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Thomas Wolfe could say, "You can't go home again," until he's blue in the face (a fairly attainable state considering he's been dead 59 years). But people will always try to prove him wrong.
Submitted for your approval, ex-SCTVer Joe Flaherty, who's spent the winter in Toronto in quest of his roots.
"I wanted to get back to ground level, to see free comedy that people are performing for the love of it. I also wanted to write stuff that producers and network people aren't fighting me over," Flaherty said at the launch of Humber College's starry Comedy Workshop series.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Flaherty's personal life worked itself out in a manner that facilitated his return. He and Judith, his wife of 20 years, divorced recently. Residuals from his SCTV days cover child support for his college-age daughter Gudrun and six-year-old son Gaby.
"Beyond that, basically I'm poor. I'm also charged with energy. It's like starting over, except I'm old," the 56-year-old says, laughing. "But I'm free to do things I've always wanted to do."
Among these are "my Billy Bob projects (as in Sling Blade auteur Billy Bob Thornton). I've been writing some serious stories in the 'disturbing crime' category."
He's also been fairly visible, hanging out on the local comedy scene, showing up in places like the Rivoli, Laugh Resort and, of course, Second City (where he's been teaching workshop classes). Flaherty's participation in the Humber series - with fellow "faculty" Steve Allen, Anne Beatts and Pat Bullard - is just one more avenue for trading notes with these kids today.
Not that he wants to muscle in on them. The man who gave us Count Floyd, Sammy Maudlin and Guy Caballero now says he feels out of place onstage. At the recent T.O. comedy festival, he thought he was merely hosting an improv night with fellow SCTVer Tony Rosato and local improv stars. "Instead I was thrown into the lion's den, performing. The last time I'd worked onstage was nine years ago (at the ill-fated Second City in Santa Monica).
"Rusty? Whoo. I was on another plane, working with strangers. No doubt about it, comedy belongs to youth."
But all good things must end, even self-imposed bohemianism. On April 17, Flaherty starts some bill-paying work on the Police Academy TV series in Vancouver (airing in the fall on the Fox Network). "I play the Commandant. In the movies he was the white-haired guy who was Punky Brewster's father (actor George Gaynes).
"They've promised me we will explore every avenue to take Police Academy to a new level," Flaherty says with a wry grin.