Royal Canadian Air Farce
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| Royal Canadian Air Farce | |
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| Medium | Television, Radio, Theatre, Audio Recordings, Home Video |
| Nationality | Canada (7 members) |
| Years active | 1970- January 1, 2009 |
| Genres | Sketch comedy, Political satire |
| Notable works and roles | Royal Canadian Air Farce, radio (1973-1997), TV (1980-2007) Air Farce Live TV (2007-January 1, 2009) |
| Members | Roger Abbott Don Ferguson Luba Goy Jessica Holmes Craig Lauzon Alan Park Penelope Corrin See also: Cast history |
| Website | www.airfarce.com |
The Royal Canadian Air Farce is a comedy troupe best known for their radio and television shows broadcast in Canada by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Theatre revue and radio years
The group started in Montreal, Quebec in 1970 as an improvisational theatre revue called The Jest Society, a play on then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's famous goal of making Canada a "Just Society".
After a number of personnel changes, the group became "The Royal Canadian Air Farce" in 1973 with a lineup that consisted of Abbott, Ferguson, Goy, Morgan, Broadfoot and non-performing writers Gord Holtam and Rick Olsen. They debuted on CBC Radio that year, and quickly became one of the network's most popular programs. Based in Toronto, most of their shows were recorded in CBC's Cabbagetown Studios; however as the troupe became more popular, they frequently travelled throughout the country to record their weekly radio broadcasts, which featured a mixture of political and cultural satire.
Recurring characters included addle-brained hockey player Bobby Clobber (Broadfoot), Sgt. Renfrew of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Broadfoot), Mike from Canmore (Morgan), and socialite Amy De La Pompa (Morgan), along with political figures such as Brian Mulroney, Joe Clark and Pierre Trudeau. Additional characters included Prof. Hieronymus Wombat of the National Research Council, and funeral director Hector Baggley.
Another recurring character, making vacant-minded political comments, was the Honourable David J. Broadfoot, member of Parliament for Kicking Horse Pass, and leader of the New Apathetic Party. In a fall 1979 sketch, the troupe spoofed that year's election: the Liberals and New Democratic Party formed an alliance, as did the Progressive Conservatives and the Social Credit Party. Each won 132 seats in a 265 seat house. Broadfoot won the 265th seat. Asked by the media what he would do when the House of Commons met, Broadfoot said boldly, "I shall... abstain!!!"
Some popular sketches in the late 1980s and early 1990s included "joint broadcasts" by CTV and CBC, overlaying opening theme music. When The Journal debuted on CBC in 1982, Air Farce spoofed the program's repeated use of the "sounder", and the use of satellite to connect people to talk to one another (including husband in living room to wife in the kitchen), as well as the seeming similarity between original hosts Barbara Frum and Mary Lou Finlay.
[edit] Trying out TV
The Farce troupe recorded a one-hour television special in 1980, which evolved into a ten-week series and two sequel specials in addition to their regular radio series. The shows were essentially staged versions of the radio show, with many of the sketches performed in front of a live studio audience, the cast members reading from scripts rather than acting out the roles. Despite the decent ratings for the initial special, simply staging the radio sketches did not translate well on television.
In the early 1980s, Air Farce's summer radio hiatus periods were filled by another comedy troupe, The Frantics, who later moved on to their own TV series, Four on the Floor. Later summer hiatus periods, however, were filled by Ferguson and Abbott playing classic comedy recordings. In the late 1980s, CBC Radio launched another 30-minutes weekly political satire, Double Exposure. Though the programs were never in direct competition, some found the latter show fresher and edgier.
Broadfoot retired from the troupe in the late 1980s, although he continued to make guest appearances with Air Farce for many years afterward, on both radio and TV. Barbara Budd was also a frequent guest of the troupe, appearing in many radio episodes of the 1980s and early 1990s, although she was never an official cast member.
[edit] Success with TV
In 1992, Air Farce took a second plunge into television with 1992: Year of the Farce, a satirical New Year's Eve special. A ratings smash, the special led the troupe to produce another weekly television series, which debuted in 1993. However, this time the move to television was permanent. The radio series continued alongside the TV show for 4 seasons until May of 1997, when it was discontinued.
The practice of having a show on New Year's Eve continues to this day, and such episodes are typically titled "Year of the Farce". In recent years, Air Farce has also had the honour of counting down the seconds before the New Year on CBC.
Recurring characters on the TV series included the slow Albertan Mike from Canmore (Morgan) and angry Scot Jock McBile (Morgan), self-righteous movie critic Gilbert Smythe Bite-Me (Abbott), and chain-smoking bingo player Brenda (Goy). Though these characters would occasionally feature in skits of their own, usually they were used at the beginning of the show to deliver a stream of one liner jokes commentating on the news of that week.
The show also featured frequent skits with politicians, who were portrayed as various extreme caricatures of their most infamous personality quirks. Notable re-occurring figures included Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (Abbott), who could barely speak a single sentence of English without committing at least a dozen outlandish pronunciation and grammatical errors; the nasally-voiced Preston Manning (Ferguson) who loved to shout "REFOOOOOOORM!"; a screaming, bitchy Sheila Copps (Goy); the tyrannical Lucien Bouchard; the dopey and overly-image conscious Stockwell Day; the strutting, clucking, pompous Joe Clark; and the power-hungry Paul Martin (all Ferguson). Many of the real politicians also made guest appearances on the show, often interacting directly with their parodic counterparts.
However, Colonel "Teresa" Stacy (Ferguson) quickly emerged as the show's most popular character -- each time he appeared, Stacy would load up the Chicken Cannon and fire rubber chickens and other assorted projectiles at whomever he deemed the most annoying public figure of the week (or year).
The radio show was discontinued in 1997 in order for the troupe to concentrate on the successful TV series.
Morgan retired from Air Farce in 2001, and the remaining three members carried on with a rotating stable of guest stars until Holmes joined the show in 2003. Holmes added celebrity figures such as Paris Hilton and Liza Minnelli, and Canadian politicians such as Belinda Stronach, to the troupe's roster of characters.
Later, in 2005, after a lockout at CBC, Air Farce gained two new cast members, who had previously appeared on the show as recurring guest stars: Alan Park and Craig Lauzon. The addition of these two newcomers brought the total number of performers in the troupe to six.
Lauzon portrays current Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a robotic person.
While the show is held up as de facto Canadian tradition, some critics have felt that that the television show's quality has diminished over the past few seasons, especially since the breakdown of the original four-actor quartet. However, it still continues to draw solid ratings each week.
Often, when a character is required to say the word "fuck," they are (sometimes quite obviously) actually saying "pup."
On March 30, 2007, the Air Farce celebrated their 300th episode by doing the show on live television (except in Western Canada) for one hour. Roger Abbott and Luba Goy began the show with a brief history of the show, closing with "the scariest three words on television: AIR FARCE LIVE!".
After this experimental episode, CBC has announced that the 15th season of the series will be aired live for the entire season, with a name change to Air Farce Live. [1]
[edit] End of Weekly TV Show
On Tuesday, April 1, 2008 (Also known as April Fools Day) the CBC and Air Farce jointly announced that the Royal Canadian Air Farce would wrap up its weekly television show in the 2008/2009 season. The plan as announced is for nine new Air Farce shows to be produced for the fall of 2008, and then the series would end with a New Years Eve special.[2][3]
[edit] Cast history
[edit] Original members
- Roger Abbott (1973–present)
- Don Ferguson (1973–present)
- Luba Goy (1973–present)
- John Morgan (1973–2001) retired in 2001, died at the age of 74 on November 15, 2004
- Dave Broadfoot (1973–1988) retired in 1988, occasional "special guest" on the series, his appearances becoming less frequent over time, on both the radio and television shows
[edit] Additions
- Barbara Budd (1984-1991), frequent appearances as a "special guest" on the radio show
- Jessica Holmes (2003–present)
- Craig Lauzon (2004–present), supporting member during 2003, became full member in 2004
- Alan Park (2004–present), supporting member during 2003, became full member in 2004
- Penelope Corrin (2007–present), filled in during Holmes' maternity leave during the first two months of 2007, returned for the live season finale, joined cast for 2007/2008 season
[edit] Discography
The Air Farce released eight comedy albums during its radio days, all of which are available on the Air Farce website (1).
- The Air Farce Comedy Album (1978)
- Air Farce Live (album) (1983)
- The Air Farce Green Album (1990)
- To Air Is Human, To Farce Divine (1990)
- Farce On A Stick (1991)
- Year of the Farce (1991)
- Twenty Twenty (1993)
- Unplugged and Uncorked (1994)
[edit] Awards
Royal Canadian Air Farce has received the following awards and nominations:
- the Governor General's Performing Arts Award (1998)
- a star on Canada's Walk of Fame (2000)
- a Juno Award for comedy album of the year
- Don Ferguson and Roger Abbott were given a special Gemini Award for "Humanitarians of the Year"
- Maclean's Honour Roll of "Canadians Who Make a Difference"
- the Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement in Canadian Television
- nominated for thirteen Canadian Comedy Awards from 2000-2005, but have not won
[edit] See also
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