Team Submarine's Nate Fernald and Steve O'Brien skipped out of Chicago for a few days and did their comedy magic at the Montreal "Just For Laughs" Comedy Festival a little while back. Nate checked in with the Bastion and gave us some scoop on their recent performances in Canadia. Canadaland. Quebekiastan. Whatever the hell country Montreal is in. Following is Nate's account of Team Submarine's Montreal escapades.

Let me just state that our much-talked-about Montreal spot isn't nearly as important or legitimate as one might think. We basically in through the festival's back door after a few mere coincidences. Or we are being set up to be the punch line of some huge joke by a much higher power (Ashton?)

Here's how it went down:

We were doing a brief set at the Lakeshore Theater's Saturday night variety show (the "Spectacular Hour of Wonderment" as some call it). It was probably close to 1:00 AM and the entire audience was drunk. So, we tried out some new material and thought nothing of it. But it just so happened that Paul Provenza (director of the Aristocrats and Kumail Nanjiani's show Unprounceable) was in the audience. He seemed to take a shine to us and invited us to come to Montreal. The festival line-up had already been booked months in advance, so he got us an opening slot at the show he was hosting. So, we hopped a plane to Canada with very little money and nowhere to stay. The Green Room (Paul's show) is set up sort of like a talk show, where acts from the festival sit on a couch and talk about whatever they want with Paul. It's very relaxed and (intentionally) unpolished. They tape the show, and will later air it somewhere in Canada. We went on as the warm-up act for a show that had three of the Kids In The Hall and Bob and David. During out set, they taped the audience. When the show goes to air and it cuts to the audience laughing (uproariously, mind you) at [insert famous comedians who were on show here], they are actually laughing at us. Which I realize must make me sound entirely crazy.

We then spent the next the next three days seeing shows, getting kicked out of backstage areas, stealing grapes that were intended to be eaten by Damon Wayans, and trying not to make it too obvious to the locals that we didn't speak French.

Not to downplay the entire experience though, because we had an amazing time. We even got to eat gross hamburgers with Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald. And Paul Provenza was incredibly awesome to us. He got us in to see all the shows we wanted to see, bought us drinks, meals, and cab rides.

Highlights of the festival:
-Kids In The Hall reunion show
-Bob and David (hosting a sketch showcase)
-Finding a Street Fighter II machine with nine free-plays on it and beating some snotty French guy
-Andy Kindler
-Zach Galifianakis
-The music video for Pet Shop Boys "Go West"
-Watching a clip of Eddie Izzard's new show on Eddie Izzard's iPhone

As far as what we hope this might do for us, it got our name out there. So maybe in one of the upcoming years we can actually be legitimate performers at the festival. And maybe one day I can get my own show "The Mind of Nate Fernald" and Steve can finally release that "Tourgasm" CD he's always dreamed of (have you seen Steve's impression of a loud snake? It's amazing).

We're not heroes or anything - we just got lucky. We'll just keep going about our business and continue to do what we do and hope something like this happens again. It was a pretty incredible experience and we're really grateful for it.

Also, I'd like to give a shout out to TJ Jagodowski, who let us take naps in his hotel room when we couldn't get a room in the local hostel. He's quite possibly the nicest guy in the world.

- Elizabeth McQuern