Royal Canadian Air Farce

Royal Canadian Air Farce
Medium	Television, Radio, Theatre, Audio Recordings, Home Video
Nationality	Canada (7 members)
Years active	1970- December 31, 2009
Genres	Sketch comedy, Political satire
Notable works and roles	Royal Canadian Air Farce, radio (1973-1997), TV (1980-2007) Air Farce Live TV (2007-December 31, 2008)
Members	Roger Abbott Don Ferguson Luba Goy Jessica Holmes Craig Lauzon Alan Park Penelope Corrin See also: Cast history
Website	www.airfarce.com

The Royal Canadian Air Farce was 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 pun on then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's famous goal of making Canada a "Just Society".

After a number of personnel changes, the group became "The Royal Canadian Air Farce" as early as 1973, broadcasting through CBC Radio from the Curtain Club in Richmond Hill, Ontario. The CBC gives the date of the first broadcast as December 9, 1973.^[1] By this time the lineup consisted of Roger Abbott, Don Ferguson, Luba Goy, John Morgan, Dave Broadfoot and Martin Bronstein. They quickly became one of the network's most popular programs. Most of their later shows were based in Toronto and recorded in CBC's Cabbagetown Studios; however as the troupe became more popular, they frequently travelled throughout the country to record their weekly radio broadcasts, which featured a mixture of political and cultural satire.

Bronstein left the troupe in 1974 to pursue a full time journalism career.^[2] In 1977, non-performing writers Gord Holtam and Rick Olsen joined the crew.

Recurring characters included addle-brained hockey player Bobby Clobber (Broadfoot), Sgt. Renfrew of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Broadfoot) and socialite Amy De La Pompa (Morgan), along with political figures such as Brian Mulroney, Joe Clark and Pierre Trudeau. Additional characters included Prof. Hieronymus Wombat of the National Research Council, and funeral director Hector Baggley.

Another recurring character, making vacant-minded political comments, was the Honourable David J. Broadfoot, member of Parliament for Kicking Horse Pass, and leader of the New Apathetic Party. Broadfoot had been performing as this character for years, and had appeared on Canadian and American television as "The Honourable Member" as early as the 1950s, long before his tenure with Air Farce.

Some popular sketches in the late 1980s and early 1990s included "joint broadcasts" by CTV and CBC, overlaying opening theme music. When The Journal debuted on CBC in 1982, Air Farce spoofed the program's repeated use of the "sounder", and the use of satellite to connect people to talk to one another (including husband in living room to wife in the kitchen), as well as the seeming similarity between original hosts Barbara Frum and Mary Lou Finlay.

Trying out TV

The Farce troupe recorded a one-hour television special in 1980, which evolved into a ten-week series and two sequel specials in addition to their regular radio series. The shows were essentially staged versions of the radio show, with many of the sketches performed in front of a live studio audience, the cast members reading from scripts rather than acting out the roles. Despite the decent ratings for the initial special, simply staging the radio sketches did not translate well on television.

In the early 1980s, Air Farce's summer radio hiatus periods were filled by another comedy troupe, The Frantics, who later moved on to their own TV series, Four on the Floor. Later summer hiatus periods, however, were filled by Ferguson and Abbott playing classic comedy recordings. In the late 1980s, CBC Radio launched another 30-minutes weekly political satire, Double Exposure. Though the programs were never in direct competition, some found the latter show fresher and edgier.

Broadfoot retired from the troupe in the late 1980s, although 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, appearing in many radio episodes of the 1980s and early 1990s, although she was never an official cast member.

Success with TV

In 1992, Air Farce took a second plunge into television with 1992: Year of the Farce, a satirical New Year's Eve special. A ratings smash, the special led the troupe to produce another weekly television series, which debuted in 1993. However, this time the move to television was permanent. The radio series continued alongside the TV show for four seasons until May 1997, when it was discontinued.

The practice of having a show on New Year's Eve continued to the end of the program, and such episodes were typically titled "Year of the Farce". In recent years, Air Farce also had the honour of counting down the seconds before the New Year on CBC.

Recurring characters on the TV series included the slow Albertan Mike from Canmore (Morgan) and angry Scot Jock McBile (Morgan), self-righteous movie critic Gilbert Smythe Bite-Me (Abbott), and chain-smoking bingo player Brenda (Goy). Though these characters would occasionally feature in skits of their own, usually they were used at the beginning of the show to deliver a stream of one liner jokes commentating on the news of that week.

The show also featured frequent skits with politicians, who were portrayed as various extreme caricatures of their most infamous personality quirks. Notable re-occurring figures included Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (Abbott), who could barely speak a single sentence of English without committing at least a dozen outlandish pronunciation and grammatical errors; the nasally-voiced Preston Manning (Ferguson) who loved to shout "REFOOOOOOORM!"; a screaming, bitchy Sheila Copps (Goy); the tyrannical Lucien Bouchard; the dopey and overly-image conscious Stockwell Day; the strutting, clucking, pompous Joe Clark; and the power-hungry Paul Martin (all Ferguson). Many of the real politicians also made guest appearances on the show, often interacting directly with their parodic counterparts.

However, Colonel "Teresa" Stacy (Ferguson) quickly emerged as the show's most popular character—each time he appeared, Stacy would load up the Chicken Cannon and fire rubber chickens and other assorted projectiles at whomever he deemed the most annoying public figure of the week (or year).

The radio show was discontinued in 1997 in order for the troupe to concentrate on the successful TV series.

Morgan retired from Air Farce in 2001, and the remaining three members carried on with a rotating stable of guest stars until Jessica Holmes joined the show in 2003. Holmes added celebrity figures such as Paris Hilton and Liza Minnelli, and Canadian politicians such as Belinda Stronach, to the troupe's roster of characters.

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 portrayed current Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a robotic person.

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

Often, when a character was required to say the word "fuck," they were (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 announced that the 15th season of the series would be aired live for the entire season, with a name change to Air Farce Live.^[3] 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.

Abbott, Morgan, Goy, Ferguson, and Broadfoot had cameo appearances in The Red Green Show's movie spinoff Duct Tape Forever.

On April 1, 2008, 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 was for nine new Air Farce shows to be produced for the fall of 2008, and then the series would end with a New Year's Eve special.^[4][5]

In an announcement on their official Web site, they have threatened to invade the airwaves one more time. They have decided to keep to tradition and lampoon another year of world history. It will be a look back from the Air Farce perspective of events ranging from Susal Boyle to the swine flu. Broadcast starts at 8:00 P.M. (8:30 P.M. NLT) on December 31, 2009.

Cast history

Original members

• Roger Abbott (1973–2008)
• Martin Bronstein (1973–1974)
• Don Ferguson (1973–2008)
• Luba Goy (1973–2008)
• John Morgan (1973–2001) retired in 2001, died at the age of 74 on November 15, 2004
• Dave Broadfoot (1973–1988): Broadfoot retired in 1988, but was thereafter an occasional "special guest" on both the radio and TV series, his appearances becoming less frequent over time. However, he continued as an occasional special guest right through to the troupe's final TV broadcast on December 31, 2008.

Later additions

• Jessica Holmes (2003–2008)
• Craig Lauzon (2004–2008), supporting member during 2003, became full member in 2004
• Alan Park (2004–2008), supporting member during 2003, became full member in 2004
• Penelope Corrin (2007–2008), 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

Frequent guest

• Barbara Budd (1984-1991), frequent appearances as a "special guest" on the radio show

Members of the Jest Society

• John Morgan (1970-1973) co-founder
• Martin Bronstein (1970-1973) co-founder
• Roger Abbott (1970-1973)
• Don Ferguson (1971-1973)
• Luba Goy (1971-1973)

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

See also

• Air Farce Live

References