Brent Butt says he has been to Yellowknife a few times over his “lengthy career as a greasy nightclub comedian” and he is overdue for another visit.
The Canadian actor, writer and comedian – who has been doing stand-up for nearly 40 years – will be back in the NWT capital later this month for two shows.
Butt told Cabin Radio every show he does is a little bit different, which is one of the things that still makes performing fun for him.
“I sort of know what I’m going to start talking about but, from there, I don’t know what material I’m going to pull out of my little tickle trunk of gags until I get up on stage and I see which way the winds are blowing, what people are responding to and how they’re responding,” he said.
Asked about his advice to members of Yellowknife’s comedy scene, or those interested in trying stand-up, Butt said he’s generally loath to give advice as he draws from his own experiences. He did say, however, that anyone who has an itch to perform should give it a try.
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“Try to be hilarious. That’s my best advice to anybody. That’s 80 percent of the battle right there,” he said.
As for trying to make comedy into a career, Butt said it’s the type of thing someone should do only if they really feel the need – it can come with a lot of headaches.
“For me, there was no choice,” he said.
“From the time I was 12 years old, all I was really focused on was doing stand-up comedy. It’s the only thing that made sense to me and it was my driving factor in life.”
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TV, movies and a book
Butt may be best known for playing Brent Leroy on Corner Gas, a popular TV sitcom he created that centred on the daily lives of residents in the fictional town of Dog River, Saskatchewan. Corner Gas: The Movie came out in 2014, five years after the series ended its six-season run.
Butt, who was born in Tisdale, Saskatchewan, said the sitcom sprouted from the thought of what he would be doing with his life if he hadn’t tried stand-up comedy. He tried to write a movie, only to find the story wasn’t big enough at the time. He turned it into a sitcom instead.
“What was working was I just loved the conversation, loved the dialogue with the people in the gas station. The jokes came easy, it was natural to me,” he said.
Butt’s career has shown you don’t need to live in Hollywood to be a success in show business. He has called Vancouver home for the past 30 years and said while he briefly tried living in Los Angeles, he found he was able to be more himself on stage in Canada.
“That’s why I called my production company Sparrow Media, because a sparrow is a bird that can survive without flying south, doesn’t feel the need to fly south,” he said.
“Every time I make a deal or a contract or there’s a cheque that has my company name on it, Sparrow Media, I’m reminded of that. I just feel like this is where I should be.”
Following Corner Gas, Butt went on to create the TV series Hiccups and wrote and starred in the 2013 dark comedy film No Clue.
In 2023, he released debut novel Huge, a thriller about three stand-up comedians on a tour through rural Canada that “becomes less about getting laughs and more about getting off the road alive.”
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Butt said he had wanted to write a novel since he was young. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he sat down and began writing.
Inspired by his own touring comedy career, he said he long had an idea about comedians being on the road with a stranger and slowly realizing that person is “unhinged and dangerous,” adding that he loves reading thrillers and horror novels.
“It always helps when you’re writing if you’re writing something you think you would like to read,” he said.
“That’s what crawled out of my head. It surprised a lot of people when they found out that my first novel was a dark, violent psychological thriller.”
Butt is now writing his next novel and has written a pilot for a new TV show that’s “at the point where lawyers are talking.”
“I like the idea of diving back into the TV business with something that’s a little different that I wrote, that I really am excited about, and I think would be fun to make,” he said.
Butt is set to perform at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre on October 23 and 24 with Yellowknife comedian Skye Plowman opening both shows.
