Comedy icons Andrea Martin and Joe Flaherty spent so much time in our living rooms back in the '70s and '80s, it'll feel like old times when the SCTV veterans host CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival galas at Pantages today and tomorrow.
Hard to believe it's virtually a maiden voyage for both -- to Winnipeg and into standup.
"When I first started out, one of the first things I did in Canada was a musical called Salvation at the Manitoba Theatre Centre," Martin says from her home in New York City. "It was in the winter and it was so cold ... It was 1971 or '72, around there. It is the only time I've ever been there in Winnipeg, so I'm really looking forward to coming back."
Flaherty, who teaches comedy writing and performance at Toronto's Humber College, held a workshop here in 2003, but he's treading completely new ground as host of the Metropolitan Life theme gala tomorrow.
"It's interesting because I'm not a standup, so I don't have material to draw on," Flaherty says. "I guess I'll get a chance to give standup a try here. It's going to be kind of an experiment for me."
Martin has never done standup either. But while Flaherty was skittish about going solo and still fretting a few weeks back about what to write, the effervescent Martin -- who won raves for her one-woman show Nude, Nude, Totally Nude -- was already geared up to host The Relation Ship gala tonight,
"I have written something. My evening is about relationships, which is ironic since I haven't had one in about 27 years, but, you know, a girl can dream.
"I'm going to talk about dating and why I'm not dating and why people always ask me why I'm not dating and then I'll give some reasons why I'm not -- I don't know if anybody will care, but I care."
So humble, but then Martin, 60, and Flaherty, 65, didn't earn the enduring adulation of fans by playing divas -- except in fun.
More than 20 years after SCTV went off the air, the show is still repeating in syndication, although Martin and Flaherty say they rarely encounter original fans.
"When I come to Canada, people always talk to me about John Candy -- when they see me they're reminded of John, he touched so many people," Martin says. "In the States, of course, there are some comedy diehards and they think SCTV is kind of legendary. But it was 30 years ago, so it's a new generation."
Flaherty says most of his students were introduced to SCTV by their parents.
"I guess at some point it'll be, 'It was my grandpa's favourite show,' " he says. "All of a sudden, it sort of slipped into history, didn't it?"
Younger fans know Flaherty from movies like Happy Gilmore and TV series Maniac Mansion, Robson Arms and the critically beloved Freaks and Geeks, in which he played doomsayer dad Harold Weir. But Flaherty, punctuating his conversation with nervous laughter, says given his druthers, he'd work less.
"Comedy's not all the fun people crack it up to be. Or doing television or movies or any of that stuff -- God!" he says.
"Especially performing -- oh, man -- performing in front of an audience, although it's exciting it's really nerve-wracking, you know. And then on top of it I'm going to be out there by myself. I'm not even going to have the luxury of being in a scene with other performers."
Tony Award-winner Martin (My Favourite Year) is typically game. She may return to Broadway in Young Frankenstein this summer, and she has a thriving career in movies (her resume includes everything from Black Christmas to My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and in TV, with upcoming CBC miniseries St. Urbain's Horsemen and, of course, the next CBC Winnipeg Comedy Fest season, although she says the festival was the draw, rather than the TV airtime.
"I think the Winnipeg festival called me up and said, 'By the way, CBC is taping it.' And I said, 'Yeah! Why not? Life's zipping by ... it's gonna be fun. Get to see all the young comics and feel like I'm part of what's happenin'."
