I am happy to bring you these photos and this audio from the Paul Wells Holiday Show, presented by Cameco, that took place last Saturday night, December 6, at the Azrieli Studio of Canada’s National Arts Centre. My podcast feed has been too quiet lately. This will help change that.
I launched this annual event in 2023 as a way to thank my subscribers, who have made this chapter the most rewarding in my long (I mean, it’s getting long) career. I wanted to give some of you a chance to see and hear me in person, and more than that, I wanted to send you into the Christmas season with some things to think about and some music to enjoy.
For that first edition of the Holiday Show, free tickets got snapped up fast. The second edition in 2024 produced two podcast episodes — and in our first year selling tickets, we sold out almost immediately.
This year we hiked the ticket price and booked a room twice as big — and we still sold out just as quickly. This odd event that is so hard to describe is turning into a major Christmas-season event in the capital. We’ll be back next year, in an even bigger venue. And I am making rapid progress on the first Paul Wells Road Show, in Vancouver in March. More details soon.
Here’s some of how last Saturday’s Holiday Show went. Click on any of Blair Gable’s excellent photos to see a larger version.
The Studio at the NAC seats 300 people in a sharply-raked amphitheatre that allowed everyone to sit huddled around the stage. I loved the reception afterward, where I got to meet the audience, including some who took road trips to get there and some who were there for their third Holiday Show in a row.
I was, of course, hardly the evening’s only entertainment. We heard songs from three of Canada’s finest singers: Ottawa-based Juno winner Kellylee Evans, Montreal-based three-time Juno winner Caity Gyorgy, and Toronto-based Juno winner and Grammy nominee Laila Biali. (Kellylee has her own Winter Song concert, another NAC holiday tradition, next week. Information and tickets are here. It’s always a wonderful evening out.) At the end of the night, all three singers joined forces on Laila’s arrangement of “Joy to the World.”
You won’t hear any of that on the podcast, because copyright is tricky. But there’s still more than an hour of highlights to hear, because there was a lot of talking too. I invited my friends Vassy Kapelos from CTV, David Herle from The Curse of Politics and Brian Lilley from the Toronto Sun for an extended super-panel.
And Bob Rae, fresh from his five-year posting as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, came to share his thoughts on the world, the neighbours, and the future. (And a song.)
I want to thank my sponsors, who understand why community, conversation and creation are worth supporting. Cameco is a great success story for Canada and for their home province of Saskatchewan. They’ve had a tremendous year and I was proud to have them as my Presenting Sponsor. I’m also grateful to our Gold Sponsor, Netflix, and to our Sponsor The Canadian Bankers Association.
Thanks always to my subscribers. We had quite a year together. Thank you for your support and your interest. Consider giving gift subscriptions to Paul Wells to your loved ones; just click here. Tell your friends and family when you read or hear something interesting here; the best way you can help me is to spread the word about what we’re building here.
I’ll write here a few more times before year’s end, but in case I forget later, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
