James Back Home and back on the air with new special

The town of Pictou is memorable for Canadian comedian Ron James, but not necessarily for the reasons one would hope.
James' Full Tilt tour of Atlantic Canada last month included a stop at Pictou's deCoste Centre, where he took the stage for his unique brand of performance-driven, physical and satirical comedy. But James says it a while before the Pictou audience warmed up to him.
"They had to be slapped into shape. They were reticent Presbyterians that night," James said in a recent interview with The News.
The night before, James had played to his hometown crowd at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay.
"The roof just lifted off the Savoy, and then you get into precious little Pictou country and (I thought) 'Oh, sorry, I didn't know you guys were closer to God than the rest of us.'"
Since his tour of Atlantic Canada ended in late November, James has been busy preparing a new comedy special to air Dec. 31 on CBC. Back Home was filmed at Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax in front of a live audience. For a full hour, James, in his distinct comedic voice, reflects on life on the east coast.
"The audience was electric," said James of the Halifax show.
James is his energetic self in this new special, but with one noticeable difference. It seems every time he comes home, his Maritime accent comes roaring back.
"I slipped into the vernacular of home," said the comedian, who now lives in Toronto.
"(In the new special,) boy oh boy, it sounds like I was in a dory lifting the lobster traps."
This isn't James' first comedy special - he has also starred in Up & Down In Shakey Town, The Road Between My Ears, Quest for the West and West Coast Wild. It is his first special filmed in Nova Scotia, however.
"I always put pressure on myself when I come home because I want it to be right," James said. " I want to honour the right subjects in the language of satire without alienating the room."
James has always been known as a "Maritime comedian." But as his career climbed to new heights, he developed the persona of a "wide-eyed Celtic wanderer" trying to find comedic mileage in different regions of the country.
He admits there was a time he wondered how Maritime audiences would react to his homecoming, now that he's living in the city.
"I'm very proud I've evolved into a comedian with a national perspective, who lives in Toronto and happens to be from the East," James said. "I was trepidacious a bit that it would seem to people who've been following my work that I took a step backwards (by leaving), but really I didn't. I rediscovered my home again for the first time."