Saskatchewan’s own Brent Butt will have the Border City in stitches soon when he brings his comedic chops to town. Butt has been making people laugh for years, especially when he scored one of Canada’s biggest television hits with Corner Gas.
The secret to his humour and his success is catching his audience off guard Butt said.
“Surprise is a big part of it. If the person hearing the joke doesn’t see it coming, that’s the essence of it,” said the Tisdale, SK native.
Butt honed his comedy at home and in school from an early age, and at the age of 20 he moved to the big city to pursue a career in stand up. On the stage, Butt said, is where he jammed his foot in the industry’s door. While he’s headlined the top clubs in Canada, toured internationally, created his own TV series and secured his reputation as one of the funniest people in the country, Butt said he feels most at home on stage.
“I always say stand up is the one thing that I would never quit, I could never walk away from it,” he said. “Stand up is kind of what I am and everything else is kind of what I do and enjoy. At the end of the day, I am a guy that gets up in front of people and tries to be funny.”
Butt is going to “try to be funny” and stand up in front of Lloydminster next week.
“It’s always nice, people are supportive,” said Butt of returning to Saskatchewan for shows. “But then at a certain point you have to be funny, you can only ride the ‘hey look what I did,’ for so long.”
And Butt has been busy. Following the success of Corner Gas – which was named ‘funniest show on TV’ by TV Guide readers, he is currently working on his new series for CTV, Hiccups, while he prepares for two new projects and takes on stand up gigs in between.
“I don’t go out and tour for long chunks of time anymore, too much production work going on,” he said.
With Hiccups, which teams Butt up with his wife Nancy Robertson once more, Butt is wearing multiple hats again as he steps in front of the camera as a life coach, writes, directs and produces the show. The new series focusses on a children’s author, Robertson, in need of anger management and according to Butt the response has been terrific.
“We didn’t know what to expect because we are up against the two shows that fight for the largest audience are on against each other and they are on against us – Dancing with the Stars and House. They take up so many viewers and there we are opposite of them,” said Butt, whose heroes in humour include characters from the ‘golden age of TV’ – The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy.
Despite the stiff competition, Butt is confident that Hiccups and comedy will prevail.
“Between House and Dancing with the Stars, neither of them are particularly funny. I mean, seeing Buzz Aldrin try not to throw a hip out is kind of funny but in a sick way,” he said with a chuckle. “And watching people die as a callous doctor makes fun of them is kind on funny, but Hiccups is an out and out comedy,” he said.
Working on TV, has Butt putting his nose to the grindstone. He said it requires tough time management, especially when you are taking on as many roles as he is.
“With it all being on the same project it is all kind of the same job for me. I look it as one job called ‘getting it done.’ You keep your head down and plough through, relying on and hiring talented people who can help you out,” he said.
When it comes to writing scripts and jokes, Butt said it’s simple – “try and think about what would be funny.” That’s it.
“Fortunately, ever since I was a kid, that’s kind of how my mind works. I try and process everything from a comedic angle first, now not everything works out that way, but that’s sort of the direction my mind takes. It’s just a matter of keeping your eyes and ears open,” Butt said, adding he is never without his notebook in the event he needs to jot down ideas for future laughs.
“Then there are always those moments when you just have to sit down and turn the clock on and say ‘I have to write something funny now for the next six hours and try to be funny.’ It’s a combination of the two.”
As folks continue to tune into Hiccups, Butt is preparing for his new comedy special which he will film on April 24, though he’s not sure when it will air. Following that, this summer Butt will slide into work on a new feature film he wrote, No Clue.
“For my first film, I decided to hire a guy who has made a film before because it is a different animal from TV,” said Butt. “It’s kind of a ‘who dunnit.’ In some ways it’s a classic detective story that just happens to be funny. A guy goes in over his head, a guy who thinks he can solve a case, thinks the case is simple but it ends up being much more complicated and he’s not particularly good at it.”
Watch Butt doing what he does best at the Vic Juba on April 16.