Fringe favourite Chris Gibbs is returning to Halifax this weekend with his long-running solo comedy Not Quite Sherlock, performing as part of the 2025 Halifax Fringe Festival.
The one-man show opens Thursday, Aug. 28, and runs through Sept. 6.
“I’m coming to Halifax for the Fringe with a show called Not Quite Sherlock,” said Gibbs. “I’m British, but I live in Toronto.”
Set in London during the final years of the 19th century, Not Quite Sherlock is a comedic play about Barnaby Gibbs — “a man made almost entirely of shortcomings” — who becomes the unlikely partner of the brilliant detective Antoine Feval. The story explores the mystery of why such a genius would choose to work with someone so seemingly incompetent.
“In all their investigations together, there is one mystery that has never been solved: why would a brilliant man like Feval choose to work with a bumbling fool like Gibbs?” he said.
Gibbs brings 35 years of comedy experience to the stage. “I started out as a street performer in Covent Garden in London. “I’ve been touring fringe festivals since 1996, including a trip to the 2002 Atlantic Fringe, which was what the fringe in Halifax was called back then,” he said.
He’s no stranger to Halifax audiences. In 2002, Gibbs brought his first solo show, Gibberish, to what was then known as the Atlantic Fringe Festival. Since then, he’s created about 10 one-man shows and performed at fringe festivals across Canada and beyond.
“This particular show, I’ve been touring since 2005,” said Gibbs. “It was first performed at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, where it won Best of Fest.”
Not Quite Sherlock went on to sell out its Toronto Fringe run in 2006 and won the Just For Laughs Best Comedy Award at the 2009 Montreal Fringe before being invited to the Just For Laughs Festival proper. It has also been presented at festivals and venues across North America, including the High Performance Rodeo in Calgary, the Revolutions Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the Victoria Playhouse in P.E.I.
In addition to his stage work, Gibbs has earned two Canadian Comedy Awards — one for Best Improv Troupe with The Carnegie Hall Show, and another for Best Comedic Play with Plan “Live” From Outer Space. He’s also appeared on television in Murdoch Mysteries, Mayday, and The Boys, and played one of the evil giants in Steven Spielberg’s The BFG.
“It is great to be coming back to Halifax to perform,” said Gibbs. “The city has changed so much, and it feels great to perform in a city that is so rich in the arts.”
This article appears in Aug 1-31, 2025.