How-to guide takes a poke at the local lifestyle
Kris Demeanor has been a city booster and now he has some fun with Calgary
Kris Demeanor compares his new Calgary-centric publication to an instructional book on how to make homemade bread, or how to construct a functional snare. In other words, it’s practical. The how-to booklet has an illustration of a white cowboy hat on the cover, that proud symbol of Calgary’s playful good-ole-boy hospitality and cheer. There’s tips on how to dress, on what to eat and how to travel abroad. There’s even suggestions of role models readers can aspire to.
He offers himself up as one of these, complete with a photo of the author, poet and singer-songwriter looking smug and clutching a monstrous goblet of wine in one hand and a ping-pong paddle in the other.
All of these are key ingredients of Demeanor’s How to Be An Asshole of Calgary: An Instructional Booklet with Illustrations.
The booklet is the latest from Vancouver singer-songwriter Geoff Berner’s How to Be books, following Carolyn Marks’ How to Be A Boozy Chanteuse and Berner’s own How to Be An Accordion Player. Those familiar with Berner’s cheerfully irreverent, politically charged Klezmer-punk or Demeanor’s own songwriting shouldn’t be surprised that the satire found in this guide to Calgary assholery arrives from the more progressive end of the political spectrum.
That said, Demeanor takes on a persona that often seems like a slightly more self-aware version of Stephen Colbert’s right-wing caricature.
He celebrates well-heeled Calgarians who attend parties where they dress in hobo garb and eat “twists on white trash dishes.” They drive Ram trucks, have sex “behind Dumpsters” while hopped up on Stampede breakfasts.
But Demeanor insists the book isn’t meant to be a condemnation, but “about how to survive in this environment and culture,” and is the result of “47 years of sociological study in this city.”
It’s meant to be fun and sardonic but ...
“It’s certainly not an angry booklet,” Demeanor says. “I’ve been in Calgary all my life. I’m a lifer. I’ve committed myself to this city in many, many ways. This is just another way for me to illuminate to both my fellow Calgarians and people coming here how to be the most successful Calgarian they can be. It’s essentially a survival guide.”
Whatever the case, as with Marks’ and Berner’s guides, Demeanor’s booklet is both funny and cutting. The three will be performing at the Ironwood Stage and Grill on Friday for an evening of readings and music as part of a provincial tour they have dubbed May 3 Way.
Like Berner and Marks, Demeanor has proven adept at inserting humour into his well-crafted songs. On Friday, he will be drawing from his latest CD, Entirely New Beasts, a lush collection he released in 2016 after a seven-year gap from recording. It has him collaborating with Calgary singers Jamie Konchak and Allison Lynch, while former Calgarian and acclaimed singersongwriter Rae Spoon provided the beats and synths.
“In some ways, it’s almost a sister project for the how-to manual in that they are very lush, listenerfriendly songs that are for the rapture, for the end times,” Demeanor says with a laugh. “There is a lot of darkness in it that is masked by sonic pleasantries.”
Demeanor does indeed have a long history in Calgary’s arts scene, beginning with his stint in the 1990s act Tinderbox.
A fixture in the theatre and spoken-word scene, he also won a Canadian Screen Award for his performance in the Alberta-shot ensemble drama The Valley Bellow. He’s described himself as a “contrarian” and has carved out a niche exposing the underbelly of western Canadian culture.
He also became Calgary’s first Poet Laureate in 2012, a post he held for two years and found him acting as a cultural ambassador of sorts for the city. So, he definitely put in his time as a Calgary booster.
“I’ve committed myself in this town to singing for the children, helping bring together different parts of society and connecting arts with the business world,” Demeanor says.
“I’ve spent a lot of time doing that stuff and all of that feel-good stuff and going to all of these events where we talk about how great and entrepreneurial we are and how international we are. And, that’s all good. I’ve been part of that happily and willingly and sometimes I get paid for it and that’s great.
“So this was my opportunity to say ‘Now I’m going to have some fun with you.’ It’s essentially my own personal roast. It’s one-third affection, one-third rage, and onethird just having a good time.”