Air Farce

Air Farce

Medium: Television, Radio, Theatre, Audio Recordings, Home Video

Nationality Canada (7 members)

Years active: 1970- January 1, 2009

Genres: Sketch comedy, Political satire

Members: Roger Abbott, Don Ferguson, Luba Goy, Jessica Holmes Craig Lauzon, Alan Park, Penelope Corrin

Website www.airfarce.com

The Royal Canadian Air Farce is a comedy troupe best known for their radio and television shows broadcast in Canada by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.










History

Theatre revue and radio years

The group started in Montreal, Quebec in 1970 as an improvisational theatre revue called The Jest Society, a play on then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's famous goal of making Canada a "Just Society".

The group was later named "The Royal Canadian Air Farce" (1973). The members were Abbott, Ferguson, Goy, Morgon, Boradfoot and two writers who did not perform (Gord Holtam and Rick Olsen). The show started airing on CBC Radio the same year ad became one of the station's most popular shows.

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TV

In 1980 the group recorded a one-hour television special. This led to a ten-week series and two sequel specials in addition to their regular radio series. The radio sketches did not work well on television.

Another comedy troupe, The Frantics, filled in for the Air Farce in the summer periods in the early 1980s. The Frantics later starred in their own TV series, Four on the Floor.

In the late 1980s Broadfoot retired from the troupe. He continued to make guest appearances with Air Farce for many years afterward, on both radio and TV. Barbara Budd was also a frequent guest of the troupe. She was never an official cast member.

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Success with TV

In 1992, Air Farce went on Television with a New Year's Eve special, Year of the Farce. It was a great success and led to another weekly television series starting in 1993. This time the show stuck to television permanently. The radio series continued at the same time for four seasons until May of 1997, when it was discontinued.

The show continued to have New Year's Eve shows and in later years Air Farce counted down the seconds before the New Year on CBC.

Recurring characters include Mike from Canmore (Alberta) played by Morgan, angry Scot Jock McBile also played by Morgan, movie critic Gilbert Smythe Bite-Me played by Abbott, and chaine-smoking bingo player Benda played by Goy. These characters were sometimes featured in skits but more often they played as the opening act to the show.

I remember Luba Goy from Bytes and Bytes, an education television show that helped people understand and use computers.

Air Farce based a lot of it's comedy on politicians and politics. One good example is the Prime Minister Jean Cretien character played by Abbott. The character makes pronunciation and grammatical errors almost constantly. Ferguson played his version of a Preston Manning, often shouting "REFOOOOOORM". Goy played a bitchy version of Sheila Copps. Ferguson played a tyrannical Lucien Bouchard, a dopey Stockwell Day, and an obnoxious Joe Clark as well as a power-hungry Paul Martin. Many of the actual politicians made guest appearances on the show, often confronting their comedic characters.

Colonel "Teresa" Stacy played by Ferguson became the show's most popular character. This character would load up the Chicken Cannon and fire rubber chickens and other assorted projectiles at a picture of the most annoying public figure of the week or year.

In 1997 the radio show was cancelled so the troupe could concentrate on their television work.

Morgan retired in 2001. The remaining three continued on. A variety of guest stars appeared on the show until Jessica Holmes joined the show in 2003. Holmes played characters such as Paris Hilton, Liza Minnelli, and Canadian politicians such as Belinda Stronach.











Success with TV continued

Later, in 2005, after a lockout at CBC, Air Farce gained two new cast members, who had previously appeared on the show as recurring guest stars: Alan Park and Craig Lauzon. The addition of these two newcomers brought the total number of performers in the troupe to six.

Lauzon portrays current Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a robotic person.

While the show is held up as de facto Canadian tradition, some critics have felt that that the television show's quality has diminished over the past few seasons, especially since the breakdown of the original four-actor quartet. However, it still continues to draw solid ratings each week.

Often, when a character is required to say the word "fuck," they are (sometimes quite obviously) actually saying "pup."

On March 30, 2007, the Air Farce celebrated their 300th episode by doing the show on live television (except in Western Canada) for one hour. Roger Abbott and Luba Goy began the show with a brief history of the show, closing with "the scariest three words on television: AIR FARCE LIVE!".

After this experimental episode, CBC has announced that the 15th season of the series will be aired live for the entire season, with a name change to Air Farce Live.[1] With the new live format, Penelope Corrin, who filled in for Holmes during her pregnancy in early 2007, officially joined the troupe increasing its number to seven.

End of Weekly TV Show

On April 1, 2008 (Also known as April Fools Day) the CBC and Air Farce jointly announced that the Royal Canadian Air Farce would wrap up its weekly television show in the 2008/2009 season. The plan as announced is for nine new Air Farce shows to be produced for the fall of 2008, and then the series would end with a New Years Eve special.[2][3]

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Cast history

Original members

Roger Abbott (1973–present) Don Ferguson (1973–present) Luba Goy (1973–present) John Morgan (1973–2001) retired in 2001, died at the age of 74 on November 15, 2004 Dave Broadfoot (1973–1988) retired in 1988, occasional "special guest" on the series, his appearances becoming less frequent over time, on both the radio and television shows

Additions

Barbara Budd (1984-1991), frequent appearances as a "special guest" on the radio show Jessica Holmes (2003–present) Craig Lauzon (2004–present), supporting member during 2003, became full member in 2004 Alan Park (2004–present), supporting member during 2003, became full member in 2004 Penelope Corrin (2007–present), filled in during Holmes' maternity leave during the first two months of 2007, returned for the live season finale, joined cast for 2007/2008 season

Discography

The Air Farce released eight comedy albums during its radio days, all of which are available on the Air Farce website (1).

The Air Farce Comedy Album (1978) Air Farce Live (album) (1983) The Air Farce Green Album (1990) To Air Is Human, To Farce Divine (1990) Farce On A Stick (1991) Year of the Farce (1991) Twenty Twenty (1993) Unplugged and Uncorked (1994)

Awards

Royal Canadian Air Farce has received the following awards and nominations:

the Governor General's Performing Arts Award (1998) a star on Canada's Walk of Fame (2000) a Juno Award for comedy album of the year Don Ferguson and Roger Abbott were given a special Gemini Award for "Humanitarians of the Year" Maclean's Honour Roll of "Canadians Who Make a Difference" the Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement in Canadian Television nominated for thirteen Canadian Comedy Awards from 2000-2005, but have not won

Cast Present: Roger Abbott · Don Ferguson · Luba Goy · Jessica Holmes · Craig Lauzon · Alan Park · Penelope Corrin Past members: Dave Broadfoot · Barbara Budd · John Morgan Albums The Air Farce Comedy Album · Air Farce Live