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Two of them, Cathy Jones and Mary Walsh, started a TV series called This Hour Has 22 Minutes. You may have heard of it.
CODCO's other creative lightning rod, the duo of Tommy Sexton and Greg Malone, took off on their own, largely owing to Tommy's battle with AIDS and his failing health. "CODCO groupings would change, but people went off in ones and twos," Malone says from his home in St. John's, Nfld. "But Tommy and I were always best buddies. And he wasn't up to generating another year of TV. We left to do a movie and some other things we thought he could handle. But he got ill much quicker than I thought he would, and he died a year after that."
A gifted mimic, singer and dancer, Sexton was arguably the most talented member of CODCO, and a consummate people person (he and I hung out one hilarious night at the Montreal Just For Laughs festival, where we cornered the director of a German comedy festival and grilled him about the history of whimsy in Germany). His death shocked his fans. But possibly apart from his kin, no one was more bereft than Malone.
Their memories add up to one heartfelt tribute, Tommy: A Family Portrait, an NFB film directed by Tommy's sister Mary, which airs on CBC Nov. 15, and screens at the Bloor Cinema tomorrow in a benefit for Casey House (416-962-4040 #235 for tix). As executor of Tommy's estate, Malone gave the Sexton family carte blanche use of material -- including some of Tommy's most hilarious characterizations (among them: Tammy Faye Bakker and Barbara Walters).
"I had wanted to do something myself, but I was unsuccessful," Malone says. "So I was glad they got it done."
Malone's life since Tommy's death has been eclectic, but not particularly directed. He's done one-man shows (including one that aired on the Comedy Network), directed a film on women's suffrage in Newfoundland, run unsuccessfully for MP and Mayor of St. John's and waged war against corporate dragons (he led the fight against privatization of Newfoundland power and he's currently embroiled in a cause to save the rain forest in Belize from the same private hydro firm).
"The grieving (for Tommy) certainly took a lot longer than I thought it would. It had a bigger impact on me than I foresaw. Which is as it should be I suppose, it's good that these things affect your life. I certainly miss him, and I certainly miss having someone to write with. I kind of took that for granted."
Tommy: A Family Portrait follows Sexton's life, from his childhood in the middle of nine kids in a Catholic family, to his first rambunctious steps on the stage in school, to his local theatre debut and fateful meeting with young actor Malone, nine years his senior. "He always thought I was the intellectual one, and he was just the silly guy," Malone says, "but he was very smart and very committed to things."
It's appropriate, Malone says, that CBC airs Tommy: A Family Portrait. "He did all his work for CBC, 100-plus episodes of various things. There's a lot there for them to remember.
"And I think he was a unique person in Canadian TV --the first openly gay performer. He was very upfront about it. Kids In The Hall came and did it too, but Tommy was the first.
"He was very brave in that respect. Brave and unapologetic."