The Comedy Couch - Eric Peterson Interview

GUY MACPHERSON: I hear that you're the winner of four Geminis and
a Dora. And I want to know, what is a Dora?
ERIC PETERSON: It's a theatre award.

GM: It sounds impressive, but I didn't know what it
was.
EP: And I should have more. It's one of my
disappointments. I've done so much theatre and I only
have one Dora.

GM: What's the problem there?
EP: It's always been the years that I actually did
good work, somebody else did some good work, too.
(chuckles) You know, none of these things happen just
on their own. You're being judged in comparison to the
year's work.

GM: You've done mostly theatre in your career?
EP: No. I mean, I've done a lot of theatre in my
career. And I started doing theatre. And I continue to
do theatre when I can.

GM: Have you done much comedy?
EP: In theatre I have. But on TV, no.

GM: So is this the first?
EP: This is pretty well the first. I mean, I think it
is, yeah.

GM: You are my favourite character on the show.
EP: Why? Because he reminds you of your dad?

GM: No. Not at all. Just because I think the character
would be so easy to go over the top with, but you
don't. You come up to that line and you're just...
perfect. Is it hard to not be too big with somebody
like this, a grumpy old guy?
EP: Well, I don't think of it in those terms. I kind
of leave whether I'm being too big to a director
going, 'You want to pull it back a bit?' (chuckles) I
just find it... I feel like I know this guy because
he's like my dad. My dad wasn't angry all the time, by
any means. And my dad wasn't like Oscar in many ways.
But my dad when he got mad... He had this thing where
he'd go, 'That's just stupid!' And as an actor, I just
kind of built it out from there. And then the other
thing is it's not me at all; it's Brent Butt. I mean,
these writers understand these characters, I think,
very well. So in many ways, I'm not doing, as an
actor, I don't think, very much. I'm just remembering
the lines. And at my age, this is a common actor
problem when you get to be 67 or older. I just find it
so well written that I don't feel I have to do much
other than do what they want me to say.

GM: I think you're being very modest. But I do
remember now that you mention your dad, my dad would
say, 'Dumb! That's just dumb.'
EP: Yeah. And I think, probably, I'm of the age, too,
that it may be that men don't age... It's hard to age
as a man and not become a grumpy old fart. (laughs) I
know myself, so I keep saying I'm doing my dad, but
probably I'm doing these aspects of myself that have
become very, kind of, to the fore. And I mean, there's
a lot about Oscar, too, that they've written. He's
quite infantile and really that's why people put up
with him. I think Emma puts up with him and his son
puts up with him because it's like having not an old
grumpy guy around so much as the tantrum of an
eight-year-old. There's no harm in him in particular.

GM: And there's such great attention to detail. For
instance (I point down at his velcroed runners).
EP: Oh, these are... absolutely. I've sat out on the
street here. I'm sitting in front of the hotel in my
costume and a guy comes up to me and says, 'There's a
house up for sale here. Do you know what the price
they're wanting for it?' I'm totally taken as a local.
I'm so flattered.

GM: As I pointed to those [his shoes], I thought, 'Oh
my God, what if they're his own shoes!'
EP: I've been tempted to buy some! (laughs) They're
damn handy to put on and off. And they're cheap as
anything. Once you get rid of the laces, the price is
halved. (laughs)

GM: When you talk about Canadian comedy acting series,
you think of... not many, for one thing. You think
either they last for three weeks and nobody watches
it, or they last 15 years... and nobody watches it!
EP: The Beachcombers. But it wasn't a comedy series,
was it?

GM: It kinda was. But now this show, you're pulling in
more than a million a week. It's unheard of.
EP: It totally surprised me. Totally surprised me.

GM: And yet you knew how good it was reading the
script.
EP: Yeah, I knew it was good, but again, working in
the context of Canadian television period, and it's
very hard for any Canadian show, it seems to me, to
get over a million. Back in the old Street Legal days,
we used to hit a million. But I haven't heard of those
figures... But what also surprised me was the first
show was over a million. This wasn't growing to
anything like this. It just seemed to come out of the
gate full-blown. Now, I know we gave away free gas in
Toronto (laughs), but I had no idea it would be quite
as effective as it turned out to be!

GM: I have a friend from Saskatchewan who has a
theory. You know how when the Roughies play in
Vancouver, all the Saskatchewan people, no matter how
many years they've lived out west, will go? So he was
saying that anyone in Saskatchewan and anyone who's
left Saskatchewan will watch it. There's a guaranteed
audience right there. You'll get a million every week
for the rest of the run.
EP: That would be nice. But the thing is, with those
ratings, you can't get a million unless the cities
watch. You can't get a million rating unless Toronto's
watching, Vancouver. I guess Montreal doesn't really
count in that little argument. I mean, you have to
have the cities watching. But it's a very interesting
point that he makes. Because I think in general -- I
will go out on a limb here -- in general, Canadians
suffer from a kind of thirst for their own product,
culturally, that they admire. I'll put that proviso on
it, too. And it's hard for a Canadian audience because
we've been trained by the Americans so much that it's
very hard to satisfy both those things with a Canadian
audience, I think. That is that they go, 'Well, this
is too good. This is really good.' And with this show,
they go 'This is good' because they're laughing out
loud at it. I watch the show and I actually laugh out
loud at it. Not at myself, but at the stuff in it. I
find myself, 'Ha! That's funny!', you know? And geez,
I hardly ever do that. So I think there's that element
of it. And the other thing has to do with not only
being in Saskatchewan. You could extrapolate that to a
larger level and as a Canadian you go, 'Yeah! We can
do it!' Or 'We have it. It's mine.' There's a special
connection to it in a country where it's very hard to
get that special connection. Our connection is usually
to an American show.

GM: It's amazing how this little town of 400, or
whatever it is, appeals to all the people in the
cities, as well as the people in the small towns.
EP: But that's because of the writing, too. There's
kind of a hip humour to this. There's a contemporary,
hip humour. When I watch it, I go, 'Yeah.' A guy my
age, or in my time, we wouldn't have done that. That
comedy that Brent is writing -- the word play, the
juxtaposing of stuff, as well as doing this kind of
traditional Canadiana -- that's all there, but they've
built on top of it this humour. And I think that's
what's really... And I say 'hip' humour, but it's a
sophisticated, contemporary humour that they have. And
it would play in America.And it would play in
Australia. And it would certainly play in England and
other English-speaking countries.

GM: Do you think it will?
EP: I have no idea. I have no idea. I mean, it depends
on what CTV has in mind for it. They don't ask me!
(laughs)

GM: It is universal, even though it's very specific.
EP: That's where universality comes from, isn't it?
That's the only way you find it. You can't be general.
That's not the same as being universal.

GM: Too many people try to be general, hoping...
EP: Well, once we went to the market, as a cultural
raison d'etre, as opposed to, 'We're a small country,
we have to subsidize our culture'. Once you go, 'Well,
we just have to sell it to the Americans', I mean, I
don't know how many projects I've been in that have
been set in some town in North America, which is not
Canada or Mexico. And with that kind of generality,
it's very hard to get something special.

GM: So how long do you think this thing can run?
EP: I have no idea. I go, 'I hope we do another year!'
(laughs) I don't dare even... I would like it to run
forever.

GM: And it could.
EP: I guess. But I just hope we keep getting another
season out of it.

GM: Did you do more episodes this year?
EP: We did 12 last year and we're doing 18 this year.

GM: How do you think they compare?
EP: I think they're still as wonderful and funny. I
was worried because a man of my limited imagination,
you go, 'Geez, how will they ever think up more plots
that are as funny as the ones we just did?' You know,
it's like Faulty Towers. I'm a huge fan of that. They
only did a specific number. And I understand that
because he did all the funny ones he could think of,
and why start doing mediocre ones? But I've found all
of these scripts this year just as funny.

GM: I've seen Brent's standup hundreds of times, and
he seems to have a limitless supply of ideas. And
anything is funny coming out of his mouth.
EP: He's a wonderful standup. And he's so wonderful in
the show because he keeps that persona that he does in
standup. He hasn't gone into any psychological... And
most of the time he's straight man. He's setting up
other jokes.

GM: But making fun of people in a quiet way.
EP: Yeah, yeah.

GM: Kind of Seinfeld-like in that he's really just
playing himself. He's not a trained actor. He's
reacting to the actors around him.
EP: I think he's been very smart in the way he's
played it.

GM: Did you have a favourite scene or moment from last
season?
EP: I have to admit I really liked when Oscar built
his own coffin. I thought it was a very funny set-up.
The scene that Janet and I did in the church and Oscar
goes in and goes 'You got ripped off, buddy.' And then
he gets so enthusiastic about building his coffin. He
gets it built, and then he sees it and realizes his
own mortality. And goes, 'Oh my God, what have I
done?' And then he makes a bookcase out of it. I just
thought it was a neat little... That was one of the
funniest ones.