Exclusive Interview: Christmas Treats from Brent Butt and Corner Gas Animated

 

 

It is shaping up to be one of the loneliest December’s in Canada. Multiple provinces have restricted gatherings outside of the home, limiting the holidays to those who live in your household. 2020 has already been a rough year for most of us, and it is not the way the nation intended on concluding it.

Thankfully, one of the greatest comedic talents in the great white north has found a couple of unique ways to help spread some joy.

Just recently, Butt released his first-ever studio single in collaboration with Craig Northey of The Odds. “Everyone Can Sing at Christmas” is a comedic number with all the classic Corner Gas humour that we love. The song is available anywhere that you stream your music, and an original animated video can be found on YouTube.

Additionally, Corner Gas Animated is wrapping up its third season next week with a special Christmas-themed episode. It is the show’s first take on the holidays and bound to be one of the most exciting moments in an already stand-out season.

Brent Butt gave us a call to spread the holiday cheer and answer some of our questions about his new projects and the special new episode. Here is what he had to say:

 

Jesse Bereta: How has your lock-down been? It has been pretty bad here in Alberta, so I’m not sure how bad things are in BC?

Brent Butt: Yeah, the numbers are rising. They were going down for a while and then they started rising again. We’re in a new stage of lock-down – I don’t even know what you would call it? Mandatory masks and that kind of thing.

JB: How have you been spending your time?

BB: We’ve been in production of the latest season of Corner Gas Animated. So there was that, and the promotion of that. And then I wrote a novel. I decided – I always wanted to write a novel and I thought if I don’t do it during a lock-down, when am I going to do it? So, I took the time and banged out my first novel.

JB: Excellent. Are we looking forward to a release of that?

BB: I hope so. I mean, I’m sure it will be released in some form. It is being read by literary agents right now in New York. And then I’m kind of starting at the top and working my way down. It might just be me photocopying it and selling it on the streets. At some point, it will come out in some form.

JB: We’re talking right before the Christmas-themed season finale. It has already been a pretty stand-out season for Corner Gas Animated. There have been lots of ambitious episodes like “Fat and the Furious” and “Dog River Days”. There has also been lots of new settings and scenery and stuff. Do you have any favourite moments of the season so far?

BB: It’s hard to say. You bring up “Fat and the Furious”. I got to work with Andrea Martin in that one. She has always been a kind of comedy hero of mine. I grew up a big fan of SCTV. So, being in the studio with her, watching her sing a song that I wrote – like a jingle for a commercial that I wrote – was pretty thrilling. And that is a very fun episode. Like you said, there is a lot going on in that episode, pretty ambitious from an animation stand-point.

JB: Andrea Martin’s cameo was stellar – I have to say.

BB: Yeah. She is fantastic to work with too.

JB: I also wanted to ask you about the episode titles themselves. You always have these spot-on puns, they always fit the episode so well. It must be one of the hardest parts of the writing duties. Where do these episode titles come from, and do they go through a lot of changes?

BB: No, actually it is a funny thing that we do. We have been writing Corner Gas stories so long now that it is hard to pull storylines out of the ether. So, something we started doing a long time ago was: we’ll come up with a title first. Before we have any story ideas, we will come up with a title. We’ll come up with some play-on-words like “Fat and the Furious” – that was just a play on the Fast and the Furious.  So, we come up with the title first and then we say “okay, if that were the title, what would be some storylines that would justify that?” It focuses your mind so you’re not trying to pull stories out of the ether. You are trying to create a story that will fit a specific parameter. It can really help focus. That’s why the titles fit so well because we come up with a title and fit the storylines to it.  I recommend it highly to anyone who is going to write a lot of stuff and you are trying to pull ideas out of thin air. Give yourself some parameters by coming up with a title first. That really focuses your mind.  There is an old saying in stand-up. If somebody says, “write a joke,” that’s hard. If someone says, “write a joke about a pickle,” that’s easy.

JB: That’s pretty interesting, I’m glad I asked that. You just released your first single – and it’s a great comedy song. But music is not really your shtick, you haven’t released anything before. So, how did that come about?

BB: Well, it sort of came about from Virginia (Thompson), my production partner, who said: “you know, you and Craig Northey should do an album together and we’ll release it before Christmas.” This was like, late-October. “Really, you think we are going to put an album together and record it and release it before Christmas?” I said, “that’s a little ambitious”. But I did have an idea for a Christmas song called “Everyone Can Sing at Christmas”. I had some funny lyrics, I told Craig about them. He put some music behind it, so I came up with more lyrics. Next thing you know he got his band The Odds to play on it. He got these fantastic musicians from Ontario to join in. Next thing you know we are in the studio recording like a rock star.

JB: And you have worked with Craig Northey for quite some time. He wrote the theme song for Corner Gas and stuff. Are you guys old friends or just brought together through these circumstances?

BB: Brought together through our mutual friendships with Kids in the Hall. I used to do some stuff with Kids in the Hall. I used to be a studio warm-up act for them when I lived in Toronto and they were taping their shows in Toronto. When they would record live, I would sometimes be their opening act guy and I was in a couple of sketches on their show. So, I knew Kids in the Hall. And Kids in the Hall knew and were fans of, The Odds. So, when the Kids in the Hall came out here – they were doing a live run of shows – they were playing the Vogue Theatre here. And I had only just moved to Vancouver and wasn’t here for very long before that. Anyway, they called me up and said “we understand you moved to Vancouver. We are coming out there to do a live show. Would you open the show for us at the Vogue?” So, I did, and The Odds had come down to see them and meet them. They were fans of each other like the Kids were fans of the Odds, and The Odds were fans of the Kids. This was going to be their meeting. That’s where we met, we all met in the green room at the Vogue, hanging out and shooting the breeze. And Craig’s such a great guy, we hit it off and became kind of chummy. I always said to him, “if I ever get to do anything, I would love to have you do the music for it.” So, when Corner Gas came along I called him up and said, “remember when I told you if I ever get to do anything you could do the music? I need a theme song for a sitcom.”  

JB: With this new track out, can we expect even more music from you and Craig Northey?

BB: I wouldn’t say expect it. It might happen. I like to play music. I play guitar, I used to be in a band when I was in high school. I’m very on the low-end of mediocre in terms of my musical ability. But I have always written songs. I like the idea of writing a song and getting in the hands of an actual musician. So, Craig and I have talked about him helping me put together some songs that I have written with the idea of them then being sold to somebody. But, you know, if I have another funny idea for another comedy song, I wouldn’t mind putting it out myself. I do love to sing. It doesn’t matter if I can or not. I have always looked at things like that. I play hockey, I’m no good at it, and I love it. I play poker, I’m no good at it, and I love that. So, singing is one of those things. I love to belt it out even if I can’t carry a tune very long.

JB: You mentioned you played in a band in high school. Was that the inspiration for Thunderface this season?

BB: Kind of. Thunderface made an appearance in the live-action series. That’s where we first started Thunderface. In that episode, Thunderface is doing a cover of a fictional song of a fictional band called Fast Exit. Fast Exit was the name of my band in high school. So, in my little alternate universe – my alternate Corner Gas universe – my band in high school became such a big hit that other bands were covering our tunes. But my real band in high school was called Fast Exit. Well, there was Fast Exit and there was Main Street – two different bands. Anyway, when we were putting the music episode together, we came up with the name Thunderface. Just thought it would be fun to have Thunderface covering a Fast Exit song.

JB: It’s a good name, it was a funny episode, for sure. Monday is the season finale. The show’s first Christmas special. Usually, Corner Gas releases in Spring, did it take some shuffling around to make sure this lined-up with the holidays?

BB: Yeah, we went into it thinking that we were going to do a Christmas episode this year. So, all the people who handle the logistics and the planning, and Smiley Guy Studios, who do the animation for the show – you backwards engineer it. We say, “okay we want to do this episode so that it is timed out for Christmas” and you backwards engineer everything else.

JB: Does the episode take any inspiration from other Christmas specials. Or do you have any personal favourite specials that you like to watch around the holidays?

BB: All of the classics. I love watching the Charlie Brown Christmas show and all the animation shows. The Rudolphs and the Frosty’s, all those kinds of things. All your classics. I do live the movie The Christmas Story, that’s probably my favourite of the movies.  

JB: Of course, with season three wrapping up the big question is if there are plans for a season four? If there is anything put together yet?

BB: Well, we always start preparing in hopes that we get an order for season four. The writing team and I have been working on putting stories together. Then you just cross your fingers and hope that season four order comes down the pipe. But we have such a short turn-around from when we do get a green light to when we have to start airing, we have to invest in doing some things ahead of time. So, that’s what we are doing.

JB: And, has Covid caused any problems for that?

BB: It has changed how we do things. Luckily, animation really lends itself to people going off and doing their bits and chunks. But we used to get all the actors in the same studio. All the actors that live in Vancouver – there are five of us – we would get into the same studio. And the three actors who live in Ontario, they would get together in a studio in Toronto at the same time. So, it’s very social and we are seeing each other and we’re acting in real-time with each other. More so now, we are in different rooms. Here in Vancouver, the studio we record at – there is studio A and studio B. So, Fred can go into studio B. Nancy and I, because we live together, we can go into studio A. Then we have three people recording in real-time. And we can be patched in with Toronto. We can have two actors in two separate studios in Toronto. So, we can get the bulk of us still doing it in real-time. It’s just we are not in the same room with each other and we miss that.

 

Corner Gas Animated season three finale Christmas special airs on Monday, December 14th on CTV Comedy.

“Everyone Can Sing at Christmas” is available for download anywhere you stream your music.