Jack McPartlin

 Jack McPartlin, for almost 30 years the capital’s top-drawing lounge entertainer, ran into a situation he couldn’t wisecrack his way out of: cancer. He died at his home in Iroquois. He was 62.

His act was to sit at the keyboard of an organ and occasionally play music but mainly keep up a running banter with his audience. He could, at a whim, switch from charming to irritatingly funny, and seemed to prefer the latter.

One of the ways he rated his success when entertaining a dinner crowd was by the number of buns and bread rolls thrown at him. His longest run in one spot was during the ’70s at the Château Laurier, when he held nightly court in the Colonel By Lounge in the southeast corner, lower level. Never short of political opinions, he often referred to the place as “The House of Comments.”

Source: The News Harp, March 2001