JANN, CAST LAUGH THEIR WAY THROUGH SEASON 2
Camaraderie on Calgary-based CTV comedy shines through on the set and off it
Not long after reconvening in Calgary to start shooting Season 2 a few months back, some of the cast of Jann decided to take a field trip out into the city.
“We discovered that Calgary has scooters,” says actor Patrick Gilmore. “We took these scooters out and it was like ‘This is amazing! Calgary is the best!’ I think we went for Chinese food. We stopped at a bar.”
It was an appropriate exercise to further familiarize themselves with the city, which star and co-creator Jann Arden has always maintained is a major character in the show. But, on top of that, it was also a good way to build on something created in Season 1.
Spend any time on the set of Jann, and it becomes clear that an authentic camaraderie exists between members of the ensemble cast. The series, which wrapped earlier this week, ended its shoot on a quiet suburban street in the city’s southwest, not far from its production headquarters in the Currie Barracks and Mount Royal University, its “home-awayfrom-home” where a good deal of the show’s eight-episode second season was shot.
Gilmore plays Dave, the amicable brother-in-law of a fictionalized and diva-ized version of singer Jann Arden. On this particular day, a scene for episode 7 is unfolding in the kitchen of a house Dave shares with his children and wife Max (played by Zoie Palmer), fictional Jann’s exasperated and practical sister. Without giving too much away, it involves guest star and former Calgarian Elisha Cuthbert, who plays a lusty neighbour who arrives unannounced. Eventually, the action will also include Jann’s mother Nora (played by Deborah Grover), her former sad-sack manager Todd (played by Jason Blicker), her current manager Cale (Elena Juatco) and university-aged niece Charley (Alexa Rose Steele).
There is a lot of catty back-andforths and bickering, sort of like hanging with the Bluth family in an episode of Arrested Development. But the scene is also interrupted from time to time with sudden outbursts of laughter.
The biggest complaint on set is: ‘Quiet down! Let’s stop the laughing because we need to move on, we need to get our day,’” says Gilmore. “That’s a good problem to have.”
It probably helps that Season 2, which will air at some point in the spring of 2020, picks up the story a mere six weeks after Jann’s season-ending decision last year to go on a tour with her rival, Sarah Mclachlan. A good move for boosting fictional Jann’s flagging career, perhaps, but not one that was met kindly by her family since it required her to abandon them as they dealt with Nora’s growing dementia. So Season 2 will focus on what has been called Jann’s “apology tour” as she hopes to set things right with her family.
It was just one of many threads that needed tying in the second season, which producers hope will build on the considerable fanbase the show attracted after debuting on CTV in March and eventually becoming the year’s most-watched new Canadian series.
As with Year 1, the second season began with a three-day brainstorming session between Arden and her co-creators, showrunner Jennica Harper and executive producer Leah Gauthier. Both moved into the singer’s house outside of Calgary to shape the new season.
“We have a sleepaway camp,” says Harper. “It’s awesome, it’s hilarious and so much fun and really great for team-bonding. Part of pitching stories and pitching jokes and giving feedback on comedy is really just making sure it’s a safe space. This helps it become a safe space. We’re in Jann’s life, we’re in her home, we’re inspired by some of the things we’re seeing and some of the people who drop by. But it’s also a little bit like hanging out with your siblings or cousins, it doesn’t feel business-y. At night it’s movies and popcorn and she’s always cooking for us.”
Season 2 was shot mostly in Calgary and often at Mount Royal University, which proved to be a highly adaptable location. Scenes were shot at the newish Bella Concert Hall for a segment that enlisted hundreds of volunteer extras and Arden fans who were treated to performance by the singer afterward. The same rural setting near Bragg Creek used in Season 1 will again appear in the second season.
“We’re just plowing forward with this crazy family,” says Arden. “It’s so great to have the opportunity to do this again and to do it in Calgary. We’ve had some challenges with the weather.”
Which is exactly what happened last year. Some post-production magic was needed to get rid of the 18 or so centimetres of snow that unexpectedly fell onto Bragg Creek last October. This year, the cast and crew faced similarly unco-operative climes.
In fact, one of the coldest days of the shoot was also the one where guest star Sarah Mclachlan showed up in the same southwest neighbourhood to play a “bad-ass” version of herself. One might assume that having both Arden and Mclachlan in the neighbourhood would be a fun novelty for the community.
Not so much.
“We pissed off the neighbours because we had to take a blowtorch to the street because it had snowed the previous day,” says Gauthier.
Still, Arden says she has no plans to move the series out of Calgary. But she admits that she was as shocked as the rest of the industry with changes to film incentives announced in the recent provincial budget.
“I fought very hard to have this show made here,” Arden says. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to build a creative community if people are just going to pick up and leave here and not do things here. (Film) is great for tourism. There’s a hundred people work on this show and there’s another 50 in Toronto for (post-production). I don’t understand politics. I think politicians should be held accountable for promises they make while campaigning and there should be a website somewhere where we can tick the boxes of all the s--- they don’t do.”
Part of pitching stories and pitching jokes and giving feedback on comedy is really just making sure it’s a safe space.