Justin the Couchsufer and Performing @ The Comedy Corner

So one of my apartment is open for 3 days so I decided to live downtown for the moment.

I got a message from Justin a French traveler who has been train hopping. I gladly opened up my home to him and his stories. He has been traveling everywhere and just train hopped from Montreal to Toronto yesterday.

Apparently he was sleeping on an open cart which carried lumber and it was freezing in the night. 9 hours of train traveling on the cold metal floor is definitely something to tell your kids about one day. I really admired his sense of adventure and if I didn't have my airbnb there is no doubt in my mind I would join him for the next leg of his trip.

Anyways after Justin showed up we chatted for a bit before heading out of the Comedy Corner. There was an Open Mic and I signed up to do a 10 minute set. It was really a slug fest and not in any good sense. All the comics sucked, myself included. But the good thing about my set is my delivery is getting better than previously so I am happy about that. I tried out some new material, stole a bit from another comic from Korea and told some personal travel stories. I need more practice to get better.

My Set:
https://goo.gl/photos/SHLdE9m1ZWEhcRp6A

After my set I took Justin around the downtown core area and saw some new things myself. The Toronto sign by Nathan Phillips Square is really cool at night.

Today Justin is going to Niagara falls and when he comes back we will go to a language exchange together.

Peace from Toronto.

Toronto Startup Job Fair Volunteer

This pas Friday I volunteered for the Toronto Startup Job Fair.

Originally I saw the event on my facebook by accident. I think google kept track of what I was searching and recommended this event based on that. Anyways it looked interesting so I decided to check it out.

Unfortunately it costed $5. And me being the cheap person I am decided to volunteer instead and go to the event for free. It was a good thing I did because my experience was better because of it.

I met many other volunteers and really got to network.

Prior to the event starting I talked to a bunch of startups and had a head start. I had great chats with reps from Hurrier (a company that dispatches bike courriers to deliver food), SkyPrep (Learning management system), Textbooks4Change (social enterprise that donates books to Africa), SparkGig (a kind of airbnb for the corporate entertainment bookings).

The two most solid leads were Hurrier and SparkGig. So Hurrier I actually already knew about since I worked for them part time as a bike delivery courier while doing airbnb at the same time. It looks like they are hiring bi-lingual support staff for the office since they have been expanding their operations to Montreal and Vancouver. But I was more interested in becoming the Growth Associate who hires new courriers and trains them in the app and system. Anyways I sent Shalaka an email and am waiting to hear back from her.

SparkGig was the last booth I stopped by just as we were cleaning up. After chatting a bit with Alex and hearing him explain to me the business, I mentioned it sounds kind of like airbnb. This sparked a conversation about my current foray in airbnb. It turns out that Alex did that before in the past and he had over 20 properties. So I grabbed his info. After shooting off some emails we tentatively agreed to meet after Halloween. I am really excited to hear about what he has to say and his past experiences in this area.

Overall this was a great event and I am really glad I went out and volunteered. Airbnb has been slowing down recently and if I do find a job in the downtown core I could keep an apartment for airbnb and live in the other one.

Peace from Toronto.

First time getting on Yuk Yuks

This past Tuesday I performed standup comedy at Yuk Yuks. I was fortunate I got a spot as there are so many people trying to perform.

I also got to meet some of the other fellow comedians and now have a much bigger list of venues to hit up for amateur nights. Turns out Toronto has a big standup comedy scene!

As for my performance, delivery was better than before, I tried new material and it didn't bomb so I am pretty happy. 

https://goo.gl/photos/gxoprtRUX6nPK2C37

Peace from Toronto.

New goals to get off my lazy butt

After skyping my friend Adam currently in Korea I have some things I have to do each week they are as follows:

Every week schedule a 10,000 coffee date
Every week go to a 10,000 coffee date
1) schedule for an upcoming time
2) go to a coffee "date"
3) find and fully note down on an excel sheet program (fellowship, government funded program, internship, etc)
4) cold calling an opportunity directly via E-mail (and improving your skill at doing this in order to get a reply each time)

Peace from Toronto.