The Comedy Couch - Tara Spencer-Nairn Interview

GUY MACPHERSON: My good friend Tara.
TARA SPENCER-NAIRN: My good friend Guy.

GM: I'm gonna use that.
TSN: Guy!

GM: You're from Vancouver, aren't you?
TSN: I am originally from Vancouver. I'm a bit of a
transplant. I used to live in California, but now I do
Vancouver and Toronto and Regina. I cheer for the
Canucks. I have an apartment in Toronto, but I'm not
very good in cold weather.

GM: Where did you grow up?
TSN: I grew up in Vancouver.

GM: Ah.
TSN: That's all you wanted. I was giving you the
roundabout. I'm a west coast kid.

GM: I'm from Vancouver.
TSN: There you go. Now we're really good friends.

GM: You are the person who said the funniest line in
season one, in my opinion.
TSN: The surveillance bush?

GM: Close.
TSN: My best friend Jennifer?

GM: Nope. It was kind of a quiet line, but I love it.
And I have all the shows on tape, by the way.
TSN: Me, too! What's the funniest line?

GM: "Wow! Sparrows can do 40!"
TSN: (laughs) Do you think they can?

GM: I don't think so.
TSN: Yeah, me neither. That's so funny. It's the lines
where you really have to pay attention, make sure
you're not laughing too loud or you'll miss them.
Those little lines.

GM: And it's interesting: with no laugh track or
audience, people will either see the show and love it,
get it; other people will go, 'ah, it's boring. Change
it. Canadian.'
TSN: I looked on this chat line and there were these
two kids who didn't like it, but other than that most
people are really gravitating to it.

GM: The reputation of Canadian comedy, right...
TSN: Canadian television.

GM: But when you signed up, or auditioned -- I assumed
you auditioned.
TSN: Oh no. Things just get offered to me.

GM: You must have thought, 'Okay, Canadian sitcom.'
TSN: I was so scared.

GM: Either it's gonna last three weeks and no one's
going to watch it, or conversely in Canada, it's going
to last 15 years ... and no one's going to watch it.
TSN: Exactly.

GM: But this is incredible.
TSN: Honestly, I was really scared. Because five years
ago I had an idea of where my career was going to go
and how things were going to be and this and this. But
things don't always turn out the way you think they
do. I mean, eventually they will. I was really scared
when I booked this. I mean, I was excited. I knew I
liked the writing. I mean, I loved the writing because
when I went into my audition it was so easy to learn
the dialogue. It just happened like that, which to me
is a sign of good writing. I liked the people that
were involved. I'd met Brent. Really liked him. But at
the same time, I was still scared, going, 'This is
Canada: Even if it's good, no one watches it. And if
it's bad no one watches. This could be it.' I knew it
was good as soon as we all got to Regina and sat down
and did the first table read. And I knew it was going
to be a great show. Because they hired every single
character. Do you know what I mean?

GM: No.
TSN: They hired the right person. They didn't cop out
and try to hire a Canadian name, whoever that is. They
hired the right person for the job.

GM: Great acting chops, and great attention to detail.
TSN: That's Brent.

GM: It's the Gilligan's Island of the new generation.
TSN: (stiffly) Um, okay, it was very nice meeting
you... No, everything came together perfectly. It's
amazing how it's just right.

GM: You're playing a cop, which is against type, I
would imagine.
TSN: Total irony.

GM: Why? Have you been arrested?
TSN: No. Well, I did get a ticket once for drinking in
the park. But if you go back to my friends in high
school...

GM: Where did you go?
TSN: I went to a couple. I got kicked out of a few
(laughs). I graduated from Shawnigan Lake, but I got
kicked out of Crofton House.

GM: For drinking?
TSN: No, I got kicked out of Crofton for many reasons.
I had a bit of an attitude problem.

GM: But that's all changed.
TSN: Oh yeah! I've learned how to conform.

GM: But you were saying about your friends from high
school.
TSN: Yeah, I probably would have been voted Most
Likely to Be in the Back of a Police Car. So it is a
bit of an irony.

GM: It's good that you get this chance to--
TSN: I love the character. I love the character.

GM: The writers seem to give all the characters equal
time.
TSN: Which is great. Which is probably why we don't
have a lot of guest stars, either. But it keeps it an
interesting story, because there are eight lead
characters to focus on with such different lives. And
because it's such a small town, their lives are
intertwined. So I think it keeps it fresh; it keeps it
interesting.

GM: You live in Regina for part of the year.
TSN: Mm-hmm.

GM: For how many months?
TSN: Four months. You know, I don't mind it. At first,
I was like, 'Ugh, how am I going to do it?' But there
are a lot of things I'm really learning to appreciate.
Living in two different big cities, you learn how to
run away a lot. Like, 'Oh, things aren't going well.
I'll just hop on a plane and go to the next.' It's
easy to distract yourself. Here, it's sort of, I'm
here, I'm working, I can't really take off so I just
enjoy the peace, the quiet and the nice pace.

GM: In the show, you usually have your hair back
TSN: I never get recognized. When I was just in
Vancouver over hiatus, I was at a friend's baby
shower. And there was this girl there that I'd never
met. She's like, 'Oh, so-and-so was saying that you're
part of that show Corner Gas. What do you do on it?
Are you a writer?' I was like, 'No, I play the cop.'
She was like, 'Really?' I like it, though.

GM: That's good. You get the best of both worlds.
TSN: You know what? It's a good thing. At first you're
like, 'I wanna be recognized!' But then afterwards,
like when I see Brent trying to go for dinner in the
city, I'm like, 'You know what? I'm pretty happy.'

GM: And then you can also get people's real opinions:
"Hey, you ever watch that show Corner Gas?" "Yeah, it
sucks!"
TSN: "Yeah, I know nothing about that show. Never seen
it; just heard about it."

GM: Do you have a favourite scene or moment from last
season?
TSN: My favourite episode was the episode with Karen
and Hank going fishing. I mean, we just had such a
great time. It was such a blast. It was actually a
brutal shooting day because we were down by the water
and it was about 35 degrees and there were little
aphids everywhere. Literally you were eating them.
Just dripping in sweat and eating them. But we just
had such a great time.

GM: When you read the original scripts... I imagine
you've read scripts before and have been hired on. You
think the script is pretty good then it turns out to
be awful.
TSN: It's pretty hard, because you can read a
script... I mean, I'm a pretty bad judge. I can read a
script and go, 'That wasn't that bad.' But it's so
hard to tell because there are so many different
elements that come together when you shoot it. And
that's why I think Corner Gas is so successful,
because the chain is so strong. There's not one weak
link as far as writing, acting, directing, wardrobe.
We have one of the greatest crews. I mean, hair and
make-up. Everything came together.

GM: But if there were one weak link, who would that
be?
TSN: (pouty) Me.

GM: Which cast member is expendable?
TSN: It might be Brent, actually. I think Brent. Yeah,
definitely. (laughs) Or, you know, you don't really
need two cops in a small town. I could easily get the
old ppppt.

GM: How long can this thing last?
TSN: I don't know.

GM: And would you want to be a part of it?
TSN: Of course.

GM: You said you had ideas about where your career and
life would be.
TSN: I'm having a great time. It's a lot of fun. You
know what the nicest thing I've heard about the show
is? Someone in Regina was telling me, someone my age,
said he actually tapes the show and then on the
weekends goes and watches it with his parents because
they love the show. They watch it together. That's
pretty cool.

GM: It appeals to all.
TSN: And it's nice that families can watch it
together. What a wonderful thing to come out of that.

GM: Like Brent's standup -- I don't know if you've
ever seen it.
TSN: I have seen it. It's all right. I don't know what
everyone's so big on Brent for.

GM: It appeals to everyone. He doesn't alienate
anyone.
TSN: He's not dirty, he doesn't swear, he doesn't do
dirty jokes. He's very clean but he's very funny and
very creative. And I think that's a bigger challenge.

GM: The biggest shock is seeing a Canadian series not
set in the 1800s.
TSN: We were thinking of doing maybe a musical
episode, like the Simpsons. But you're not going to
catch me singing anywhere. I lip synch the national anthem.