Baroness von Sketch taking show to U.S.
Canada’s irreverent female-led comedy will widen its viewership when the series makes its American debut
TORONTO — It’s shaping up to be a royal summer for Canada’s Baroness von Sketch Show as the femaleled foursome is set to bring its irreverent comedy to audiences on both sides of the border.
Cast members Aurora Browne, Meredith MacNeill, Carolyn Taylor and Jennifer Whalen are all back on board for the show’s second season, which returns Tuesday on CBC-TV. The series will also make its U.S. debut on IFC in August.
But even with the potential of much wider viewership, there will be little change to the homegrown sketch show’s signature style.
“You want to play ... the relatable dynamic, the truth that people relate to, and then ... it is an idea of subverting that or changing it, coming in at a different angle,” said Taylor, who is also the series showrunner.
“We like to have our characters be fallible. And then if you embrace that, surprise endings come because you’re not following necessarily a formula,” she added.
Scenarios spanning from the mundane to the extreme are explored in the new season, with one episode encompassing everything from life in a post-apocalyptic world to a supermarket trip gone awry and an unexpected visitor at a home birth.
“I think we try to represent as much truth as we can, and life isn’t always clean-cut,” said MacNeill.
“Sometimes in television, you’ll have a show that’s this beginning, middle and end. But with each sketch, one of the reasons it can go off in a direction is I find that’s what life is like too, sometimes. You think it’s going to go one way, and all of a sudden you have a bowler hat on.”
MacNeill said the quartet seeks to bring a “layer of improv” to every sketch.
“That’s possible, I think, because we trust each other so much, and we also trust the performers who we’re so fortunate to work with from the Toronto community,” said Browne. “We know that we can go those places and everybody’s ready for the ride.”