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It's a common mistake. After all, the comedian is responsible for warming up the crowds at Open Mike with Mike Bullard tapings and even stars in his own series titled The Warm-Up Show.
"To be hon-est, I'm not a 'warm-up act.' I did it in L.A. because it pays so well, but I found myself sort of struggling through," Tweedley explains of his gigs warming up Suddenly Susan and a talk show hosted by Mike Bullard's brother Pat.
"What those shows really like is a magician or a balloon maker, someone who can entertain you for four hours. I was just talking to the audience and goofing with them," Tweedley says.
"If I'm going into the crowd and getting big laughs, the cast and everyone don't want that. They get a little, like, 'We'll take care of the laughs, you do mediocre entertainment for a while."
After two seasons of providing above-mediocre entertainment for Open Mike crowds, producer Allen Mcgee flipped on the cameras and began recording Tweedley's pre-show interaction with audience members.
Tweedley tosses in some on-the-street comedy bits and behind-the-scenes hijinx from Open Mike, calls it The Warm-Up Show and j airs it Saturdays and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Open Mike with Mike Bullard airs weeknights at 11 p.m. on j and midnight on DE.
On the eve of Canada Day, Warm-Up salutes the people of our fair nation tonight at 9 p.m. with the one-hour special Mr. Tweedley Goes to Ottawa.
It's a season finale, of sorts, but more than a collection of clips from the season. More than a "Best of the Warm-Up Show." Not just another star-studded 29th episode anniversary spectacular.
"We could have done it around Toronto, but we're always around here. We thought 'Let's just drive to Ottawa and pretend that's where the big party is,' " explains Tweedley.
You can see him making friends with German tourists, posing for pictures with fans who are so excited they can't remember Tweedley's name and consoling a de-certified doctor. (It's hard to explain.)
For a grand finale, Tweedley presents the concerns of average citizens to Prime Minister Jean Cretien.
"I was full-on nervous," he admits.
"When I do the behind the scenes on the show, I'm always talking to big actors and stuff. Even people I admired as a kid, like Eric Idle, it just feels like par for the course to ask him a few questions. But I never thought about talking to a prime minister."
Mr. Tweedley Goes to Ottawa kicks off a 52-hour marathon of Canadian comedy on the station including Wayne and Shuster, Bizarre and The Royal Canadian Air Farce. It also showcases some of Comedy's own productions like Kevin Spencer, Supertown Challenge and The World Improv Championships.
"It's only recently come about that they've been able to put this kind of weekend together and I think it's a good one," Tweedley says. "If you isolate five or six shows, you go, 'Wow, they've got a nice little stable of TV shows all of a sudden.' "
Bullard makes regular appearances on The Warm-Up Show, usually questioning material written for his monologue or warning Tweedley to stop following him around with a camera.
"It's mostly an act, but he does the act so well it is intimidating," Tweedley says.
"He and I have been buddies for, like, 12 years so we fight probably four times a week. We do it because we like doing it."
It's a similar situation to Bullard's teasing of bandleader Orin Isaacs, which is all meant in good fun. Should things ever get out of hand, however, Open Mike now has a backup host on set.
"If Orin snapped and takes him out, I'm guessing Mike's going to be out of commission for a while. So, yeah, I'll step in," Tweedley says.
He is doing some stand-up gigs this summer, but couldn't say if Calgary may host a sequel to last year's Open Mike tour with Bullard and show writers Greg Eckler, Lawrence Morgenstern and Rob Ross.
"Mike wants to spend the summer in his backyard chilling out, so it's tough for us to drag him kicking and screaming to these gigs," Tweedley says.
Eventually, of course, Tweedley will become so popular, he'll have a warm-up guy doing the jokes that weren't good enough for The Warm-Up Show.
"Can you imagine? A warm-up to the warm-up," Tweedley chuckles. "And The After Show. The Warm-Up Show, The Pre-Warm-Up Show, The Get-Up in the Morning Show.
"We'll milk this thing until the end of time."