get all the credit,” he explained. “If it doesn’t work, I get all the blame. It affords me a certain level of experimentation. I can try things: did this work? No. Did this work? Great! You really need that relationship with the audience.”

 

Though he works across comedy and theatre, Shaw is clear about how he classifies this new piece. “This show is not stand-up comedy,” he said. “It’s driven by humour, but what makes people care is the heart and the vulnerability. I’ve been told I have a certain down-home quality. I grew up in a very rural, working-class environment - it’s not all that different from Blyth.”

 

As he prepares to take the stage this season, Shaw is focused on what the show can offer audiences at a deeper level. “I really want the audience to feel like they just shared an experience,” he explained to The Citizen. “I want people to say ‘you just had to be there.’ I hope people are reminded of the people that made them rise up and face the challenges of the day,” he said. “Life is tough, but that’s okay.”

 

Ultimately, Off-Island Odyssey is about connection - to place, to memory and to one another. While the themes may be big, Shaw is quick to ground them in the joy of performance. “It’s so silly,” he said with a laugh, “but it’s a story of leaving home and finding it again in all these different corners of the country.”

 

With that mix of humour, heart and lived experience, Shaw is ready to invite the Blyth audiences to take that journey together.