‘Seeing myself as a cartoon makes more sense’
An animated Butt talks about taking Corner Gas to new medium
Comedian Brent Butt, the star and creator of Corner Gas, which was Canada’s most popular homegrown television sitcom during its six-season run, this year launched an animated version of the beloved series.
Corner Gas Animated has been a hit for the Comedy Network, and was renewed for a second season, an achievement that gives Butt plenty of cred in the animation world. In fact, he’s in Ottawa to give the keynote address at the 15th anniversary edition of the Ottawa International Animation Festival. In this interview, Butt talks about his background in animation, the freedom of the medium and what it’s like to see yourself as a cartoon character.
Q I read that you studied animation at college.
A I read that about myself, too. It’s not true. Here’s what happened: I always wanted to be a standup comic. The notion was if you’re going to try that, you need something to fall back on. The only other thing I could think of that I would possibly like to do — aside from playing goal in the NHL, which it was clear I didn’t have the skill set for — was animating. I got accepted to Sheridan College in Oakville for animation. I think I was there for four days before I said, ‘This is not for me,’ and I quit. I actually quit during orientation week. I didn’t even go to one class.
Q How come?
A I just knew that I wouldn’t be happy unless I threw myself into doing standup. The notion of drawing for eight hours a day was not appealing to me. You get
one shot at chasing your dream so I (decided) I’m going to throw myself into that. I got out.
Q You like to draw, right?
A I do like to draw. I draw almost every day. It’s doodling, sketching, and I like being able to walk away from it if I’m not feeling it. You can’t do that when you’re doing it for a living.
Q And now you’re the executive producer of an animated series. A Yeah. it’s life teaching me a lesson. Just because it’s hard work doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
Q What inspired the idea to animate Corner Gas?
A We had done the Corner Gas movie in 2014, and the response to that was huge. It made the network call up and say, ‘Listen, there’s obviously still an appetite for the show. Do you want to do more episodes?’ But I didn’t think that just going back and doing more of the same was going to be the thing to do.
Q Why not?
A You know when they went back to Gilligan’s Island and Gilligan had white hair? It just didn’t feel right. I don’t know if we should all grow old and die in front of Canada. I don’t think that’s the best thing for the show. But you like to have a job, and it’s nice that people want more Corner Gas. And so because I have a background in illustrating and cartooning, I was pretty quick to say, ‘What if we did an animated version?’
Q It’s the path to immortality. A Yeah, a Season 1 hairline for the rest of my life.
Q What convinced you it would work?
A One of the guys who wrote on Corner Gas, his name is Norm Hiscock, and he also wrote on King of the Hill. Here’s a guy who understood our show and also understood prime-time network television. I went to him and said, ‘Listen, we’re thinking about doing Corner Gas animated. If we were going to do it, how would we do it differently, how would we change the script?’ And he stopped there and said, ‘Don’t change anything, this is the perfect show to animate. Definitely do it, and just write more scripts.’
Q How different is the comedy? A We really tried to make it feel like the show. I always wanted to make sure the show felt like it was grounded in reality. But we were coming up with jokes in the writers’ room that we thought were funny but they were too big or too far fetched. So we developed this thing where you could pop into the characters’ imagination and see what they were thinking. That allowed us to do whatever we wanted, in theory, without fracturing our reality. But when you’re doing it in live action, there is still only so much you can get away with doing in a four-second joke. There’s expense, logistics, the law. Sometimes you can’t do something because it’s illegal. But in the animated world, if you’re drawing it, you can get away with a lot more.
Q Sounds liberating.
A It is. It allows us to open up those little fantasy sequences, and do more things with them. In Season 1, we have a sasquatch fighting a unicorn. We had Brent and Hank in a pirate ship battle, kind of a Mad Max sequence. Those are things that we could never do in the live action show.
Q Do you get to do any of the drawing ?
A I do a lot of the revision art, especially in Season 1, when we were really establishing the look and feel and pace and tone.
Q What’s it like to see yourself as an animated character?
A To see myself as an animated character almost makes more sense than seeing my real self on TV. I think I kind of always envisioned myself as a cartoon. As an actor, the direction I’ve heard the most from directors is, ‘Well, that was good but can you do it less cartoony?’ I’m always kind of cartoony. So seeing myself as a cartoon makes more sense. It’s like, ‘Ah, finally.’
Q To see the show as a cartoon must be cool, too.
A Seeing the world we’re so familiar with become animated and the characters that we’re so fond of be animated, yeah, it was strange and wondrous and kinda cool.
Q Is the show your main gig right now? What about standup?
A This is the main thing but doing standup is always my nucleus. Whenever I’m not in production, I’m back on the road doing standup.