More toast than roast
Show salutes spirit, resilience of small towns hit by hard times
Still Standing Tuesdays, CBC
Don’t be fooled by Jonny Harris and his golly-geewhiz persona.
The actor and standup comedian may seem like a modest boy next door, but he has plenty to boast about.
Born in Pouch Cove, N.L., Harris stars as the laughably fresh-faced Const. George Crabtree on CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries, returning Oct. 5 for its ninth season. Starting this week, he’s also garnering giggles as host of the public broadcaster’s new unscripted series Still Standing.
Not to be confused with the one-time CBS sitcom of the same name, Still Standing tucks into Harris’s suitcases as he treks to Canadian towns that are struggling financially. Harris then does the when-in-Rome thing, assimilating into the communities to find out what makes them tick.
Each episode also features him performing a standup comedy routine about the residents, for the residents.
Initially, Harris was just as daunted as you’d think. After all, an outsider poking fun at locals — with TV cameras running, no less — well, it could go over like a beaver in a lumber yard. “I was worried that they might be apprehensive, that they might have their backs up, but they weren’t. They were laid-back. People were proud, but not precious,” he says.
“I always say that doing comedy is always more of a toast than a roast. And they love hearing jokes about each other.
“I always find it heartwarming when I say things like ‘I went over to the goat farm to visit Betty,’ and Betty gets a big round of applause from the room.”
Upcoming episodes travel to Skidegate on Haida Gwaii (formerly British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Islands), Surrey in Prince Edward Island, Fogo Island in Newfoundland and Labrador, and Berwick in Nova Scotia, among other places.