Career driven since kindergarten, Peter did his first stand-up act in front of his grade 4 class - he solidified his stage ambitions with a plum role in his high school's version of "Grease". ("I can't sing," he explains, "but the music was really loud.") In the mid 1980s, he enrolled at the University of British Columbia, taking a mix of psychology anddrama classes. But schooling started to slip when he heard about a lunch hour amateur contest sponsored by Punchlines Comedy Club. "I heard you could win five bucks, and I've never looked back." In fact, it was his firstpaying gig, and the "scrawny, hyper kid" soon developed a following. He made ends meet as a banquet waiter, kept at the stand-up, and excelled at improvisation in the Vancouver Theatresports company. All this led to his first appearance at Punchlines Comedy Club located in the Gastown district. "The experience at UBC paid off. I hit the stage with about 15 minutes of material already in my back pocket." He had his first headlining spot within a year (extremely fast by even stand-up standards) and eventually he opened for such comics as Howie Mandel and Dennis Miller. "I got my first agent, got a few small parts, and was dropped like a sack of hammers." The harsh realty of show biz realized.