What is it about quirky Canadians in small towns that makes for a televised laugh riot?
Whether it’s Trailer Park Boys, Corner Gas, or now, Letterkenny — which is coming to Red Deer as a live stage show on Dec. 15 at the Centrium — Canadian audiences can’t seem to get enough off-the-wall, rural wackiness.
Nathan Dales, who plays dairy farmer Daryl in Letterkenny, thinks Canadians simply like fringe comedy. We need humour, he figures, to get us through our long winters.
For the uninitiated, his CraveTV show, now in its seventh season, can be described as an edgier version of Corner Gas. It’s about a bunch of misfits in Ontario, instead of Saskatchewan, who have occasional ”dust ups” with rivals and spend a lot of time playing cribbage or doing next to nothing.
“Canadians have an interesting sense of humour,” concludes Dales, who grew up on The Kids in the Hall and Trailer Park Boys.
Much like his character, Daryl, we like to ponder “the bigger stuff” in life — but we also have an appreciation for the plain silly.
The slower-paced, small-town setting of shows such as Letterkenny could present an antidote to our fast-paced urbanized lives, he suggests.
Wayne, Daryl, “Squirrely” Dan and the other characters who inhabit the fictional community of Letterkenny, have all kinds of time to hang out, throw a football around, and make the kind of “meaningful connections” that a lot of us can barely fit into our busy schedules anymore.
Dales says the show gets tons of great fan feedback on social media. People seem to really like the St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween specials, as well as certain episodes, including the one about the adult spelling bee — which happens to include a lot of Canadian musical references, from Alanis Morissette to Arcade Fire and Blue Rodeo.
The show created by Jared Keeso, who hails from Listowel, Ont., has won best writing and direction honours at the 2018 Canadian Screen Awards. Keeso and co-writer Jacob Tierney also took home a 2018 Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award for TV Comedy. The first two seasons of Letterkenny made their American debut this summer on Hulu.
Dales, a 33-year-old Calgarian, met fellow actor Keeso on the West Coast nearly a decade ago. They became fast friends through their collaboration on comedy videos.
The two, who now live in Toronto, will be joined for the live show in Red Deer by Letterkenny cast members K Trevor Wilson (Dan) and Mark Forward (Coach). The four plan to act out several new scenes in front of the produce stand, a usual hangout viewers will recognize.
As well, Wilson and Forward, who started out as stand-up comedians, will do some of their own sets.
Dales believes the 90-minute show, which will include original sketches and some video not seen on the first tour, will deliver just the right amount of quirk to suit local tastes.
Tickets are available from www.ticketsalberta.com.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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