Open mic night brings funeral home to life
HALIFAX — There’s something about the energy inside a funeral home that makes you want to whisper.
But on the third Wednesday night of every month at the Cruikshank’s Funeral Home on Windsor Street in Halifax, that sad quietness is erased by something entirely different: people gathering their courage to share their talent – mostly musical – with strangers.
“On that night, the air in there is charged. People are very happy to be a part of it,” said Caroline McQuillan, family service counsellor at Cruikshank’s. “This building’s role during the day is just so different from the vibe that’s here on the last Wednesday of the month.”
This novel idea — an open mic night at a funeral home? — occurred to McQuillan during her job interview.
“As soon as I walked through the building with my boss at the time, I was just kind of grabbed by the acoustics in the room,” said McQuillan who started at Cruikshank’s as a family service counsellor in May 2020. “I’m a musician and I’ve always done open mics around the city and COVID had happened and we were really missing that togetherness, that social aspect of musicianship.”
The room is large enough to socially distance, so she took the idea to her prospective boss — when she was still in the interview stage of getting the job — and he laughed.
“And then he said you want to bring the community together, sure, let’s do it.”
She said from her research, she doesn’t think it’s ever been done, at least locally.
HOST RECRUITED
It took some months to put together and McQuillan recruited Noah Tye, local musician and experienced open mic host to get on board.
“I thought it was pretty weird for sure but I’m pretty weird,” he said.
Tye has been hosting open mics around the city for many years. He said he has hosted events featuring Mo Kenny, Amelia Curran and Ria Mae who were all cutting their teeth with live audiences at open mic shows, which is invaluable experience, he said.
“It takes a while to be great in front of people.”
Pre-pandemic, there were open mic nights all over Halifax and every day of the week, and while they’re slowly returning to normal, this was a unique opportunity, McQuillan said.
Before signing off on it, Tye said he needed to check the sound and the vibe in the room. After a walkthrough, he was sold.
The first show was in June 2021 (masked and socially distant), and it’s been going strong ever since.
“I was really floored to see that we had such a good turnout on such a strange event,” McQuillan said.
‘READY TO BLOW UP A BIT’
More than 20 people sign up every month, most of them musicians with a few spoken word poets thrown in.
“I just sense it’s ready to blow up a bit,” Tye said.
This unique event has been getting attention: Lindsay Kyte wrote a play based on the idea called Open Casket, Open Mic and it was a punchline in a recent episode of 22 Minutes.
And it looks like it might be expanding to another funeral home as McQuillan said a sister location in Sydney is exploring the idea as well.
This kind of setting tends to draw the more experienced and perhaps braver performers, Tye said, because unlike the usual bar atmosphere, people aren’t drinking and talking during the performances — they’re completely focused on the stage.
“That’s pressure times 10, right?” he said.
But that pressure doesn’t stop some people, experienced or not. McQuillan said since it’s a free, all-ages, dry event, they've had performers as young as six.
“It’s such a welcoming room,” McQuillan said. “We have a six-year-old, she’s our youngest performer. She makes up her own songs, usually in the car on the way over — no fear, none.”
It’s also refreshing for some people who are recovering from addiction and don’t want to be around alcohol, Tye added.
‘GOOD VIBES’
Tye opens each show and he said it feels like a house concert.
“It’s just a nice-sounding room and you feel good,” he said. “It’s just good vibes and that’s all I’m ever looking for at everything I’m a part of, just good vibes.”
Halifax is richly blessed with musical talent, Tye said, which is often taken for granted.
“This is kind of a return to seeing how many musicians are in the city and a little bit of reverence for what we’ve going on, even at an open mic level.”
And amazingly enough, there is also some crossover between the funeral home's dual functions, McQuillan said.
“One of our first performers was somebody who had said goodbye to her mom here,” McQuillan said.
“She said it’s really nice to walk or drive by and not just see the place where she said goodbye to her mom, but where she got up on the stage to sing and remember her.”
The first open mic night, or “Cruikshank’s Unplugged” according to their Facebook page, of 2023 is happening next week.
The show is around three hours long and McQuillan said nobody ever seems to want to leave at the end.
“Everybody really enjoys being a part of it,” she said. “They feel like they’re a part of something really different and special.”