CINEMA CAN • A D A

A half-hour ahead of our time CODCO comedy crawls ashore

BY RON MACDONALD

n Thursday October 13, 1988 a new hasn't played a central role in Canadian culture era in Canadian television comedy got since it Joined Confederation in 19-19. And vet underway with the broadcast of the Newfoundland has a strong, self-sufficient' first program in the CODCO television culture based on oral traditions, onl\' recently series. With that series, one-hour diluted b\' American cable TV (bro;ght in, - comedyO specials and the added ballast of the best rather bizarrely, from that citadel of collapsed Bri tish shows, like the scabrously funny puppet centres of culture, Detroit, U. S. A. ). satire Spittill ' Image, it seems as if the CBC is "Newfoundland can sit back and look at intent on buildingan audience fornon-American Canada and lookat the United States and look at comedy. While this does not COI)stitu te a radical Britain because it's at the bottom of the pecking step in itself, it is useful to remember that earlier order so it has no thing to lose, ,. sa\,s Tomm\' attempts (like the Frantic's FOllr all the Floor or the Sexton. "You 've been the 'stupid Nell'fie' foi so old standby, WaYllealld Shusler) were plagued by long the\' can 't tear a strip off YOU; there's ever-shuffled time slots and inconsistent no thing left. " production. And that's not to mention the pale There is a worry hall' peof1le back home will imitations of American sitcoms often featuring respond to exporting CODCO's strong comed\'o American stars in the twilight of their careers. Mary Walsh notes that" Newfoundland is like With the looming prospect of free trade one big famill' and what we do comes from our providing the scariest of worst case scenarios - everyday associations. It gets tough though Fli p Wilson, Carrol O'Connor and Valerie Mary Walsh, Greg Malone, Cathy Jones, Tommy Sexton and Andy Jones offer when we take it out of the prol'ince. It upsets the room service with a twist Harper all streaming north to perpetrate cheap home people because it's O. K. to send ourselves Canadian versions of their former sitcom glories up in front of our own, but it's questionable to - it is reassuring to know that the Mother importan tly, is funny like you've never seen or vision tempered and tested by years of theatrical expose all our Newfoundland quirks to the res t Network is moving in the right directi on In fact, heard before. Mary Wa lsh, Andy Jones, Cathy techniques and vitally informed by an of the country. Newfoundlanders are a bit afraid the dear old CBC has been on something of a Jones, Tommy Sexton and Greg Malone make awareness of place. that t ~e rest of Canada won't take it the right winning streak with some of its movie up CODCO , a group that has been together since Everywhere is far fro mNewfoundland. way. presentations like Anile of Green Gables, Th e 1972. They specialized in current issues, often Montreal, Toronto, New York, London, Sqllamish Five and Cowboys Don't Cn); a Newfoundland-specific, yet they managed to Vancouver. Even Halifax seems as far alVay as Please don't let me be misunderstood successful comedy series, however, seemed tour the country attracting sellout crowds that any other place. The world is equidistant to The possibility that the rest of Canada, indeed elusive. must have been comprised of more than just Newfoundland. And CODCO's comedy is thell'orld, is notreadv forCODCO is a real 1I'0m equidistant to the 1V0rld, a gaze from a culture Off the edge of the map homesick Newfoundlanders. as evidenced by the reception of the feature, The Enter, then, the obvious: from our 10th CODCO's new series, co-produced by that is off the map, totally marginalized by the Adl'elltllres of FailS/liS Bidgood. The film was province, off the edge of the map, a collective Halifax's Salter Street Films (Seige, Def-CoIl4, A tyranny of distance. scnpted bl' and starred And\, Jones and it comedy troupe that has no clear leader, has film Switch ill Tillie and the forthcoming George's Marginalized cultures, however, are often the featured man\' of the troupe' in \'arious guises. most vital. Didn't one of McLuhan's truisms and television experience galore, and most Islalld), uses sketch comedy, the speed-of-light The only epic comedl' ever produced in English narrative and outright visual gags treated so that concern the increasing importance of the Canada, FallslliS fought against man\, margins of culture as the centre collapses? I ROil Macdonald works for the NFB ill Halifax alld is they touch universal concerns. Theirs, however, drawbacks, including the fact that it'took 10 active ill the local filmmakillg (oml11l1llity. is not so much a Canadian as a Newfoundland think it might be safe to say that Newfoundland ~'ears to make. The intricate structure of the film,

CINEMA~A PAGE 10 JANUARy 19.9 CINEMA CAN • A D A

studded with Byzantine plot twists, vulgar episodes and sharp political satire, put many central Canadians off, Producer Michael Donovan, however, thinks that " COOCO actually works better on TV than on stage or film, The small screen seems to like their ra pid changes and frenzied characteriza­ tions, "Television would seemto be a natural for sketch comedy, After seeing COOCO you sta rt to wonder what went wrong with the Americans, How could they reduce all their cornedv to standup or sitcom? Of course, it's easier to market the commodity of personali ty than a collective, Once a personali~1 is accepted as " funn y", he or she can be placed in various domestic situations that are identifiably common to all of us, The result is the CosbV ShOl!', which is as close to a 5talinist cult of personality as America will ever get. Codeo's real forte is the ensemble expose like "Wake of the Week" or the "jim and Tammy! Reverend Swerdlow " episode, Usually, these are fractured narratives that are running gags through one or two programs, In both sketches the five members of the troupe take several parts, often the opposite gender role, and always disappear into their characters as opposed toex pressing the dominant characteris­ tics of their personalities, Collective expression is of supreme importance to COOCO, As Mary Walsh says, "We are very aware that this is a group of five Henry Kissinger I Greg Malone) talking to Barbara Walters I Tommy Sexton) in Andy .Jones is out of the bin and people and that each gets his or her say, As the Salter St. Films CODCO television into a tutu materialis written we have tobalan ce that out. " theatrical offerings. In fact, the theatre in 5t kind of catch -all delivery system, It ge ts to Andy jones calls the melancholy" the Sometimes problems arose when dealing with john's, says Sexton, "is the liveliest in the display all the flotsam of COOCO's overly fertile laugh-cry, That's where I think we're most the broader interactions of television, coun try. There's several new companies collective comic mind, the material tha t does not successful, where you're laughing through "We had a line editor earlyon, " Walsh recalls, springing up,-most of them young, and in 10 warrant a fully developed sketch, tears, It's hard to go for guffaws, the belly "and he said we couldn't do it that way, that you years they'll be the new wave and we'll be, God laughs, There are no guffaws in life except in the couldn't do that on television and that this was a help us, the Old Guard, " The "laugh-cry" context of sadness, of reality, The greatest case of 'wanna do or gotta do', I got very upset This self-consci ousness is taken further in "The humour is what you overhear on the bus or your and so did everyone else, We thought itwas the Getting better all the time Ricardo Huerta Story ", a full narrative that runs Uncle George in the basement with a funn y hat end because that's not the wa y we were used to Although the ratings for the first shows have through one fu ll program, Ostensibly, a satire of on, That's certainly funnier than anything doing things, " been very high, critical reac tion has been mixed , both the CBC radio show Ideas and CBCTV 's contrived in a studio, " The line producer was soon disposed of and Many people seem to be aware of the program Mnll Alive, the sketch becomes a debunking of The "laugh-cry " is there in "Friday Night the troupe carried on with its collective writing but are not ready to pronounce judgement. COOCD's own pretensions, Huerta, who Girls ", Ahopele ss pair of belated teenaged and editing procedures, Andyjones likened it to Frankly, until COOCO receives some interna­ appears to be the Citizen Kane of con men, is a spinsters whine like table saws about their the process of conception, "You start wi th lots tional acclaim, Canadians may not know what to St. john's lad who has inexplicably adopted emp ty social lives, Their situation, however, is and lots of ideas, and you winnowit down to th e make of the show, Donovan thinks COOCO Spanish accent and ancestry , He is an heavily rooted in the rea lity of everyday best ones, and then to the achievable ones, and "gets better as you watch it. I had a friend impresario, failed radio producer and trash loneliness, Like the best humour it plays off then the producer and the director knock a few staying with us who watched all the programs filmmaker who hyperbolizes everything, Andy pathos to achieve a rich emotional tapestry of more out, and finally one little sperm gets five times. He said some of the sketches only jones' manic characterization is set off against humour and drama, through to the egg, Of course, once you're on reach their full effect after three viewings, Greg Malone's authoritative voice-over dripping There is a risk in putting this kind of material the set you start to improvise again, " Donovan COOCOis very rich for television and it may take with false import. The result is doubly funn y, on television, The unexpected depth and speaks of COOCO "going through hundreds of viewers a couple of times to get used to it. "This managing to debunk the process and preten­ resonance may not fit in the shallow pool of the ideas, Theynever seem to stop; they continually is not to say that there is any lack ofs traight sight sions of artistry and to deflate the self-import­ small screen, H, L. Mencken's famous dictum come up with fresh ones as they dispose of the gags, The " rectal dentistry " sequence takes a ance of the so-called" objective documenta ry", that " nobody ever went broke underestimating old, " hilarious verbal idea and visualizes it, making Huerta also has its unexpected moments of the intelligence of the American people " may be Many of COOCO's theatrical ideas did not physical the absurd and the vulgar. hvisted poignancyas we see him in one of those the rule , Let's hope COOCO is the exception for come across on the small screen, The first series In much of what COOCO does there is a keen rundown St. john's rooming houses run by television comedy. After all, aren't all intelligent seemed to have left more on the cutting room and gleeful manipulation of tele vision form . The overly inquisitive couples so beloved by people in North America marginalized?The floor than in the can. The newer series has "rectal dentistry " sketch occurs on a TV talk COOCO, It is an infatuation that belies a certain next step, of course, is to declare that we're all reversed the process. Andy jones even show called "Frank Talk " starring a vacuous melancholy; it speaks of a culture cooped up in Newfoundlanders, If Newfoundland is mentions that he'd like to stage some of the TV host named Frank Arsenpuffin, It's another close quarters with no privacy ; of a place where equidistant from everywhere, then we must all material at the LSPU Hall in St. john's where he running joke and "Frank Talk IllS real purpose is every wish, dream or desire is subject to the be in Newfoundland , and Walsh are heavily involved in all sorts of to put all those ill-fitting comedic ideas into a scrutiny of all, •

.ANUARY 1 ••• CINIMA CANADA PAGI11